“The only way to make real change is if we come together. Diversity does that… Sports forces us to get to know each other and you can see that there could be some great, positive things happening.” – Lovie Smith

 “We were loose, we were angry. You can’t help but listen to the media…you’re an 18-point underdog…you have virtually no chance to win the game.” – Joe Namath on his Super Bowl III guarantee

 “When you have 20-plus drivers committing and going all in on a mile and a half like that, that’s where the fireworks happen.” – NBC Sports INDYCAR analyst Townsend Bell on tomorrow night’s season opener at Texas Motor Speedway at 8 p.m. ET on NBC

STAMFORD, Conn. – June 5, 2020 – Mike Tirico hosted today’s episode of Lunch Talk Live on NBCSN and was joined remotely by:

• • Illinois football coach & former NFL head coach Lovie Smith
  • Pro Football Hall of Famer and former New York Jets QB Joe Namath
  • Former NBA player and NBC Sports Washington analyst Drew Gooden
  • NBC Sports INDYCAR analyst Townsend Bell
  • NBC Sports horse racing reporter Britney Eurton

 

The Rich Eisen Show followed Lunch Talk Live on NBCSN, as host Rich Eisen was joined by:

• • Film director David Anspaugh (Rudy, Hoosiers)
  • INDYCAR driver Graham Rahal
  • MLB Network analyst and The Athletic’s Jayson Stark

 

Following are highlights from Lunch Talk Live on NBCSN:

Lovie Smith on coaching life skills to his players: “A lot of life experiences I feel like have prepared me for this moment. When I say life experiences, I’m a 62-year-old black man from the south in a biracial marriage. So, (my wife) MaryAnne and I have seen an awful lot. I get a chance to lead men from all different places, all different nationalities, and…life skills do come up. As football players and coaches, we live in a cocoon a lot of times where the real world doesn’t actually touch us. We teach, we develop, we talk about developing the man first and then we develop the football player. As we look at what’s going on right now in our society, I’ve always encouraged our players to be involved with what’s happening in your normal world, your normal life.”

Smith on racism: “Systemic racism exists in our world. We have to acknowledge that first before we can go any further. I have seen it. It’s one thing to identify a problem, then it’s how we change that problem. That’s what we’ve been doing at the University of Illinois. We’re trying to make the world better, but it can’t be words.”

Smith on the importance of action: “I talked to our players about, ‘Hey, you have a right to protest.’ That’s great, that’s what college life is all about, too, in a peaceful manner. But then, what else do you do? That’s where we are right now. What else do you do to make football better and to make the world better?”

Smith on making sure his players are socially informed: “Be informed. This is a true way for people to hear your voice. Right now, I see a lot of protests. Protests are good. Then what do we do? It’s like there’s a death, there’s a funeral and everybody leaves, and after the funeral the next day, everybody goes home. What we’re doing, what I’m going to insist on — first off, all of our guys are registered to vote, but that’s just a part of it, registering to vote — be informed. If you don’t like what’s going on right now, and we in America have acknowledged that we don’t like what’s going on right now, we have to look at, first, our leader. Do you like the policies that he has in place? Congress, local governments? This is how you have true change and for us. We’re going to go back to make sure people are informed…I think we all know right from wrong…We’ve all been taught that, and I think most of us really do know right from wrong. That’s what we’ve been preaching, and we’re going to continue to do that with our program through diversity. The only way to make real change is if we come together. Diversity does that.”

Smith on diversity and racism: “Everybody’s talking about the NFL — there are only three black coaches, only two GMs, no black owners. That’s important, but you look at college football also when you talk about systemic racism a little bit, there are…college programs where you can have a one-time transfer rule in place where guys can transfer and be eligible. There are other sports like football and basketball where you can’t. I think if you keep looking at the details a little bit, why are there different rules for different people? … You haven’t mentioned George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor — that’s kind of seen right there. Everybody acknowledges that that is bad, but it goes so much deeper than that, and that’s what we’re trying to change. Sports definitely can. Sports forces us to get to know each other and you can see that there could be some great, positive things happening.”

