We are inching closer to Thanksgiving, which means the return of “Thursday Night Football” on the NFL Network. The first game of the season has a regional feel as the Baltimore Ravens will face the Atlanta Falcons.
The fifth season of “Thursday Night Football” gets underway at 6 p.m. with a two-hour pregame show. Rich Eisen, Deion Sanders, Steve Mariucci, Marshall Faulk and sideline reporter Kara Henderson will cover the game from the Georgia Dome. In the Los Angeles studio, Fran Charles, Kurt Warner, Sterling Sharpe, Jay Glazer, Brian Billick and Jason La Canfora will provide analysis.
For the second straight year, the network will feature an entertaining booth of Bob Papa, Matt Millen and Joe Theismann, who have become one of the best NFL broadcast teams. Papa is a solid play-by-play man, while Millen and Theismann give fans plenty of quality analysis.
Kurt Warner starts his first year as a member of the NFL Network pregame show. The former MVP quarterback spoke to me about some key issues around the league.
Warner on the benching of Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb » It took me completely by surprise that a coach would even think about that and especially when you’re talking about a guy like Donovan McNabb, who makes his living making plays and putting his team in positions to win. It’s where he’s been the best throughout his career.
Warner on a team’s play-calling during a two-minute drill » It actually gets simplified in the two-minute situation that you only run a handful of plays [and] you don’t change formations.
Warner on the matchup between third-year quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan » We saw in their first year how good they were going to be and how rare it is at this level to come in, in your first season, and have the success that both of those guys did.
Warner on the struggles of the Minnesota Vikings » A whole bunch of things are going wrong in Minnesota, and I look at it as a situation where it’s almost like they’re just trying to stop the bleeding a little bit — so many distractions, so many things going on, so many things going the wrong direction for them.
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
