POSTED: Wednesday September 2nd 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NBC SPORTS NFL ANALYSTS PREVIEW 2009 NFL SEASON

There is a level of excitement, there is a buzz about it, there is such an uncertainty about the season. – NBC’s Collinsworth

       “You’re the red letter game for everyone.” – Dungy on Pittsburgh as defending champion




       NEW YORK – Sept. 2, 2009 – Marquee teams and storied
rivalries highlight NBC’s 2009 NFL schedule, which begins next Thursday
night in primetime with the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers
hosting the Tennessee Titans. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET. In the
first “Sunday Night Football” matchup of the season on September 13,
Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears visit historic Lambeau Field and their
rival the Green Bay Packers. Bob Costas hosts “Football Night in
America” live from Lambeau at 7 p.m. ET.



NBC Sports today previewed the season on a media conference call with
Cris Collinsworth, who moves from the studio to the “Sunday Night
Football” broadcast booth, along with Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison,
in their first year as “Football Night in America” studio analysts. For
a complete replay of the call, dial 719-457-0820 and enter passcode: 2428883. Highlights of the call follow:



COLLINSWORTH ON STARTING THE SEASON: “The strangest thing is for me as
I’m sitting here a week away from calling the start of regular season
games, is how remarkably similar I feel to the way I felt when I was
22, and then when I started broadcasting when I was 30. There is a
level of excitement, there is a buzz about it, there is such an
uncertainty about the season. It’s fun to feel like a kid again. This
is one of those exciting moments.”



HARRISON ON TRANSITION TO BROADCASTING: “I’m several months away from
removing myself from the game after 15 years and it’s funny because I
don’t miss training camp, I don’t miss the everyday grind. I do miss
the players, but the one thing I can say is that I have more
butterflies now than what I’ve had in the past going into a season and
going into training camp.”



DUNGY ON TRANSITION TO BROADCASTING: “It’s a little bit different for
me. You really felt like you had a handle on things when you’re in
training camp everyday as a coach. You pretty much knew by this time of
year what kind of team you were going to have and I don’t have that
feeling this year. Not being around it, not seeing it everyday, not
seeing as much tape, so it is going to be exciting to see how the
season plays out. I’m looking forward to that Tennessee-Pittsburgh game
to really see things kick off.



“Rodney and I are both feeling like rookies, but Dan Patrick and Keith
Olbermann are going to be great to work with. I think we’re going to
have an exciting studio show and really looking forward to the year and
seeing how our schedule plays out. We have some great Sunday night
games and I think it’s going to be a fun year. It’ll be exciting to get
started and for me it’s the anticipation of the unknown.”



DUNGY ON PITTSBURGH: “With Pittsburgh, you have to look at what every
defending champion has. You’re the red letter game for everybody.
You’re going to play that schedule where you’re playing a lot of
primetime games. They’ll be ready for it, but it takes a toll on you.”



HARRISON ON TENNESSEE: “I anticipate looking at a lot more eight and
nine man boxes forcing Kerry Collins to be that quarterback that he
needs to be. You have to throw the ball down the field and I don’t
think they’re capable of throwing the ball down the field consistently
enough to challenge the Pittsburgh defense.”



DUNGY ON TENNESSEE: “Tennessee has a lot to prove. They had a great
year in the regular season and they didn’t get it done in the playoffs.
Chris Johnson is the key there. He made so many big plays for them and
they haven’t been a team that has gotten big plays from their passing
game. He’s been the guy that supplied the big plays. I think it’s
critical that he doesn’t get hurt. If he has a great year I think they
can go a long way. If he doesn’t continue to make big plays I think
their offense is going to struggle.”



COLLINSWORTH ON TENNESSEE: “There are new faces all over the skill
positions of Tennessee. I had a chance to watch them practice a couple
of weeks ago. I think there is enough there. I think they’re going to
be better offensively. I think the big question with this team is
Albert Haynesworth. How does his loss affect this defense? Jeff Fiscer
is a great coach, has a great defensive pedigree, but that’s a big
loss. We’ll have to see how that plays out.”



COLLINSWORTH ON GREEN BAY:  “Watching the Packers and the way that
they’re playing, I really do feel like the circus leaving town has
really helped this football team. With Dom [Capers] coming in and
taking over the defense, they seem refocused despite the change.
 Offensively, Aaron [Rodgers] is putting on an absolute show throwing
the football and you just can’t deny that they have been the best team
of this preseason, I mean they’ve been spectacular.”



