FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 27th, 2013
NBC SPORTS’ SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT WITH AL MICHAELS, CRIS COLLINSWORTH, MICHELE TAFOYA & FRED GAUDELLI
Aug. 27, 2013
2:00 pm ET
Dan Masonson: Good afternoon everyone and welcome to today’s NBC Sports Sunday Night Football Conference Call. We’re pleased to be joined today by our on-air talent, Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, and Michele Tafoya, and the coordinating producer of Sunday Night Football Fred Gaudelli.
Our 19-game schedule opens with the NFL Kickoff Game next Thursday night in Denver, the Super Bowl champion Ravens visiting the Broncos, followed four days later by the opening Sunday Night Game, the New York Giants at the Dallas Cowboys.
And one note later this afternoon we will have a transcript of this conference call posted on our nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com Web site. With that I’ll turn it over to our coordinating producer Fred Gaudelli for some opening comments before we take questions.
Fred Gaudelli: Thank you Dan. I just want to say along with Al, Cris, and Michele how much we’re looking forward to season eight of Sunday Night Football. Obviously we’ve enjoyed the milestone of being television’s highest rated show for each of the last two years. And we’re all looking forward to extending that mark this season.
Once again the NFL has given us a schedule befitting of prime time with the best and most popular teams, the stars fans love to see, and some incredible matchups and a lot of them right out of the game.
So needless to say but I’ll say it anyway, we’ve been waiting all year for Sunday Night. Al?
Al Michaels: Freddy, you know every year we’re on this call and we’re always talking about our schedule and again this year it’s fantastic. And you guys all – you know you can see it as well as anybody else can. The league has done a great job positioning games.
We have Manning against Brady for maybe the last time as Denver goes to New England. We have Manning going into Indianapolis halfway through the season, which will be spectacular. We’ve talked about the opening of the season, what that means.
So the games are great and then to me what’s really worked phenomenally well over these past seven years is the flex scheduling, which over the last two years has put us in the position on the final night of the season two years ago to do Dallas against the Giants with the winner going to the playoffs and the loser done.
And then Dallas against Washington again that was the scenario last year, and it also enabled us last year when the read option quarterbacks became the in vogue guys toward the end of the year to wind up having Colin Kaepernick appear twice. We were able to flex into Russell Wilson and flex into RG III over the last couple of weeks of the season.
So it all worked out great and again, once again everybody I talk to says I can’t wait for football to start. And here we are. And I can’t wait for another year with Cris Collinsworth. And buddy this is already number five, and that’s gone by in 20 minutes.
Cris Collinsworth: Yes, but it changed. Now I’m dealing with a Hall of Fame partner now so congratulations on that. That was exciting. And our Hall of Fame crew, Michele and Fred and (Drew), it’s a fantastic group to work with. It really is and what a way for us to start.
I think for me the signature moment of last year was the Baltimore-Denver game. It was a game that Denver pretty much had locked up. And then with 69 seconds to go, they’ve got to go 70 yards, no timeouts.
And they hit that play to Jacoby Jones so they go from Denver, who was the sort of pre-emptive favorite to win the Super Bowl maybe at that point, flips to Baltimore and they go and Jacoby Jones does more in the Super Bowl, was fantastic. Joe Flacco the MVP, so here we go right back at that.
Plus we get a chance this year and as much as we all loved Faith Hill and what a great job she did for Sunday Night Football and now we start the Carrie Underwood era and we’re excited about that as well. So can’t wait for Sunday Night.
Fred Gaudelli: Okay thanks Cris. I’ll – let’s open it up for questions.
Cris, I wanted to ask you about the relationship between college football and the NFL. And the influences now that we’re seeing – the college football influences on the NFL game. It won’t take too long to see that on Sunday Night Football with the Week 2 game being San Francisco at Seattle.
But I know you have a vested interest in college football and I’m interested in how you’ve seen the river reverse directions and suddenly college football is influencing the pros?
Cris Collinsworth: Yes I think it is. There were – we see all the spread offenses now in college football. And not just college football but high school football as well, so we’re seeing a lot of quarterbacks develop. We’re seeing a lot of this read option and the pistol.