John Namath on Super Bowl III, which will air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN, and his guarantee: “We were loose, we were angry. You can’t help but listen to the media…That you’re an 18-point underdog, that you have virtually no chance to win the game…When I made that statement…that was to a wise guy in the back of the room that Thursday night before the championship game and he said, ‘Hey, Namath, we’re going to kick your you-know-what,’ and I said, ‘Wait a minute man, I got news for you. We’re going to win the game and I guarantee it.’”

Namath on discrimination: “I’ve realized most everything starts at home. It starts at home with the environment, with the family, with mom and dad, with brothers and sisters, and how you respect people. At home, in my house, our household, my parents taught us respect and you didn’t discriminate with one another …You treat people the way you wanted them to treat your family and friends.”

Namath on protests: “We need to look in the mirror. The adults need to look in the mirror at home and how they treat their children and raise their children because they’re going to reflect us and our attitudes. We have so much pain in our history. This is an awful way to try to correct our history. We’re not going to make it better overnight, but we have an opportunity now, now together. We see through these demonstrations not only in our country, but around the world. We need to do better.”

Namath on Jets QB Sam Darnold: “Sam can play. He’s growing, he’s going to improve, he’s going to get better, but like most things in life, it’s a team game. He’ll step up. I believe he’s going to get better, but he needs the teammates also, and they’re improving. (Jets GM Joe) Douglas has done a great job bringing in some new players.”

Drew Gooden on athletes using their voice and platform: “Well, when I first got in the NBA,  email was just becoming popular. Now with the social media platforms, you have your turn as an athlete to speak on any topic…Now, once that quote comes out in the paper or on a social media platform, you have the power to go back and say, ‘No, this is what I meant by that quote.’ Back in the day when I was playing, whenever you said something or whatever was written, that was set in stone and you couldn’t go back and kind of fix those things. Now, I think you have a voice as a player, whether it’s that situation or you’re touching upon social issues, like what you have going on right now, or trending topics — whatever your favorite foods are, or things that you like to do outside of basketball — the audience and the fans can kind of have that connection with you.”

Gooden on social media: “I feel like it’s a two-way street. A lot of guys have been notable for doing great things in the media — standing up for political views or certain views — but then you have backlash like with stuff that came back out with Drew Brees…Sticking up for something or saying a comment that you thought was the right thing to say at that time, that actually comes back to haunt you and all those millions of fans and followers that you were able to get, now are your enemy. So, you have to be very careful as an athlete when you’re using your platform and the social media.”

Gooden on the NBA season’s restart: “It’s no easy way to cut it. You want a season to continue, but you can’t be picky. It is what it is. I think the set-up is going to be great…There’s going to be a lot of protocols on the care of the players to protect them and the staff. I mean you have to remember, it’s not just the players, it’s the team personnel around the players that also have to be in a quarantined situation.”

Gooden on NBA greatest of all-time debate: “Now there’s one variable that we all we never talk about when this discussion comes up between Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, and there’s one guy that I think is the variable in this formula, and that’s Phil Jackson. I mean, if you take Phil Jackson out of this equation, how many championships does Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant have? So, LeBron James is in a unique situation outside of not having a Phil Jackson and having to have to go like a vagabond and go figure it out by himself — multiple coaches, multiple organizations, multiple systems.”

Townsend Bell on drivers returning to racing tomorrow night at the 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series season opener on NBC at 8 p.m. ET: “They have been sim racing. We’ve had six virtual iRacing (events) on NBC. This is totally different though. This is the real thing. Not only are they coming off such a long layoff, they are going into a race — not weekend — a race day where they’re going to have one single practice session, one short two-lap qualifying run, and then they’re going to grid up side-by-side. Not just at any racetrack, at Texas Motor Speedway, the…sketchiest track on the schedule on a Saturday night…For the drivers, it’s going to be like walking out into a blizzard in terms of the visceral experience that they’ll have on those opening few laps.”

