FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, December 7th, 2014
BOB COSTAS INTERVIEWS PATRIOTS DT VINCE WILFORK; JOSH ELLIOTT SPEAKS WITH CHARGERS QB PHILIP RIVERS ON NBC’S FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA
“I love playing against Philip Rivers because he is so competitive, he is so fiery. You can just tell how he just gets his guys going.”– Vince Wilfork to Bob Costas
“I hate that sometimes it’s viewed the wrong way, but, golly, I hope that when it’s all said and done they’ll be like, ‘That guy loves to play football.’” – Philip Rivers to Josh Elliott on his passion
STAMFORD, Conn. – Dec. 7, 2014 – For tonight’s Week 14 edition of NBC’s Football Night In America, the most-watched studio show in sports, Bob Costas interviews New England Patriots DT Vince Wilfork, and Josh Elliott speaks with San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers. Football Night will also preview NBC’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Patriots and Chargers, and include highlights, analysis and reaction to earlier Week 14 games.
Football Night airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on NBC, with Costas hosting the program live from inside the stadium. He will be joined on site by Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth, sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, NBC NFL analyst Hines Ward, and Elliott.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from NBC Sports Group’s Studio 1, and is joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy; two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison; Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com and NBCSN, and NFL insider Peter King. Kathryn Tappen will report from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pa., on the Seahawks-Eagles game.
INTERVIEWS: Below are excerpts from Costas’ interview with Wilfork, and Elliott’s interview with Rivers. If used, please note the mandatory credit: “In an exclusive interview airing tonight on Football Night in America.”
VINCE WILFORK WITH BOB COSTAS
On bandwagon fans: “We’ve been great, we’ve sucked, we were this, and we were that. The only thing we have is our fans and what we have in that locker room. When we were down, we were kicked a lot. Now we’re up, all of the sudden it’s the Patriots this, the Patriots that. I told our guys, ‘We don’t have time for that.’ The only thing we’re concentrating on is what we have in here.”
On whether he wishes he had more chances to get in the end zone: “Early in my career, I used to talk about it a lot. But now, it is what it is. If it happens, I’ll be prepared for it. I play catch a lot, so they know the ability that I have, and it’s possible I could do it. We just have so many great options on offense that they don’t need me over there.”
On coach Bill Belichick: “He’s a great person. A lot of people don’t understand that because they just see him on Sundays or in the media. But, we have a chance to be around him every day. He’ll come into the locker room and talk with us; in the weight room he’ll come talk and joke. I was just talking with him the other day about my son’s state football game…when I first came up here, [my son] was 6, and now he’s 17. Just being around him every day you get the coach Bill Belichick, and you get the person Bill Belichick, where you can step into his office and talk about anything.”
On the importance of tonight’s game: “Every game is a big game. [Tonight] it happens to be the Chargers – a great football team led by a great quarterback. I love playing against [Philip Rivers] because he is so competitive, he is so fiery. You can just tell how he just gets his guys going. I like to see that in a player, especially coming from a quarterback. You’ll hit him, and he’ll get up and laugh at you and say, ‘That’s all you have?’ It’s an enjoyment to play against somebody like that, who has the passion he has for the game. Philip Rivers got those guys rolling, but we know what we have to do. We have to walk away with a W. It’s going to be tough.”
PHILIP RIVERS WITH JOSH ELLIOTT
On his game-winning touchdown pass with 38 seconds remaining against Baltimore last week: “It’s either going to end in a touchdown to win or an interception to lose…it was big. All that comes with winning that game. Now it gets no easier for us.”
On hard late-season schedule: “They’re all hard in this league. You see it every week, anybody can beat anybody. The good news for us in the last four [games], we don’t have to play them all in the same day. They give us a break between each of them, which is good.”
On his respect for Tom Brady: “Growing up, I wasn’t as much a fan of the NFL as I was a fan of quarterbacks. Marino, Favre, Elway, Aikman, Montana – all of those guys’ posters were on my wall as a kid. To think, ‘Hey, shoot, you’re getting to play a Tom Brady-led Patriots team.’ That really is special, to get him on Sunday night at our place. If you would have told us Week 1 that this was what it’s going to be, we would have said ‘deal.’”
On his attitude every Sunday: “It’s just passion. My dad is a football coach, and there are times when I see some of his mannerisms, his passion, the way he coached…I’m doing the exact same thing. I hate that sometimes it’s viewed the wrong way, but, golly, I hope that when it’s all said and done they’ll be like, ‘That guy loves to play football.’”
–FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA–