I don’t think that people want to underestimate the influence the pistol has had. It’s one thing to go shotgun and spread with the back off to one side, and there’s a very limited number of run plays you can do out of that.
But when they shortened up the distance with the quarterback under the center in that shotgun snap and put the running back behind them, it really opened up the playbook for offenses to design plays.
And I thought one of the most exciting years I’ve ever been a part of last year was watching the game evolve, watching it change with Russell Wilson and RG III and Colin Kaepernick and the read option stuff. And now defenses are claiming that that’s the end of that. That we’re going to see quarterbacks attacked and hit.
And there will be fewer of the read option plays called. I tend not to believe that. I think it’s going to expand. I think it’s going to be even more exciting than it was a year ago.
And if it goes the way I think it is and it’s successful again this season, we may see a true evolution at the quarterback position that we haven’t seen for a while. So that’s going to be fun to watch.
One quick follow-up, at the risk of being outside my depth here, the ability to run out of the pistol, do you think there’s a day when being under center might be an exotic?
Cris Collinsworth: Interesting question. You know I don’t know that. It kind of depends. You’re still going to have – what tends to happen in the NFL is you sort of get ebbs and flows. You get you know the you know whatever you get the 46 defense and then you get all these different counter moves to that.
You get you know – you get big tall wide receivers. And all of a sudden you have to get big corners, then they go back to smaller quicker receivers and they run pick routes. And you know it seems like whenever the defense adjusts to the offense, then something goes the other way.
So you just have to watch the games. You know it keeps constantly evolving into something different. And I’m sure the read option will be no different than that.
I wanted to ask everybody if they could respond to this one, just in your own words run down an area – the biggest area in your mind what makes Sunday Night Football the huge attraction that it is? Why it’s bigger and better? And why people make it appointment TV to watch?
Fred Gaudelli: This is Fred, I’ll start with that one first. You know I think there’s a couple of factors. Obviously when the league decided to switch the marquee game off of Monday night to Sunday night, a lot of that was about flexible scheduling and Al pointed out the benefits we’ve reaped from that.
But I think they also went out of their way to make sure that we were going to have you know really attractive games and all the players you want to see you know almost on a weekly basis. And they’ve really kind of backed that commitment – they have backed that commitment you know the entire way.
And I also think that when NBC acquired the product, when Dick Ebersol acquired it, there was a really companywide push to make sure that people know that the big game was on Sunday night, whether it was the Today Show, the Tonight Show, our news programming.
The entire company really got behind it and Dick really marketed it in a masterful way. And then I just think that we’ve had the two best announcers the entire time. First it was Al and John and now it’s Al and Cris.
And I think at the end of the day, people are always going to judge what they’re watching, especially when it comes to sporting events, by who’s calling the games. And I think that’s been a huge factor in our success.
Al Michaels: And Bob another reason too here is I know this is a mutual admiration society, but I’ve been in this business for a long time, 37 years on the network end and there’s nobody like Fred Gaudelli.
And what he does is every year we get asked, what are you guys going to do that’s different? And he never thinks that way. He always thinks how do we do things better. So every year there’s something.
And some of it may be very subtle and not be that particularly noticeable to a lot of people, but we see it, we know it. And he doesn’t miss a beat.
Cris Collinsworth: Yes I want to say pretty much the same thing. You know that the one thing that NBC has done for us as a group is they’ve allowed Fred to focus on football throughout the course of the season.
You know he doesn’t have to do other jobs. I don’t – occasionally he does something here or there, but we are constantly in communication in the offseason when we watch something or see something and trying to develop new ideas and new concepts of ways to show it.
But maybe most importantly for all of us is that from the beginning, NBC has given us the resources to treat every game like it’s a playoff game or a Super Bowl. I mean there is – I can’t remember a time that there’s been something that we’ve wanted that they haven’t allowed us to have. So that’s a big part of it too.
Michele Tafoya: I actually think it’s the exquisite sideline reporting that gets done every week.
That’s a joke just in case anyone misinterprets that. I would echo what everyone says as in particular we always talk about Fred because he is the leader of our group and because we’ve all worked with so many producers in our time in this business and never seen anyone pay as much attention to detail and push you to get better every single week.
And what I like about him is he’s willing to tell you when you’ve done something well, just as he is willing to tell you when you haven’t done something well. And he’s our biggest supporter.