Bell on racing at Texas Motor Speedway: “If you sort of just ride around and try to play it conservative, you’re going to get absolutely smoked at Texas. They’re going to chew you up…You have to commit. When you have 20-plus drivers committing and going all in on a mile and a half like that, that’s where the fireworks happen.”

Bell on the strongest racing teams: “I put Penske, Ganassi, and Andretti, those have been the big three, the strongest teams for the last decade. They’ll be up there again.”

Britney Eurton on the state of horse racing: “Racing in the afternoon is the economic engine that funds everything in the morning, so to have horses out there on the track even without spectators, I think it’s very uplifting to everyone on the backside. For those in New York, (it’s) fantastic that Belmont’s up and running.”

Eurton on the Santa Anita Derby: “(Bob Baffert) has another undefeated horse in Authentic, so he headlines the race. Just seven horses set to go a mile and an eighth…He is going to have to fend off a very talented and good-looking horse in Honor A.P.”

Eurton on the Belmont Stakes field: “It could be one of the most competitive Belmont Stakes that we’ve seen in some time.”

Following are highlights from The Rich Eisen Show on NBCSN:

Jayson Stark on the MLB season plans: “The vibe I’m getting right now is they’re determined to play. If that means there’s no deal, then (MLB Commissioner) Rob Manfred will just announce a schedule and players to report in June and will start playing July. That’s going to be the deal and all players must report. It’s not a good way to go about this, but if that’s what it takes, I’m more convinced than ever that’s what’s going to happen.”

Stark on the MLB negotiations: “We’ve seen this movie a million times. I’m tired of watching it. March 26 they came in agreement, two and a half months later and they can no longer agree on what they agreed on. That just sums up the state of the labor relationship in baseball.”

Stark on why the MLB owners and MLBPA can’t come to an agreement on terms: “You’ve got this situation where owners are saying, ‘We are going to lose millions of dollars if there are no fans in the stands,’ and you have the union saying, ‘We don’t believe that.’ The basis of conversation would assume that they understand each other’s premise. That’s not even happening. There’s no basis for conversation and (it’s) very discouraging to watch, especially in this moment in America.”

Stark on if an MLB season is possible at this point: “How many games are you going to play? There’s only a 50- or 48-game schedule, then you don’t have to start that until August 1. If you wanted to play a fairly normal half season, starting on July 4 made a lot of sense. There was never a firm date, but it was a great date to aspire to because you would have the stage for yourself for three weeks.”

Stark on what would happen if MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the schedule: “First off, the players would not have much choice but to show up and play. If they don’t, they would be staging an illegal strike in a middle of a waiver deal. That’s not a good idea. It creates all sorts of legal issues. I don’t think players would do anything other than play the games.”

Graham Rahal on returning to racing in tomorrow’s 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series season opener on NBC at 8 p.m. ET: “It’s nice to be back. It’s been weird for everybody the last few months and for sports in general. When the (Utah Jazz forward) Rudy Gobert thing went down, it was literally the day before our season was supposed to start.”

Rahal on preparing for tomorrow’s race: “I’m in Indianapolis right now. It’s a one-day show, we literally show up tomorrow morning. No one has driven these cars in four months. You are going to practice for an hour, do two laps of qualifying, and then go race on primetime on NBC.”

Rahal on the NTT INDYCAR Series Genesys 300: “This isn’t just your normal race. Texas is the most intense race on our calendar, each and every year. To throw us out there, is like throwing us to the wolves. This one in particular, it’s going to be really intense and it’s also the first time INDYCAR will have a narrow screen. We are excited to get going and it’s a great opportunity for people to tune-in to live sports.”

Rahal on if drivers will be more cautious this weekend: “This will be interesting because the race has been shortened from the normal 248 laps to 200. That’s going to breathe a little more anxiety into the guys because if I start tense, I need to make my way up to the front sooner. I don’t know if we will race completely in darkness because when the sun goes down, the track has more grip and you can drive more aggressively.”

