NBC Sunday Football is ready to show the country the new home of the Dallas Cowboys. The 100,000 seat new $1.2 billion palace will host the Cowboys-Giants in the first regular season game played in the 8th wonder of the world.
The gang at NBC is in Dallas to show everyone the amazing new building that all football fans have heard about but few has seen until tonight.
Bob Costas will be on hand in Dallas to open tonight’s Football Night in America.
Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann will co-host “Football Night” from NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza studios joined by Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison and Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. Tiki Barber will report from the Steelers-Bears game at Soldier Field.
The game will be handled by the Sunday Night Football team of Al Michaels (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst) and Andrea Kremer (sideline reporter) call the action from Arlington, Texas.
COSTAS ON THE BIG EVENT FEEL: “The idea of being at the scene of the game automatically captures the atmosphere and the sense of anticipation. Coming off Packers-Bears we now go to Dallas for what’s not only an important matchup in the division, but obviously it’s an event because of the opening of the first regular season game in the new stadium. We’re two for two in terms of an event feel to it.”
MICHAELS ON DOING THE FIRST GAME AT THE NEW STADIUM: “When the schedule came out I was very excited to not only know that we were going to do the first regular season game there, but it would be the New York Giants. I was hoping it would be the Giants or the Redskins or a team that is one of the noted rivals of the Cowboys so this is perfect. I spoke to Jerry Jones about this as long ago as five or six years. His dream was that if he was ever able to get something like this built in the Metroplex it was going to be the best of the best and he’s been able to affect that even through obviously very rough economic times. He hasn’t cut any corners from what I can gather and it’s a spectacular venue.”
COLLINSWORTH ON SPECIAL FEEL OF THE NIGHT: “This is an amazing blend of exciting events. You could buy a plane ticket down just for the opening of the stadium if you wanted to and feel like you got your money’s worth or you could go down and watch this football game and really feel like you got your money’s worth.”
COSTAS ON HIS LAST FOOTBALL BROADCAST IN DALLAS: “NBC was the AFC network and we just never happened to have a game in Dallas, or if we did it would have been the biggest game and Dick Enberg would have been assigned to that game, or some other broadcaster at that point than me. So I think, as I recall it, the last time I was in Dallas to cover a football game was for CBS, before NBC hired me, for CBS around 1978, and it was a preseason game. I recall that Frank Gleiber was doing the game, and Verne Lundquist I think was also there for Cowboys radio, may have been pre Brad Sham. I was about 25 or 26 years old and I think that’s the last time I did a live football game from Dallas.”
PRODUCER FRED GAUDELLI ON COVERING PUNTS: “We will cover our punts differently in this game than we do in a normal game. In a regular game, we’re not tracking the ball on a punt, we’re actually just moving down the field to show the coverage go after the returner, but we’re going to start initially tracking the ball live because obviously people are going to be wondering about that right away.”
GAUDELLI ON BALANCING THE GAME AND STADIUM: “Obviously the game always takes precedent over everything that we’re doing. We’ve found a way through the years, whether it is the city we’re in, or the circumstances of the stadium, to work that into the game, complementing the game, not at the expense of the game. We’ve added a couple of cameras, one will be outside just to show this enormous expanse, one will be inside to take you to different places inside the stadium that make this place unique. It will be woven in naturally and not at the expense of what’s happening on the field.”
MICHAELS ON THE MATCHUP: “It doesn’t matter when you have the Giants and the Cowboys or where you have the Giants and the Cowboys it’s going to be a treat. You’ve got two major stories here one being the opening of the stadium and the other being the Giants and the Cowboys and what still figures to be the NFL’s toughest division. I’m looking forward to what should be a pretty perfect night and what should be a hell of a game.”
COLLINSWORTH ON TONY ROMO: “He’s in a tough spot. There have been so many great quarterbacks with the Dallas Cowboys over the years; legendary figures there with Troy (Aikman) and (Roger) Staubach. Tony Romo really impressed me (in last week’s game) with his ability to move in the pocket. His reads were dead on, he threw the ball great, and his pump fake in the flat that ended up with the big play down the field to Crayton for the touchdown was sort of Roethlisberger-like when we saw him on Thursday night. It’s a tough standard in Dallas because of those guys that came before him, but honest to goodness I think this guy is, if he’s not top 5, he’s certainly top 7 or so and getting better, so I’m a big Romo guy.”
COLLINSWORTH ON COWBOYS: “The Cowboys offensively exploded with out “TO” last week. Some great performances by the wide receivers like Crayton, Austin Miles and Roy Williams. They did not have a great game defensively, but good enough.”
COLLINSWORTH ON GIANTS: “The Giants defensively as advertised with Umenyiora’s return were just great. Offensively the New York Giants look like their ready to go. Brandon Jacobs will be going in there and slamming into the Cowboys front that gave up some yards against Tampa Bay. A lot of storylines to follow from the football stand point, but its exciting for me to get a chance just to be there.”
COLLINSWORTH ON GIANTS DEFENSIVE LINE: “This defensive line is pretty dynamic. When they put those five down lineman in there with Bernard and Canty, Umenyiora, Kiwanuka and Tuck it’s a little intimidating. When you look across there, you go ‘Oh my goodness, here they come’ because it looks like the beginning of the 100m in Beijing.”
GIANTS VS. COWBOYS: This is the 94th game in this rivalry that dates back to 1960 with the Cowboys holding a 55-37-2 overall edge in the matchup including a 20-8 victory on SNF in Week 15 last season, which stands as the most watched game in SNF history (23.1 million viewers). Amazingly, these two teams have only met once in the post-season and that came in the 2007 NFC Divisional round with the Giants winning 21-17 in Dallas on their way to a Super Bowl championship.
GIANTS-COWBOYS IN PRIMETIME: Both the Giants and Cowboys are scheduled to appear three times this season on “Sunday Night Football.” The Giants will host the NFC Champion Cardinals in Week 7 and the Eagles in Week 14 while the Cowboys travel to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles in Week 9 and are on the road in Washington to take on the Redskins in Week 16. The Cowboys are 8-2 overall on “Sunday Night Football,” and their 11 appearances are the most for any team on SNF. The Giants have a 3-5 all-time record on the NFL’s premier primetime package.