I also think just the game has – the broadcast has a shimmer from beginning to end in production value. And again this goes to side, but you know the theme song at the beginning, the way that that’s produced. The way that the players buy in and participate in that open, and you just – it’s bigger than your average sports show.
It’s just got a – it’s got an entertainment feel to it. But it still answers every you know football wonk’s need for information and facts and analysis and that sort of thing. But I do think that the shimmer on it is a lot different than any other sports broadcast.
Fred, what did jumping back into football do for the NBC brand, not just the NBC Sports brand?
Fred Gaudelli: Well I mean it’s the highest rated show in television each of the last two years. The year prior to that it was the highest rated prime time show in the fall. So you know it definitely gives the entertainment division and the rest of the company you know a great platform from which to promote.
And this really started at a time where our prime time schedule wasn’t going so great. So it really allowed us to kind of tread water until they began to develop some hit shows like The Voice, like Revolution. So you know it was huge for the entire company.
But they were also smart enough to know it was going to be huge and did all it can to you know really promote it properly.
There is a – this is question is in fact for Fred Gaudelli. There’s an inordinate amount of NFL content across multiple networks now Fred, including as you know Fox Sports 1 coming in, the CBS Sports Television Network just announced that they have a new four-hour pregame show.
In your opinion as a long time NFL producer, is there enough of an audience to support all this content?
Fred Gaudelli: I think until further notice Richard the answer is probably yes. Because it’s now a you know 52-week season in a sense. I mean there’s a competitive season and there’s the offseason.
And I don’t see people complaining that there’s too much NFL product on now. At some point ratings will get involved and how much you can sell things for will be the determining factor.
But in a country now where we have what? Five 24-hour sports networks, I mean how can you not have room for an NFL show or two or three. So I think at some point, we hit the threshold. Where that is I have no idea.
Cris, I have a question about, you know, we’re not going to see a Ray Lewis on the field anymore or Brian Urlocher, you know, we kind of see like an end of an era with middle linebackers.
And I’m just wondering if you could kind of speak to the changing role of that middle linebacker in a lot of teams, in a lot of cities these guys are morphed into kind of situational guys because of the spread offenses you were talking about earlier.
You know, in response to the four and five receiver sets you’ve got, you know, the middle linebacker coming off sort of the third cornerback a lot. And can you just kind of speak to how that is no longer the spine of the defense in a lot of the situations?
Cris Collinsworth: You know, I would say yes and no. I think that if you can find the right guy he absolutely can be good, you know, Sean Lee with the Dallas Cowboys — a guy with the ability to not just play the run but to stay on the field for three downs and one of the better cover guys.
I think part of San Francisco’s – a signature part of their defense is the fact that Patrick Willis and Navorro Bowman can stay on the field and cover backs, tight ends and occasionally receivers in one on one situations.
So you have to take into consideration that this is a passing league now. It’s going to continue to be a passing league — I think in part it’s a positive thing for the league because of the concussion issue that the more you spread it out the fewer sort of head banging, one plays, short yardage kind of fielding plays that there are.
So I think the league will continue to open the game up more and more and provide better protection for quarterbacks, protect wide receivers, protect defenseless receivers and you’ll see more of those running kind of linebackers in the game as opposed to the, you know, the old Dick Butkus and the Mike Curtis that we all used to love.
One follow-up to that, you know, I know there’s some guys that can still be the monster in the middle but do you think that that breed is, you know, is kind of fewer and farther between? Like I said, you know, you mentioned Nitschke, Singletary, Lambert, you know, Urlacher, Seau.
You look at these guys and they were kind of the, you know, the snarling grunting middle linebackers kind of the face of football and now that guy oftentimes, you know, Urlacher brought speed and athleticism to it and it’s a different type of player. Is that still the face of football? The middle linebacker.
Cris Collinsworth: In a different way. You know, I don’t think that there is any more that classic downhill, you know, take on the lead full back, shed him and then tackle him at Smith. You know, I – the games just not played like that anymore — whether people think it’s a positive or a negative I don’t know.
