Once again, I have the notables quotes for ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown, Fox NFL Sunday and NBC’s Football Night in America. I thought I had a contact at CBS for NFL press releases, but I guess they don’t want to send them to me.
Ok, this is from Fox NFL Sunday.
Bradshaw Predicts Favre Retirement, Phillips Firing and Giants/Steelers Super Bowl
Long: People Are Shocked By What Raiders Gave Up For Hall, Not His Release
Michael Strahan: NFL Fines Make No Sense
Johnson Targets Texas Tech’s Mike Leach as Top NFL Coaching Candidate
Analyst Howie Long on the Oakland Raiders decision to cut Pro Bowl cornerback DeAngelo Hall after eight games: “With my old boss Al Davis, it’s all about winning and it always has been. But given the point where he is in life, I think there is a greater sense of urgency to win it all now. The Raiders paid a lot of money out in the last year and DeAngelo Hall was one of those guys. There was an injury guarantee in his contract so Oakland would have been on the hook for $16 million if he gets injured. If they made a mistake, why compound it by letting him hang around, get injured and then having to pay him $16 million. People weren’t shocked around the league that they let him go. They were shocked, in fact, that the Raiders gave up a second round pick and a fifth round pick to get him.”
Analyst Michael Strahan added: “Players know what they are on the hook for. If they see that things are going downhill fast, you may pull up with an injury. You never know.”
NFL Insider Jay Glazer reported on the aftermath of last week’s fight between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals: “An unprecedented 20 players from that mess were fined by the league office; 10 for the Jaguars and 10 for the Bengals, for a grand total of $90,000. I believe that’s the most ever levied for one incident in recent NFL history.”
Analyst Michael Strahan reacted: “I don’t get it. Randy Moss says something about the officiating that didn’t really mean anything and he’s fined $20,000. You have guys fighting in the middle of a game and it’s $90,000 between 20 players. It makes no sense at all.”
Analyst Jimmy Johnson summarized the message the fines convey: “You can fight, just don’t criticize the referees.”
FOX NFL SUNDAY co-host Terry Bradshaw offers his predictions for the second half of this season:
10 – Chargers will win AFC West on the last day of the season.
9 – Cardinals will end the regular season with 10 wins.
8 – Falcons QB Matt Ryan wins NFL Rookie of the year.
7 – Brett Favre announces his retirement before the final game.
6 – Packers win NFC North.
5 – Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, Georgia head coach Mark Richt & Florida head coach Urban Meyer are top candidates for NFL head coaching positions.
4 – Saints QB Drew Brees wins NFL MVP, breaks Dan Marino’s passing record but Saints miss playoffs.
3 – On December 21st, Steelers spoil Titans undefeated streak.
2 – Cowboys miss playoffs, head coach Wade Phillips gets fired but offensive coordinator Jason Garrett is not promoted to head coach.
1 – Giants and Steelers face each other in Super Bowl.
Analyst Jimmy Johnson on his top candidate for an NFL head coaching position: “I’d hire head coach Mike Leach of Texas Tech before I’d hire any of those guys.”
Analyst Michael Strahan comments on changes he sees and ones that need to be made in the NFL: “Like our country, our game is in the midst of great change, but change is good. You know there is change when we have a total of zero meltdowns from Ocho Cinco, T.O. and Randy Moss. You know there is change, when we actually find ourselves debating which of the Mannings is better. I always liked Eli, but enough about change. We also need new policy. I would like to see policy set in stone where you can’t impeach a coach in the middle of the season. This change does nothing and I mean nothing for the locker room…I’d also like to see more accountability from the officials. Finally, I propose that if Pacman Jones or any other player in that situation comes back we stop talking about them. Period, just stop! He is an average player with major problems, who will probably never get it. Let’s talk about somebody that does make a difference.”
Now to Sunday NFL Countdown.
“SUNDAY NFL COUNTOWN” NEWS AND NOTES – November 9, 2008
ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” host Chris Berman and analysts Mike Ditka, Keyshawn Johnson, Cris Carter, and Tom Jackson previewed today’s NFL games. Some excerpts:
Was running back Jamal Lewis right about the Browns “calling it quits” vs. the Broncos Thursday?
Cris Carter: “Besides Jamal (Lewis) and Willie McGinest, what guys do they have on the team that are used to winning a lot of games? You can’t be accused of quitting when you’re ahead. I can understand if they had gotten blown out or something. What they need to quit doing is throwing the ball to Braylon Edwards.”
Tom Jackson: “I take him at his word. He’s closer to the football team than I am. If he thinks they quit, then maybe they did quit.”
Are the Browns the biggest “underachievers” this season?
Mike Ditka: “I think their defense is disappointing.”
Keyshawn Johnson: “They are one of them. But I would think it is the Cowboys – with all the pro bowlers, the splash, and the preseason that we expected them to be right in the mix.”
Cris Carter: “We are wrong about our expectations. That’s the problem in Cleveland, we had them as paper champions this off-season with all the moves they made.”
Tom Jackson: “I might put the Seahawks in t
here somewhere as the biggest underachiever. Dallas is the easiest answer.”