Rahal on the safety of the drivers on the track: “I hope everybody uses their head because Texas is probably the most dangerous track we go to the whole year. So, throwing everybody out there together (is) intense already. Adding in a bunch of rookies that haven’t done an oval race…there’s a lot of question marks already in play here.”

David Anspaugh, who directed the film Rudy, on whether Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger was actually carried off the field: “Of course he was carried off the field! There’s a picture out there. The crowd chanted ‘Rudy’ and it spread around the stadium. What happened on the day we shot, we didn’t have the money for CGI, so I had to shoot Sean (Astin) in front of the tunnel in front of a real crowd. It was like a ballet because we shot it in seven minutes.”

–NBC SPORTS–

Today at Noon ET on NBCSN – Lunch Talk Live with Mike Tirico – Guests Include Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath, Illinois Football Coach Lovie Smith, Former NBA Player Drew Gooden, INDYCAR Driver Graham Rahal, NBC Sports INDYCAR Analyst Townsend Bell, and NBC Sports Horse Racing Reporter Britney Eurton

Today at 1 p.m. ET on NBCSN – The Rich Eisen Show – Guests Include INDYCAR Driver Graham Rahal and Film Director David Anspaugh

Today at 11 a.m. ET ON NBCSN – NBC Sports Football Flex Features Nos. 27 and 28 on Chris Simms’ Top 40 Quarterback Countdown

STAMFORD, Conn. – June 5, 2020 – Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath, Illinois football coach and former NFL head coach Lovie Smith, former NBA player and NBC Sports Washington analyst Drew Gooden, and INDYCAR driver Graham Rahal, who will compete in tomorrow’s 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series season opener on NBC at 8 p.m. ET, highlight today’s guests across Lunch Talk Live with Mike Tirico and The Rich Eisen Show on NBCSN.

Today’s Lineup on NBCSN (7 a.m. – 4 p.m. ET):

7 a.m. – 9 a.m.	PFT Live (LIVE)
9 a.m. – 11 a.m.	PFT Live
11 a.m. – Noon	NBC Sports Football Flex
Noon – 1 p.m.	Lunch Talk Live with Mike Tirico (LIVE)
1 p.m. – 3 p.m.	The Rich Eisen Show (LIVE)
3 p.m. – 4 p.m.	Lunch Talk Live with Mike Tirico

 

Lunch Talk Live begins at Noon ET on NBCSN, with Namath, Smith, Gooden, NBC Sports INDYCAR analyst Townsend Bell and NBC Sports horse racing analyst Britney Eurton joining Tirico on today’s episode. Namath will also speak with NBC Sports’ Liam McHugh throughout Sunday’s broadcast of Super Bowl III at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN as part of Super Bowl Week in America.

The hour-long show airs weekdays at Noon ET on NBCSN, with an encore at 3 p.m. ET, and streams on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app. Select content and interviews will additionally be hosted on NBC Sports’ YouTube channel and social media platforms. The full show will also be available on The Mike Tirico Podcast.

Today’s Lunch Talk Live guests, which feature dynamic and cross-sport pairings, include:

• • Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath
  • Illinois football coach & former NFL head coach Lovie Smith
  • Former NBA player and NBC Sports Washington analyst Drew Gooden
  • NBC Sports INDYCAR analyst Townsend Bell
  • NBC Sports horse racing reporter Britney Eurton

 

The Rich Eisen Show, which will be presented live on NBCSN from Monday through Friday from 1-3 p.m. ET through June 12, follows Lunch Talk Live today at 1 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

Today’s guests on The Rich Eisen Show include:

• • Film director David Anspaugh (Rudy, Hoosiers)
  • INDYCAR driver Graham Rahal

 

At 11 a.m. ET on NBCSN, NBC Sports Football Flex, a one-hour show showcasing the most topical news and analysis from NBC Sports’ digital football content, features Nos. 27 and 28 on Chris Simms’ list of the top 40 NFL quarterbacks.

