“Hunger can be satisfied, but (being) driven is like a tapeworm. And you want to do business with driven people.” – Mike Tomlin
“Everyone talks about repeating starting tonight. Repeating started in March.” – Jason Garrett on repeating as Super Bowl champions
“They’re better. They decided that this team wasn’t the team that was only a piece or two away from winning. They knew they had to make a lot of changes.” – Devin McCourty on the Patriots
“He’s running water. He’s in and out of breaks with great fluidity. He is just a football player in every way, and it comes out of him like breathing.” – Tomlin on Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Mike Tomlin Makes Regular-Season Football Night in America Debut
STAMFORD, Conn. – Sept. 9, 2026 – NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2026 NFL season began tonight with a special edition of Football Night in America on NBC and Peacock, leading into coverage of the NFL Kickoff Game as the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks host the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl LX rematch at Lumen Field in Seattle, Wash.
Tonight’s on-site edition of Football Night in America from Seattle featured host Maria Taylor, Super Bowl-winning former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin, who made his regular-season Football Night in America debut, former Dallas Cowboys head coach and three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Jason Garrett, three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty, and NFL insider Mike Florio.
Pre-game coverage also included the Seahawks’ Super Bowl LX banner-raising ceremony; Maria Taylor’s interview with Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, head coach Mike Macdonald, and other key contributors to the team’s 2025 championship season; Devin McCourty’s interview with Patriots QB Drake Maye and newly acquired Patriots wide receiver A.J. Brown; a live performance from country music star Luke Bryan; a look at the Seahawks’ new season of Hard Knocks; and Kaylee Hartung’s pre-game interview with Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams.
Mike Tirico (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst), Melissa Stark and Kaylee Hartung (sideline reporters), and Terry McAulay (rules analyst) are calling tonight’s 2026 NFL Kickoff Game.
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Following are highlights from tonight’s special NFL Kickoff edition of Football Night in America on NBC and Peacock:
TOMLINISMS
On work ethic: “You learn about yourself, not only as an individual, but as a collective after you win a world championship. You learn whether or not you’re hungry or you’re driven. Hunger can be satisfied, but (being) driven is like a tapeworm. And you want to do business with driven people.”
On comparing the NFC West to Game of Thrones: “The Seahawks are the House of Stark.”
On Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba: “He’s running water. He’s in and out of breaks with great fluidity. He is just a football player in every way, and it comes out of him like breathing.”
ON SEAHAWKS
Tomlin on the pomp surrounding the NFL Kickoff Game for the defending Super Bowl champions: “It’s not for the coaches and players. They got a job to do tonight. It’s for the fans. (As a coach) You try to minimize it since there’s a game on the backside of it.”
Devin McCourty: “It’s not a must-win but that’s going to be the feeling tonight for Seattle.”
Jason Garrett on the energy of opening night: “There’s a lot of challenges with Week 1: your guys haven’t played and there’s not a lot of film because their guys haven’t played either. There’s a lot of emotion and energy and then you come to the electric environment. So, the key for a player, take a deep breath and settle in and play.”
Seahawks DT Leonard Williams to Kaylee Hartung on raising the banner: “It’s special for us to take it all in. We worked really hard all season to get the job done. Once we take it in, it’s gametime.”
Garrett on repeating as Super Bowl champions: “Everyone talks about repeating starting tonight. Repeating started in March.”
Garrett: “(Head coach) Mike Macdonald talks about ‘loose and focused.’ It reminds me of the ‘90s Cowboys. These guys are loose, focused, and they love ball and each other.”
Tomlin on the Seahawks-Rams rivalry: “(The Seahawks) are easily motivated. There’s a lot of noise out there about how great the LA Rams are and that’s low hanging fruit for Coach Macdonald as he motivates and gets this group rightly focused to answer.”
Garrett on Lumen Field: “It’s hard enough to play here when they have an okay team. But when they’re the world champions and hanging up a banner? Come on now.”
Garrett on Seattle’s defense in Super Bowl LX: “The story of the Super Bowl was the dominance of the defensive front of Seattle over the offensive line…The story of tonight is going to be if New England has addressed the issues schematically to block this front.”
Tomlin on challenges for new Seahawks OC Brian Fleury: “It’s a great natural opportunity for Sam Darnold’s role to expand…I believe that give and take between coach and player is really significant when you have a player in position to do it and [Darnold] certainly is.”
ON PATRIOTS
McCourty on the Patriots: “They’re better. They decided that this team wasn’t the team that was only a piece or two away from winning. They knew they had to make a lot of changes.”
McCourty on the Patriots’ offseason drama: “This team has fully moved past all of the off-season stuff. The Mike Vrabel, Diana Russini stuff, they are not talking about it. You won’t hear a player mention anything. They are focused on this season.”
McCourty on team bonding off the field during his time with the Patriots: “We used to have trashket-ball. We would have garbage cans on opposite ends of the locker room. I was a two-time MVP. (One season) we didn’t win the Super Bowl and then lost a game in December. We came in looking for that basketball and (Tom) Brady took a knife, slit that thing right down the middle, and said, ‘It’s playoff time.’”
Tomlin on Drake Maye: “I competed against (the Patriots) last September. I was highly concerned about Drake Maye’s mobility, which is very underrated.”
Garrett on OC Josh McDaniels and Drake Maye’s relationship: “I was really impressed with their relationship. Josh is pushing him to take complete command of this offense and Drake has responded in the meetings, walk-through, practice. He’s in charge. It will help him get into good plays and out of bad plays and get the ball to the right guy.”
ON RAMS
Tomlin: “They are my favorite to win. How could you be against them? They got Myles Garrett. They got Aaron Donald off the couch. And they have Matt Stafford! Sean McVay and company are going to be very tough to deal with.”
McCourty: “If I had to throw one hiccup, I’m a little nervous that they have too many alphas. They have 11 captains, and that’s not including Aaron Donald. They’re going to have to figure out who are the leaders and then become a great team and not just great players.”
ON FALCONS
Mike Florio on new Falcons QB Tua Tagovailoa: “If it doesn’t go well for Tua and he gets benched again, I’m told there’s a strong possibility the Falcons will do what the Dolphins did and also cut Tua Tagovailoa.”
--FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA--