But that is – so do I think that it is the end of a bit of that era? Yes as long as there’s the Brian Urlacher kind of guys who can come downhill and play like that — who can also drop in the middle of that Tampa two zone defense then you can be both I guess. I would say Patrick Willis qualifies as both and I think Shawn Lee qualifies as both. Luke Kuechly is another good one.
My question is actually for Michele. I wanted to ask what do you think is — I guess the greatest challenge, you know, being a sideline reporter for these Sunday night games?
And then also I know you’ll be handling that Sunday night football twitter feed from the sidelines. What was that experience like last year and what do you think that provides?
Michele Tafoya: I’ll start with the twitter question. I think it’s been working great and we want to continue to do more of it. I don’t get to tweet back from the sidelines because it’s just something that I can’t do.
The mechanics of it are a little complicated but I think it’s worked out very very well and we’re always looking to expand upon it. Last year we started tweeting out actual video reports. We’re tweeting out more and more photos and videos all the time and we have great people working on that for us.
So I think it’s been tremendous. As far as the most difficult thing — I think sometimes you just have to be in three places at once and that’s probably the most difficult. You’re constantly listening to the broadcast — what Allen, Cris are exchanging.
You’re also listening to your own producer, you’re watching – sometimes there are multiple injuries happening simultaneously and trying to be in all those spots at once can be rather challenging.
Particularly when you’re sharing the space with so many other people on the sideline so I think that’s probably the biggest challenge but it’s also what makes it so much fun.
When you look at the future what do you think of the NFL’s efforts to reach out to youth leagues and do you think it will have an actual impact on the league, how football’s played and maybe the culture of the game moving forward?
Cris Collinsworth: I do. And I think it’s a really positive thing. I coach not only the junior football league’s but I coached the high school football a couple of years while I was doing this — when my son was playing so.
I had a lot of fun with it and I have to admit sometimes the most dangerous people coaching our kids right now are guys like me. Guys brought up in a different era, you know, that were taught to, you know, sort of slam your head in there and tackle that way and block that way and I think what the league is doing is re-educating people who think that they really know the game of football and are huge fans of the game.
Because those are the parents, those are the dads and they’re going to try and teach them a better way to tackle. First time I saw a high school team — at Highlands High School here in Fort Thomas, Kentucky doing tackling drills I started laughing.
I was like what are they doing. I mean they train them essentially to tackle with their chest. And it sounds crazy but the more I watched it and the more I watched them play — when you keep your head up you end up – even if you miss the tackle you slow the runner down considerably so that you don’t get the swing and a miss, you know, what I mean?
When you lower your head and you take a big shot and the guy makes a move and he runs and scores a touchdown. While tackling with your head up and trying to hit him essentially with your chest now your arms are in play and you doing a lot of things and your other defenders have a chance to come up and help the cause.
So, you know, and the other thing that I think you can’t ignore the significance of this with the heads up tackling program is you’re involving the moms and that’s always dangerous, you know, we all saw Blindside and Sandra Bullock you know what happens when the moms get involved.
But right now the moms are being empowered to say go out and make sure that your coach for your little league team or your high school team is certified by the National Football League in this program and teach them how to do it. So I do hope that it’s making changes in the way the game’s played and I do think it’s been positive.
Everybody, this is for the whole panel but the NFL and the union continued to clash over HGH testing. Do you think they should come to a final agreement to go ahead and implement this? And when you talk to coaches and players do they want HGH testing?
Cris Collinsworth: I’m happy to go first as a former player people who cheat make me mad. They did when I was a player and they do now. I never cared – I never cared – and I thought they should outlaw – doesn’t make any difference to me if they test for marijuana, cocaine, heroin, PCP — whatever you want to talk about that I don’t care.
I know that, you know, as far as the individuals and yes I think they’re all better off if they’re not involved with drugs, you know, and I don’t want to get into a political statement but when you start talking about things that make a difference on the field — when my opponent is better because he’s cheating with steroids or HGH or whatever else they can put in their bodies at this point now I’ve got a big problem.
And I’m disappointed and I’m actually kind of happy to see a little bit that more and more players whether it’s baseball or football or whatever are starting to say, you know, it’s enough. Okay let’s test this. Do what you’ve got to do but don’t make me play against a guy who’s 20 pounds stronger than I am because he’s cheating.