“This has to result in a change of hearts and attitudes. That’s how this is going to get solved… and the only way that’s going to happen is communication,” Tony Dungy told Tirico yesterday about improving social injustice.

Click here for more quotes from yesterday’s shows.

–NBC SPORTS–

“This has to result in a change of hearts and attitudes. That’s how this is going to get solved… and the only way that’s going to happen is communication.” – Tony Dungy on improving social injustice

“I’ve talked to 25 coaches the past week. Everyone is on Zoom calls, talking to their team, having team meetings. The past three days, no one is discussing X’s and O’s, offseason programs.” – Dungy

“We’re at a point right now where we have to decide, as a country, what are we going to do? Are we going to truly be about change, or are we just going to offer lip service and make people feel comfortable until this happens again?” – Anquan Boldin

 “In many cities, you don’t necessarily have big business, so sports teams and universities are the business…Think about all the ancillary businesses that are absolutely dried up.” – NBC News Senior Business Correspondent Stephanie Ruhle on the financial impact of the sports void

STAMFORD, Conn. – June 4, 2020 – Mike Tirico hosted today’s episode of Lunch Talk Live on NBCSN and was joined remotely by:

• • NBC Football Night in America analyst Tony Dungy
  • PGA TOUR golfer Jim Furyk
  • Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith
  • Five-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion Scott Dixon
  • NBC News Senior Business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle

 

The Rich Eisen Show followed Lunch Talk Live on NBCSN, as host Rich Eisen was joined by:

• • Former NFL WR and co-founder of the Players Coalition Anquan Boldin
  • Sports Illustrated senior writer Chris Mannix

 

Following are highlights from Lunch Talk Live on NBCSN:

Tony Dungy on improving social injustice: “This has to result in a change of hearts and attitudes. That’s how this is going to get solved. It’s not going to get solved by protests, it’s not going to be solved by [saying], ‘We are going to win the streets back by dominating the streets and getting people back in order.’ This is going to be done by a change of hearts, and the only way that’s going to happen is communication — talk, listening and trying to see everyone’s point of view. How can we come together as a country and make this country better?”

Dungy on Drew Brees’ comments and apology: “We have to listen. One of the things I was struck by, that was the first time I heard the whole quote (by Brees), and all I heard for many hours was the first part, ‘I disagree with anyone who kneels for the National Anthem.’ So, hearing the whole thing, I feel differently by it. I am a friend of Drew Brees as well. I would love to have a conversation with Drew, and I think I will and explain to him why I see it as proper and I think a little differently when people kneel. But we have to be careful we don’t let this whole thing get going in another direction. Drew and I may disagree whether to kneel for the National Anthem or stand with my hand over my heart, but we agree on what has to change and we agree on what we have to do to make our country better. So, we can’t be afraid to say what is on our mind, we can’t be afraid to listen and disagree and have a civil conversation and move forward. Yes, Drew feels like he could’ve said it a lot differently. He did apologize for that and I respect that. As a Christian, I think that’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to accept apologies when they’re given from the heart and I believe this was from the heart…When I hear the whole comment, I would love to talk with Drew. Yes, I hear what you’re saying, now here’s what I feel when the National Anthem is played. Yes, I had relatives in the military, and I understand all of that, but this is not about the military, this is not about the flag. This is about something different and let’s have that discussion. We can do that, and we have to do that if we are going to get this situation solved.”

Dungy on athlete activism: “I absolutely do think they’re seen in a different light now. I’m old enough to remember Muhammad Ali in 1967, and when he did not step forward and go into service, he was vilified and many people thought that it was un-American. And then five years later or six years later after the war, he is looked at completely different. He became a hero for those of us standing for human rights. I think the same thing is happening with Colin Kaepernick, and not just Colin, but all the guys who were kneeling…We did some shows and talked to young men on why they were kneeling and what their purpose was, and it was beautiful. But now it is maybe being seen in a different light and maybe understood a little bit better. That is what we have to walk through.”

