FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, December 6th, 2015
MATT HASSELBECK SPEAKS WITH BOB COSTAS ON NBC’S FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA
“I’m hoping in the 10th year of his career he would look back and say…‘I learned some stuff from him.’” – Hasselbeck on Andrew Luck
STAMFORD, Conn. – December 6, 2015 – For tonight’s Week 13 edition of NBC’s Football Night In America, the most-watched weekly studio show in sports, Colts QB Matt Hasselbeck speaks with Bob Costas. Football Night will also preview NBC’s Sunday Night Football matchup between the Colts and Steelers, and will include highlights, analysis and reaction to earlier Week 13 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, and NBC NFL analyst Hines Ward.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from NBC Sports Group’s Studio 1 in Stamford, Conn., 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 Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., on the Eagles-Patriots game.
INTERVIEW: Below are excerpts from Costas’ interview with Hasselbeck. If used, please note the mandatory credit: “In an exclusive interview airing Sunday night on Football Night in America.”
MATT HASSELBECK WITH BOB COSTAS
On his career arch: “It’s like the stock market, buy low, sell high…I think for some of it, the fact that I was a backup to start my career has helped me. If I had just come in and been the starter the whole time, I don’t know that I would have known the value in how to be a good backup. Not only has it been fun working with Andrew [Luck], I feel like he’s made me better. I’m hoping in the 10th year of his career he would look back and say, ‘Hey, you know that old guy I played with at the beginning of my career? That was good. I learned some stuff from him.’”
Costas: “You carried a clipboard, back when guys carried clipboards…”
Hasselbeck: “Yes, now a tablet – that’s how much the game has changed.”
On how much ribbing he and Adam Vinatieri get from their teammates for their age: “A lot. But, it’s sort of funny now. I just try to beat them to the punch. Usually, it’s like trivia. The offensive line play a thing called fact or fiction. They’ll be like ‘Fact or fiction – the Rubik’s Cube was invented before Hasselbeck was born.’ These types of things.”
On his kids being old enough to have a memory of him playing: “Yes, though that means they also remember the bad things that you do. The interceptions. I remember, I’d come home from games when I was playing in Seattle and whether it was a good game or a bad game it didn’t matter because I was getting a hug from two little girls and my son would just want to play basketball or do something like that. Now I come home, and they’ll be like, ‘Hey, what happened on that pass to Coby Fleener? Hey, you need to throw to T.Y. Hilton more.’ [Laughs] Do I really need to get that right now from my middle school kids?”
–FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA–
