John Madden on the Playoffs plus everything you need to know about watching the Redskins

During a conference call with the media this week I had a chance to ask him about this weekend’s playoff game. 

Madden on Washington : “The Redskins are a great story, period. Joe Gibbs has lost nothing he still knows the game as well as anyone and I am sure they will be ready on Saturday. Look for Gregg Williams the defensive co coordinator to try to take the pass away from
Seattle
and force them to run. He knows that the Seahawks have had trouble running so he tries to make a team one dimensional. So on defense the Redskins will try to take the passing game away from Matt Hasselbeck and force them to have to run.”

Madden on Todd Collins: “”I don’t know that there’s ever been anyone that has come in like Todd Collins and had 10 years between starts. That was the amazing thing to me. Obviously there had to be some rust but the way the guy came out and played and just kind of took over, the way he’s performed, I think has been amazing.  I think the Redskins are an amazing story, period.”

Madden on the NFL Playoffs: “”This is my favorite time of the year. Everyone goes to training camp in July to be in this position – just to be in the tournament, to be in the playoffs.  It doesn’t make any difference where you are and that’s been proven the last couple of years that the winner of the Super Bowl doesn’t always come from the teams that have the bye this week. The winner or one of the participants in the Super Bowl could very well come from this Wild Card group. There’s something about the finality of this. During the regular season you have ‘well we’ll get ’em next week’ or ‘okay we have to forget that one.’ You lose this one, you have a whole lost season to think about it. The winner goes on, the winner still has a chance to get there and the loser, out, so it’s true sudden death. As a coach I live for this and as an announcer I live for this. This is the best time of the football year.”

Coverage of the Redskins in
Seattle
is just about everywhere.

Thing s get started on ESPN with a special edition of Sunday NFL Countdown starting at 11am. Look for the award winning show to have plenty about the Skins.

CSN will have special Redskins coverage all week long from Seattle and Saturday’s coverage includes Redskins Kickoff at 3 pm, leading up to the 4:30 pm start, and Redskins Post Game Live immediately following the game with interviews and Joe Gibbs’ press conference.

Triple X ESPN will have the pre game show at 1:30pm Kevin Sheehan hosts leading up to the coverage of the game on Redskins Radio with Larry Michael, Sonny Jergensen, Sam Huff and Bram Weinstein all from Seattle.    

NBC Sports will broadcast live coverage of Saturday’s NFL Wild Card doubleheader starting at 4 pm with a special Wild Card Saturday edition of the “Football Night in America” studio show followed by the NFC West champion Seattle Seahawks (10-6) hosting the Washington Redskins (9-7) at 4:30 pm, 8 pm, the AFC North champion Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6), led by Ben Roethlisberger host Fred Taylor and the Jacksonville Jaguars (11-5).