Dungy on a coach’s role during this time: “I’ve talked to 25 coaches the past week. Everyone is on Zoom calls, talking to their team, having team meetings. The past three days, no one is discussing X’s and O’s, offseason programs. This is what they’re talking about and it has to be this way. These coaches are saying, ‘Men, we have to stay together, we can’t let this fracture us.’ There are going to be different feelings, different ways of approaching this, but we are all on the same page. We want to see America better, want to see the cities we live in better and how can we, as a team, stay together, with different ideas and backgrounds, but the same goal? We want to win a Super Bowl on the field, and we want to make our city a better place to live off the field. How can we do it together? That’s what coaches have to emphasize.”

Dungy on the importance of coaches: “I think it is going to be absolutely critical for coaches to deal with this. Talent doesn’t win in the National Football League, unity and togetherness wins. If you’re not unified and you’re not together, you’re going to have a tough time functioning this year. If I’m a head coach right now, that is the first thing I am talking about with our players. How can we come together and be unified as we go forward? How can we have some action steps and goals in mind, but let’s not get fractured? Let’s be a group of young men wanting our country to be better.”

Dungy on team ownership roles: “I think that is so huge. That was one of my criticisms during this whole kneeling process that we had a couple years ago. I felt like…if I was still in the game, if I was still coaching, I would have asked our owner to come down and meet with our players. Let’s talk about what’s on their mind. Hey, if we don’t want them kneeling for the National Anthem, let’s not take that one and half minutes before the game, let’s give them a platform. I’ll give up 20 minutes of my press conference time. Will our owner facilitate that for our players and give them some time maybe on our local TV station to talk about what’s on their mind, why they are hurting and what suggestions they have? I think our ownership has to be involved and they have to become part of the solution.”

Dungy on how athletes can impact change in their cities: “So much of it is the emphasis that we put on it. I know in Tampa and Indianapolis, we had a number of guys who did awesome things out in the community and we covered some young men at different teams who were trying to be part of the solution and going and visiting police precincts and trying to pull team groups together and visit there and have the police come in and talk to these young people. There’s so many things that can be done, but just using that voice and that personality, I think we’re going to have a number of creative things that can be done, but it’s got to start in ways that we can change hearts and we can change attitudes. I can’t wait to see what our players are going to come up with. I think we’ll have some things that we’ll be really proud of.”

Stephanie Ruhle on social and economic injustice: “The protests sparked around George Floyd, but they’ve also exposed so much more that needs to be addressed. That’s around income, education and equality. It’s about the last 10 weeks, the entire country has been on lockdown and look at the jobs number. Another 1.8 million people today applied for unemployment, so that’s over 40 million people. When you dig into the numbers, it is disproportionately African Americans. Why? Because those people have lower-paying, service worker jobs. Between February and March, we saw one in five black women lose their jobs. This takes us back to opportunity, education opportunity. We have to start addressing these injustices because in the last couple of days we’ve seen a lot of influencers in the African American community speak out and so many of them are in sports. Our answer can’t be that the only influential blacks are in the sports world. CEOs in America are able to work right now because they can work from their home offices. We’ve got to address these income inequalities from the beginning because so much of this unrest is rooted in financial instability.”

Ruhle on the impact of sports on local economies: “In many cities, you don’t necessarily have big business, so sports teams and universities are the business…It’s not just the teams, owners and fans like us missing watching the games. Think about all the ancillary businesses that are absolutely dried up that we’re not even thinking of and they don’t come back until sports come back…We are in such a tender moment. A really sad part of this, connected to sports and restaurants, that’s what connects us. One of the few things where there is a sense of community is eating together, drinking together and sports together. Right now, we are losing all of that…Maybe all of this coming together, is an opportunity to start to solve this.”