And that’s the significance of this – and as a players’ union you can’t always protect the weakest link just because a guy is on the wrong side of an issue and you’re the players union you don’t always have to protect that guy.
It’s okay to protect the 80 or 90% that don’t do anything wrong and it should be protected and I think that we’re headed in that direction and I hope that’s eventually where we are.
Al Michaels: And Mike just a quick follow up on that I think if you look at the recent history of any of the players’ unions or associations — baseball, football, hockey, basketball, you name it — it was a resistance. They always seem to be longer heads with ownership on any number of issues.
I think the media’s done a great job of exposing what’s taken place in sports — the injury component through the years. This has obviously made all of the leagues step up and take notice and now the players association cannot be the outliers anymore.
They’re involved in this – and I think Cris summed it up beautifully just now – when the players get engaged they’re basically telling their reps “hey we want you to get something done here.”
So I see a right now the level of cooperation or at least an attempt at resolving these issues that I just haven’t seen in years.
I just wanted to ask Cris about the NFC north Green Bay has won the division the last two years. What team is best positioned, do you think, this season to unseat Green Bay from the division title?
Cris Collinsworth: That’s a great question. We just saw Minnesota the other night and, you know, they’re going to be as good as their passing game is. Of course you can never really judge Minnesota until you see them with Adrienne Peterson and they’re going to take double off that now and if the guy can run for almost 2100 yards coming off a knee surgery what might he do, you know, the following season.
And I think the question for them is can they throw it enough and can they present a little bit of a deep threat such that teams that just can stack the box? You know, that Cordarrelle Patterson I like — I think he’s going to be a good player, Jennings is certainly going to help.
You know, if their passing game gets up to average they are going to be tough to handle. I still like Green Bay. I think that with Chicago offensively they’re starting to do some good things — there Brandon Marshall is certainly a huge weapon but it’s a coaching change, it’s a new offense.
Defensively, you know, they’re going to have a new look — it’s a good defense. Whether or not they’re playing tomorrow on a neutral field I do like Green Bay or Chicago — I’m probably going to take Green Bay. The team that has caught my eye – and I have to admit this – is Detroit.
I watched them the other day and of course they were playing against New England and New England couldn’t have screwed up the game any worse than what they did — they made a lot of mistakes in that game.
But when you start with that kind of front seven and especially that front four — you can call it a front six or whatever as deep as they are along that defensive line you can control a lot of games.
And I think Reggie bush adds an element to that team, you know, if you can take a little pressure off of Calvin Johnson, you know, it’s just a team with the chance.
I know they had a tough year last year. I think they start this year in the secondary but if there’s one team that kind of comes off the deck this year and may be surprises? I think it might be Detroit.
The question for the panel and especially Cris — it seems like the sheet pick and the Super Bowl predictions this year is the Bengals. And Cris it’s been 25 years since the Super Bowl 23 team — just wondering what you guys expect from the Bengals this year.
Cris Collinsworth: Well as, you know, I watch them. I just got finished watching the tape against the Dallas Cowboys and preparing for our opening Sunday night game and they’ve got a lot of pieces.
You know, I thought that Jermaine Gresham looked like a better football player now that they drafted Tyler Eifert. I’m a little concerned that Whitworth’s knee hasn’t kind of rounded into form yet.
I think Giovanni Bernard has given them an element on offense and of course A.J. is a spectacular player. Defensively we know what they are. I think defensively they’ll compete with anybody — Geno Atkins almost single-handedly beat the Cowboys the other night. He’s an unbelievable talent and Michael Johnson, you know, as well, so this is a legitimate football team.
I think it’s going to come down to a little bit like the Minnesota Vikings, can they scare you (deep)? Can they hit the big plays down the field, you know, they probably go on to the second round of the playoff where they hit deep ball, you know, I think it was the AJ Green in the playoff game against (Judison) last year. It’s close, the hard part for me is I got to see Baltimore, you know, everybody keeps telling me, you know, Baltimore lost everybody.
You know, I mean it’s like all the sort of name players that you see out of Baltimore and a lot of people think they may be better, you know, and I haven’t seen them first hand yet to really know where they’re going to be and what they’re going to do. But that’s a lot of emotional leadership to take off of that team, you know, you’re talking about Pollard and you’re talking about Ed Reed and you’re talking about Ray Lewis, you know.