Mike Ditka‘s one-on-one interview with his former player and now interim head coach of the 49ers, Mike Singletary
During the week, Countdown’s Ditka sat down for a one-on-one interview with the 49ers interim head coach Mike Singletary, formerly the undisputed leader of the defense for Mike Ditka’s 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears – one of the best defenses in NFL history. Singletary addressed some of the headlines surrounding him and his team in the interview, some of which aired this morning on SportsCenter and Sunday NFL Countdown and will be the subject of tonight’s SportsCenter “Sunday Conversation” at 11 p.m. ET. Highlights:
Mike Ditka: “The Vernon Davis thing, does he understand?”
Mike Singletary: “Absolutely. … He’s a great kid. … It’s all out there. It’s right here and he wants to win. He wants to do it. It’s learning how to do it. Learning how to do it with character or learning how to do it with conviction, learning how to do it with heart.”
· MS – on the locker room incident going public: “It was a valuable lesson for me, one that did not make me bitter, one that you know did not make me embarrassed. … But what it did do, it just sharpened my focus about how to go about doing what needs to be done.”
·
Following brief excerpts of the interview, Berman discussed Singletary’s performance with Ditka on Sunday NFL Countdown:
Chris Berman: “You sat with him, and I know you admire him greatly, you loved him as a player. Does he have any regrets so far in his actions as a head coach?”
Mike Ditka: “I’m glad you asked that. Because my friend Frank Sinatra once said ‘regrets, I’ve had a few but then again too few to mention.’ You can’t have regrets. You are who you are. You are a football coach. It is not a popularity context. You’ll never meet a more devoted, higher character individual than Mike Singletary. His whole goal is to make the San Francisco 49ers a winner and bring them back to where they used to be. And he’s going to find a way to do that.”
Best Team in the AFC East?
Tom Jackson: “As crazy as this sounds, it is going to be the Miami Dolphins. Fewest turnovers in the league, that’s a good starting point for a ball club. Franchise quarterback, premier rusher in the league, we talked about Joey Porter. Now you start looking at schedule, it is very important – we’re going to play four teams that are 2-6 and one team that is 1-7 … If you were drawing up a schedule that was going to get you to the playoffs, this would be it. And lets remind ourselves that Bill Parcells, he is not coaching the
team, Coach (Tony) Sparano is the coach, but in December, he (Parcells) really knows how to win football games.”Cris Carter: “If I’m going stargazing, I am going to go look for some stars. Who has the biggest stars? New England. They’ve got the best receiving group, they’ve got the best offensive line, they’ve got the best defensive line, and coach Parcells – great deal of respect, but they’ve got the biggest star in coaching in Bill Belichick.”
Tom Johnson: “When you look at the Miami Dolphins, they are ahead of schedule … They’ve already beaten two of the three teams in the division … So when you look at the schedule, and you look at everything that has happening with this football team, there’s an opportunity there for them.”
Mike Ditka: “You’ve got to still say New England is No. 1 right now.”
Chris Berman: “I asked the question who is the best team in the division? My head is telling me New England – expect to win, they know how to win, their coaching is great and they’ve got a lot of guys who won’t accept losing at all. My heart is telling me Buffalo – Yes, I enjoy a team being built, and seeing them, kind of, grow. Though, that’s settling a little bit. But my eyes, from last week, the Jets are an interesting team.”
And NBC’s Football Night in America.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM WEEK 10 OF NBC’s “FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA”NEW YORK – Nov. 9, 2008 – Following are highlights from NBC's "Football Night in America" studio show, as host Bob Costas, co-host Cris Collinsworth, co-host Keith Olbermann, co-host Dan Patrick, analysts Tiki Barber and Jerome Bettis, and reporter Peter King of Sports Illustrated take a look at the day's top storylines in the NFL:
CRIS COLLINSWORTH ON IF BRETT FAVRE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE JETS SUCCESS: "I really think it's the two defensive players they picked up, Calvin Pace and Kris Jenkins, because now they can stop the run and get after the quarterback."
CRIS COLLINSWORTH ON INDIANAPOLIS: "You just get the feeling that this Colts team may haunt everyone else in the AFC."
PETER KING ON IF THE UNDEFEATED TITANS WILL START RESTING PLAYERS: "He [Head Coach Jeff Fisher] told me after the game that he will play his guys in every game. You can expect to the see the same guys in Week 16 that you're seeing now."
PETER KING ON TONY ROMO: "I talked to Romo yesterday and one of the things he told me was he's definitely playing and he'll be playing with a splint."
JEROME BETTIS ON ROMO AND THE COWBOYS OFFENSIVE LINE: "He's going to be playing with pain because he's going to be sacked, not because of his broken pinkie. It's going to be back pain."
TIKI BARBER ON DETROIT: "They have over-drafted on offense so there's no impact players on defense."
KEITH OLBERMANN ON JIM HASLETT'S POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE: "After the game Jim Haslett was left recreating the greatest hits of Scott Linehan."
DAN PATRICK ON RAIDERS-PANTHERS: "You really, really had to love football to watch this game."
There you have it. I’d leave room for CBS’ NFL Today, but unfortunately, I don’t have a press release so I remain with quotes from just three shows.
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