COLLINSWORTH ON CHICAGO: “I got a chance to see a much improved Chicago
Bears defense, and that’s really what I focus on with the Bears. I
think their offense is going to be good. I think their receivers are
going to be fine. But their defense with Lovie [Smith] taking over
control seems so much better.”



DUNGY ON THE BEST NFC NORTH TEAM: “I think Green Bay is probably going
to come out of the chutes fast because they’ve got their quarterback
that’s been there the longest. Cutler and Favre are great quarterbacks
and they’ve got great talent, but they don’t have that same two-year
window that Aaron Rogers has had working with his receivers. But then
as the weather gets colder the defenses are going to take over and I
think Chicago is going to have the best defense.”



HARRISON ON BRETT FAVRE: “Brett’s been in this game so long, and he is
such a smart, intelligent football player—he’s so passionate about
this game and he loves it. The one thing about football that I had to
come to grips with is that your mind is always going to tell you can
make that play but the hard part is getting your body to follow. You
get to a point where at 21 your body is basically made of steel but
once you get into the 30s and now your body is basically made up of
glass. So there comes a point in time where you have to walk away like
I did. Brett showed us flashes that he still can play and that he is
very competitive, but mentally once he’s done after this season he’s
going to really have to take a look and say you know what, is this in
the best interest of my body, my mind, and my family?  Do I continue to
play this game or do I walk away?”



HARRISON ON REX RYAN’S COMMENTS ABOUT BILL BELICHICK: “When people make
comments like that towards individual coaches or players, everyone
takes offense. I don’t care what anyone says, you keep that quote in
your mind and you put it up on a bulletin board. I don’t think that is
going to make Belichick even more mad at him or make him hate the Jets
more or for them to play harder, but the point of emphasis will be on
that. He’s absolutely right that he shouldn’t go in there kissing Bill
Belichick’s rings or anything like that, but I thought that was
understood and really doesn’t need to be said out in public. I’m
excited about this showdown, but I really don’t think they have what it
takes to overtake Belichick and the Patriots.”



HARRISON ON REX RYAN: “If you come into the New York arena and you
start predicting that you’re going to go to the Super Bowl, you’re
raising expectations really, really high for a team that really hasn’t
done much in the past 10 years. But I like the fact that he has
confidence in his abilities.”



 HARRISON ON NEW ENGLAND: “It comes down to number 12. It comes down to
Tom Brady. If you look at what happened last year, Brady goes down and
the Patriots are 11-5. They had a pretty good season in terms of
everyone else in the league and they didn’t make the playoffs. If
number 12 can stay healthy, the offense will put up 27, 28 points a
game, the defense will give up 17, 18 points a game and the Patriots
can end up being 12-4, maybe 13-3. If Tom Brady isn’t well and he’s not
playing well coming off this knee injury then I think the Patriots will
struggle.”



DUNGY ON BALTIMORE: “Losing Coach Ryan is going to be a blow and their
going to have to make some adjustments because I don’t know that
aggressiveness and cohesiveness they had on defense will be there
especially early on.”





HIGHLIGHTS OF “NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” SCHEDULE



·       All 12 NFL playoff teams from last season are featured.

·       Fourteen of NBC’s 16 scheduled games involve at least one playoff team from last season.

·       Giants at Cowboys opens the $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys
Stadium, “the 8th Wonder of the World.” It’s a rematch of the most
viewed game ever on “Sunday Night Football.”

·       Three appearances a piece from six marquee teams: this year’s
Super Bowl champion Steelers, last year’s Super Bowl champion Giants
plus Dallas, Indianapolis, Chicago and Philadelphia.

·       Six games involving one of the Manning brothers, Peyton and Eli.

·       Quarterback duels between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, Peyton
and Kurt Warner, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger and Donovan
McNabb and Jay Cutler.

·       Four matchups among bitter NFC East rivals: Giants-Cowboys, Cowboys-Eagles, Eagles-Giants and Cowboys-Redskins.

·       A rematch of last year’s hard-hitting AFC Championship game
between Pittsburgh and Baltimore and last year’s AFC divisional playoff
game between the Steelers and the Chargers.




       Members of the media can get more information about NBC
Universal and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web
site at www.nbcumv.com.

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Keywords · Tony Dungy · Rodney Harrison · Cris Collinsworth · NBC · NFL Sunday Night Football

Name: Brian Walker
Organization: NBC
Email:
Phone: +1.212-664-5533
URL: http://www.nbcuni.com

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