Those are guys that are sort of in the heart and soul of that team for a long time and I’m anxious to watch them, I think that almost is the sling boat for me. I think I know what the Bengals are going to be, I’m not sure what Baltimore is going to be…
Are you sure what Pittsburgh’s going to be?
Cris Collinsworth: Oh not at all. Not at all, I think, you know, Pittsburgh is going to have, you know, Dick Lebeau I think if you took a local high school team out there Dick Lebeau would have them ranked in the top five in defense in the NFL, he’s done that kind of job.
But with the running back situation now and they’re offensive line trying to bounce back and without Mike Wallace pressures on (been Rob as sparker), I mean this is his team more than it’s ever been. And of course Bruce Arian’s not being there, you know, we’re in year two of that so we still have to sort of pay attention to how all that goes.
This question is for Cris, Cris, you know, in recent years it seems like a lot of major sports in America – most notably baseball and football have been moving towards, you know, using increased – increasingly advanced stats and metrics and I was just wondering, you know, how do you foresee the future of NFL broadcasting in regard to whether it’s going to kind of increasingly move in that direction in terms of having analysts like you, you know, kind of required to use some of these advanced statistics and metrics?
Cris Collinsworth: Well we do a lot of statistical analysis now but I hear what you’re saying. There is I think the most discussed part of that that I’ve heard is the fourth-down discussion.
You know, I’ve heard it all the way from you should never pun – statistically that there is a statistical edge to never punning to situations like what we saw a few years ago when Bill Belichick decided to go for it on fourth and two on his own end and how much those sort of statistical analysis discretions came into play with that. So is there an interest in my part in all of that? Yes. Am I paying attention to it? I am.
Am I reading all of it? I am but, you know, the one guy that may end up skewing that the most and we may see the first real jump in it – and if somebody changes it I think it’s Chip Kelly. I think we might see Kelly in Philadelphia this year do some things that we go, what, you know, as professional football fans where his belief is you’re never going to stop that offense.
And it is an entertaining team to watch, they are – they press the envelope, they’re taking the read option but they’re doing things far beyond what we’re seeing anybody else do with it. And if there’s one guy that might change the league in the most dramatic way I think its Chip Kelly in Philly.
Question for Fred, the 3D system that you guys are going to be using at Cowboy Stadium this year or you AT&T, whatever they want to call it this year, can you talk a little bit about how that is going to be utilized in the telecast and what it’s going to add and maybe, you know, how often you think you might actually use it?
Fred Gaudelli: Well yes I mean obviously we hope it’s going to add quite a bit because, you know, like we all saw the first time we saw the movie The Matrix, you know, where they’re able to, you know, move all the way around Callede Ree – Keanu Reeves and, you know, see that ball coming at him it’s just a – it’s a very interesting shot.
But what it does is it allows you to see, you know, what the key figures on a particular play we’re doing even if they’re not in proximity to one another. So if it’s a quarterback we’re looking at an outside linebacker or a safety or a corner. And those were the three people on the – in the play that were most crucial, you’ll be able to move around that play and see it from everyone’s viewpoint and to see what they reacted to or what the quarterback reacted to on a passing play.
I mean there’s a lot of ways where I think you’re going to be able to analyze football in a way that we haven’t been able to in the past. You know, we have 12 cameras in each red zone that basically go from 20 around to the end zone to the other 20 because that’s where, you know, the, you know, games are – the biggest play in the game is a touchdown, so that’s where we have all the cameras trained and focused.
We’ve done a couple of tests, we tested a cowboy practice last week, we tested a cowboy pre-season game on Saturday night. I’m going to Dallas Thursday for a task for their final pre-season game and in terms of how much we’ll use it, it’s not a live application yet, so it’s not like a play end that I can go away to this 360 replay. It’s going to be about a 90 second render time, a lot of it will be driven by what, you know, Cris has talked about on the play whether on the air or in commercial where he and I talk and then we’ll build it to those specifications.
So, you know, really depending on, you know, how many touchdowns are scored or how much of the game is played in each red zone will probably determine how much it gets on the air. But I think it’s a worthwhile chance, I think football deserves this kind of technological advancement and I’m betting that it’s going to make a difference.
