STAMFORD, Conn. – Sept. 14, 2014 – In addition to its weekly Sunday Night Football preview, interviews, highlights, and reaction to the afternoon games, tonight’s episode of Football Night in America will surround the off-the-field issues currently facing the league by addressing the numerous matters throughout the show.
Football Night, the most-watched studio show in sports, airs each Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on NBC, with Bob Costas hosting the program live from inside the stadium. He will be joined on site by Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth and sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, NBC NFL analyst Hines Ward, and NBC Sports commentator Josh 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 Peter King of Sports Illustrated. Carolyn Manno will report from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., on the Jets-Packers game.
For tonight’s episode, Costas interviewed San Francisco 49ers LB Patrick Willis, and Elliott had a candid discussion with Chicago Bears DE Jared Allen. Tonight’s show will also take viewers on a tour of the state-of-the-art Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., which is hosting its first-ever NFL regular-season game.
INTERVIEWS: Below are excerpts from Costas’ interview with Willis, and Elliott’s interview with Allen. If used, please note the mandatory credit: “In an exclusive interview airing tonight on Football Night in America.”
PATRICK WILLIS WITH BOB COSTAS
On narrowly losing two NFC Championships and a Super Bowl in the past three years: “We’ve had a good run these last three years and I hope the fourth one is the charm. We can’t worry about what has been. The only thing that matters now is what we do this season.”
On coach Jim Harbaugh: “Coach Harbaugh is his own guy. One of the things I admire the most about him is the attitude he comes to work with every day, and he tells us that you have to approach every day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”
On how his body is holding up after seven straight Pro Bowls: “My body feels great, but the truth of the matter is that I don’t have too much longer to play in the game…I’m not one to sit up here and say that I’m going to play 16, 17 years. There are only three things that I really want that would make this whole career worth everything, and that’s a Super Bowl trophy, one or multiple Defensive Player of the Year Awards and a [Hall of Fame] Canton, Ohio, jacket.”
JARED ALLEN WITH JOSH ELLIOTT
On whether the one thing he’s missing is a Super Bowl ring: “Absolutely. I think I’ve accomplished a lot individually, and I still have goals I want to accomplish. I still haven’t gotten Defensive Player of the Year. I want to earn a ring. I don’t just want to be a guy on a team that went to the Super Bowl. I want to earn that ring… and I believe we can do that here in Chicago.”
On what went wrong in Week 1: “The big plays are easy to fix. When you look at the grand scheme of what happened, we did not play well in the run game because we gave up both big plays…every week people are going to test you. When you give up almost 200 yards rushing, you’re going to get tested. I fully plan on getting tested this week, and you have to learn to take care of your job and nothing else.”
--FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA--
