Redskins coverage to include CSN’s guest Pete Taylor, Billick career to be TV for now

NBC4, FOX5, ABC7, CBS9, CSN, Triple X ESPN and Sports Talk 980AM will all be sending sports reporters to Seattle.

CSN and Triple X ESPN will have plenty of coverage over the next 24 hours as the official media outlets for the Redskins.

SportsNite: “A Redskins Playoff Edition,” Friday at 7 p.m., is must-see viewing for Redskins fans as David Lee heads back to Walpole, Mass., hometown of quarterback Todd Collins, to talk to Collins’ high school coach, teammates and close friends and introduce viewers to the NFL veteran who has led his team to an improbable playoff berth. Jenkins will also give viewers an inside look at what its like to call plays inside Qwest Field, acknowledged as the noisiest stadium in the NFL.  The special program will also feature a performance by Washington, D.C., hip hop artist, Wale, who has rewritten a Redskins playoff version of his song, “Nike Boots,” exclusively for Comcast SportsNet. Wale was recently features as one of the eight people to watch in 2008 by Entertainment Weekly.

SportsNite: “A Redskins Playoff Edition” also provides analysis from both sides of the football, with special guests visiting Johnson in Seattle and the Comcast SportsNet studio. Saturday’s coverage includes Redskins Kickoff at 3 p.m., leading up to the 4:30 p.m. start, and Redskins Post Game Live immediately following the game with interviews and Joe Gibbs’ press conference. 

CSN will also have the late Sean Taylor’s father Pedro Taylor, in studio for Redskins Kickoff and Redskins Post Game Live on Saturday. That is a good get for the CSN gang.

Despite reports to the contrary I stand by the report this week that representatives of the former Ravens head coach Brian Billich have spoken prior to his firing to ESPN, CBS and the NFL Network about his participation in the playoff coverage.

The fact that he was fired could keep Billich by his own choice on the sidelines during the playoffs. But when he wants to go to work ESPN, CBS and the NFL Network will be happy to find a chair on their sets for him.

Baltimore will have some trouble landing a top Dallas assistant with both Atlanta and now Miami headed by former Cowboy head coach Bill Parcells who hired those hot Dallas assistants in the first place.

Speaking about the Dolphins dumping Cam Cameron I spoke to Miami star defensive end Jason Taylor about the firing. He told me that he found out about his coach being fired via text message. “A couple of teammates that coach Cameron got fired by text messages from some guys I the team. I heard it on the radio and it wasn’t until around 10am that the Dolphins called us to tell us what happened. Coach Cameron is a good man it is was not his fault that we went 1-15. I wish him well and I am sure that he will land on his feet.”

Taylor will join NBC for the pre and post game show this weekend during the playoffs.

He had a strong take on the Jacksonville-Pittsburgh game “It was kind of shocking to see how Jacksonville pretty much handled Pittsburgh up there in the first game back in Week 15 and I’m not sure that they can’t do it again.”

I also spoke via conference call to Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, who knows something about the a Wild Card team like the Redskins going all the way to the Super Bowl.” “All these teams, when they’re in their team meeting and the coaches are addressing their team, he’s letting them know that it’s not impossible. He’s saying ‘hey just a couple years ago, look at Pittsburgh, these guys were on the road every single week and won it all, so it’s not impossible as long as we play our game, then we’ll be fine.’ So you better believe that that’s in everybody’s locker room, it’s in the back of all the Wild Card teams’ minds.  Even when they have to go on the road, they still believe ‘hey, it can be done because we just saw it.'”

The NBC will havetheir pre game show starts at 4pm with Bob Costas (host) and Keith Olbermann (co-host), analysts Tiki Barber and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, and reporter Peter King of Sports Illustrated, are joined by special guest Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins, for a special Wild Card Saturday edition of “Football Night in America.”

ESPN will have their award winning Saturday edition of Sunday NFL Countdown at 11am and the boys (and girls) from Bristol will have plenty of good stuff for the early rising football fans and they will be back with the regular version of Sunday NFL Countdown at its regular day and time Sunday at 11am.

The NFL Network will have plenty of playoff pre game fun starting tonight and going all weekend.   

We will have more on the FOX and CBS along with an interview with John Madden coming up this weekend.