Anything else of note in terms of production elements or new toys that you guys have this year that you wanted to mention?
Fred Gaudelli: Well obviously you know about Carrie Underwood singing the opening and she did a fantastic job and that’s going to be the best one we’ve put out in the year’s we’ve been doing it and we’ve put out some great ones with Faith.
I think the other think is what you said was a night at halftime in our game we were able to utilize the Vice President of Officiating Dean Blandino to come on and clarify what kind of protection the wild – the root option quarterbacks are going to have this year. So when we have, you know, plays that are out – way out of the ordinary or need further explanation or really a, you know, a great definition of a particular rule or emphasis Dean will be available to us on the Sunday night broadcast to come on and provide that service to our viewers – I think that’s pretty significant.
Cris and Fred, do you Cris having coached high school football and Fred being involved in the production end, do you kind of think there are days that out here in the West, the (Pat Kin) and the Mountain West are going to have a lot of Friday games invading on the turf of high school football.
And, you know, Cris having coached high school football and Fred, you know, being involved in the program again, should there be, you know, horses for courses, you know, days that certain like colleges – high schools, colleges and NFL play?
Cris Collinsworth: Well I mean would I like to see it the old way? I would, I like it when, you know, even the start of the season kind of goes that way, you know, for at least where I am, you know, high schools played last week for the first time.
Colleges will play this week for the first time and then the NFL starts the following week, so I like a certain order and platform for all the teams. I like the idea that, you know, that we’re – we get a night to really focus our attention the kids playing high school ball because, you know, that’s the cornerstone of who we are, you know, if we’re football fans.
Do I understand it? You know, I work in television and I know that college football and NFL football and now even high school football is going to be more and more a part of our lives on every cable channel available to us. So I get it, do I like it? Not necessarily.
Fred Gaudelli: This is Fred, I believe at one time in our country there was a law you couldn’t play anything but a high school game on a Friday night – or maybe it was you couldn’t play professional football on a Friday night because it was for the high schools at that point.
I think, you know, when you see all these 24/7 sports networks popping up as they have this year, it’s probably only a matter of time before someone convinces someone that Friday night would be a good idea. Now whether or not that’s a good idea I can’t really speak to it but I’m sure the pings would get some pushback in their local markets and might even see a decrease in, you know, at site attendance, but it’s hard to be- it’s hard to think that somewhere that’s not going to happen.
I think there’s five NFC East related games on the schedule, looking at that division have you ever seen it be so compelling going with all four teams in their existence the way they are now with the Chip Kelly and Robert Griffin stories and the Giants and Cowboys always seem to be interesting no matter what, obviously you guys start with them. Have you ever seen it as competitive and compelling as we’re going to see it this year?
Al Michaels: Every year people talk about the various divisions, who’s good, who’s not so good. You know, the NFC West was not very good for a lot of years and now people are talking about that being maybe the best of the divisions. The NFC’s was at least the recent years sort of had a Fatina around it, a machine that they were the best and now they’re not necessarily the best but you’re right in the sense that it’s extremely competitive.
And what I’ve been hearing a lot from people who know a lot about football and inside the team is that, you know, who’s going to win this thing? They’ve had – I think one of the things Vinnie that’s happened is that you’ve had four division winners in the last four years in the NFCE. So each of the teams has had their moment in the sun and Washington wins last year so now they throw them all back in the hopper again and I think there is so many unanswered questions there.
You know, the Giants were great for the first part of last year and then they folded. Here came Washington after a very slow start and they came on at the end with a roar, Philadelphia with Chip Kelly of course, what are they going to be? What’s going to happen there? Andy Reed no longer there, a new era – you have that and then you’ve got the Dallas Cowboys who are just every year it’s like who are they? You know, are they 5 and 11, are they 11 and 5, will they ever win another Superbowl, will the coach get fired?
So I think the great think about the NFC East is it probably provides as many stories as any division in football today.
Dan Masonson: Okay well thanks a lot everyone for joining us today, we look forward to beginning the season next week. And for the media on the call, a reminder we’ll have a transcript of the call posted on NBCsportspressbox.com in a few hours, thank you all.
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