FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, December 4th, 2016
FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA FEATURES MIKE TIRICO’S INTERVIEW WITH SEATTLE SEAHAWKS COACH PETE CARROLL
“I’m hoping this is the moment that really gives us the humility and the focus that allows us to really finish with a great surge here in the last month of the season.” – Carroll on the state of the Seahawks
STAMFORD, Conn. – Dec. 4, 2016 – For tonight’s Week 13 edition of NBC’s Football Night in America, the most-watched weekly studio show in sports, host Mike Tirico interviews Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. Football Night will also include highlights, analysis and reaction to earlier Week 13 games ahead of tonight’s Panthers-Seahawks Sunday Night Football showdown.
Football Night airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on NBC. Mike Tirico will host tonight’s program live from CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Wash. He will be joined on site by Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth and sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from NBC Sports Group’s Studio 1, and is joined by Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl champion Rodney Harrison, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on NBCSN, NBCSports.com and NBC Sports Radio. Paul Burmeister will report from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa., on the Giants-Steelers game.
INTERVIEW: Below are excerpts from Tirico’s interview with Carroll. If used, please note the mandatory credit: “In an exclusive interview airing tonight on Football Night in America.”
PETE CARROLL WITH MIKE TIRICO
Mike Tirico: “Let’s start with the state of the Seahawks. After the loss at Tampa, maybe some thought momentum was building, was that a step in the wrong direction? Where are we heading?”
Pete Carroll: “I hope that this is a moment that we step forward. I think you take a step back to take a couple forward could be the case. We have been here before, in past years. I’m hoping this is the moment that really gives us the humility and the focus that allows us to really finish with a great surge here in the last month of the season.”
Tirico: “Russell Wilson has been through a lot of injuries this year. You see him every day. Tell me how difficult the season has been for him?”
Carroll: “Oh gosh, it was so taxing. He never ever took a step sideways, at any time. He was going to practice every day, play every game. He couldn’t get out and do much of anything other than run the team the best he could. He gave us great play. He gave us the chance to win some games. I was just so fired up to watch him go through this and be a leader in that regard, and have such a phenomenal attitude through it all.”
Tirico: “We all love watching you on the sidelines, your enthusiasm, your passion. I like to tell people you are the coolest, youngest 65-year-old guy I’ve ever seen. What keeps you young?”
Carroll: “What did you have to bring up the 65 for? [Laughs] I think it is the competition that keeps me going. Every day to me is an important day. We want to have fun. We try to build that in to everything that we are doing. I just feel fortunate to have the opportunity.”
Tirico: “When you were let go in New England as the head coach, you had a year in between, before USC. And you read John Wooden’s book, and you said ‘when you found out Wooden didn’t win a championship until his 60th year as a coach it really struck you.’ Why?”
Carroll: “What hit me right between the eyes was that once he got everything the way he needed it to be, his approach, his language, his practice, his plans, his whole outlook, he kind of embedded it, you couldn’t stop him. You couldn’t beat him anymore. So what I realized in that moment was, ‘I better get my act together. I have got to get going.’ I realize how important it is to have your own beliefs nailed. So that when you stand up and you make your calls, and you make your program come together, you know where you are coming from. That is where it all happened and it was a phenomenal moment for me. I thank Wooden for the inspiration.”
–FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA–