Jim Furyk on how he has spent the pause in the PGA TOUR season: “For the first six weeks, no clubs. Everything went away. I putted a lot in the background, but no golf course. Our family decided to hunker down at home and the silver lining was great quality time…The past couple weeks, getting ready for Colonial (next weekend) I’ve been working hard and I do think we are a sport where you can socially distance…I was nervous about it, but it’s worked out so far.”

Furyk on the atmosphere and fans at the Ryder Cup: “I think it’s one of the things that separates that event from the rest in the entire world. The roars, the cheers, the home and away matches you don’t see anywhere else. The players just love that atmosphere…It would be sad to see it played without fans.”

Mike Smith on his 2018 Triple Crown: “It means I can die right now and be happy. It’s life-changing when you’re blessed enough to pull something like that off. Still to this day, it’s the most unbelievable feeling I’ve ever felt in my life.”

Smith on employees at the horse track: “They’ve always been the unsung heroes. Without them, the game couldn’t go on at all…We’re all a family and it’s brought us even closer together.”

Scott Dixon on Saturday’s 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series season opener on NBC at 8 p.m. ET: “I think it’s difficult for the teams and everybody in the industry, but what is normal right now? The biggest thing we have to focus on is that we’re extremely lucky to be back racing…Things will look a lot different, none of us have been on track since February or March. It’s a one-day in-and-out exercise. Short practice and qualifying straight into the race. It’s definitely going to be difficult for these rookies.”

Dixon on advice heading into Saturday’s race: “Texas is definitely its own beast. It’s high stakes and a high-bank oval. Being out of the car, I think there is a lot of built-up tension…Take your time. The race will take a while to play out, figure your car out, be aware of your surroundings.”

Following are highlights from The Rich Eisen Show on NBCSN:

Anquan Boldin on the past week: “I think I’m at a point now with what’s going on in our country of trying to pinpoint the problems that we’ve continued to come across time and time again in this country. Obviously, you have to be sleeping under a rock in order to not know what’s going on in our country right now, especially with that what happened with Mr. (George) Floyd, what happened with Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery recently. The thing that keeps coming back is how does this keep happening and how does it keep happening without accountability? And I think that’s the question that I’ve been looking at and trying to answer, and I think for so long we’ve missed the mark. We are talking about community policing, we’re talking about body cameras. We’re talking about all of these solutions and none of them hit the mark. You can do all of the community policing you want, and you have a situation — let’s just say you do community policing for 10 years and you have a situation like what happened in Minneapolis happen. All of the work that you’ve done and your department has done for the last 10 years with community policing goes out the window when there is no accountability for what’s happening. The reason I say that is because there’s a fight in this country that has to be had. A lot of people have avoided that fight and the fight that I’m talking about is qualified immunity. That’s the thing that nobody is talking about.”

Boldin on ‘qualified immunity’: “What I mean by that is there is language in, number one, the Supreme Court, and there is language in union contracts that allows for officers to not be held accountable. So, number one, in the Supreme Court — which is actually something that I think people are starting to look more into as of recently…One of the things that’s really jacked up is prosecutors, like attorneys — your state attorneys and your district attorneys — these prosecutors who have complete immunity. Meaning, no matter what they do, they’re not held accountable.”

Boldin on policing: “A lot of people don’t know that there are contracts between cities and the unions, the police unions, and there’s a lot of language in the contracts that allow for officers to go unpunished. Every contract has different language in it, but there’s two parts to those contracts. There’s one part that talks about the financing and there’s a second part that talks about the discipline and that’s where we as a nation have to start looking because what kind of system allows an officer with 18 prior complaints — two of them being shootings — to continue to be on the force?”

Boldin on how people can act to help: “I think there are a lot of actionable items because, unfortunately, we don’t have a justice system. We have a legal system, and legal systems are completely different than justice systems. So, when we’re talking about actionable items, I think one of the easiest things to do is, number one, to register people to vote, but also to educate people on why you’re voting, who you’re voting for, and what they stand behind…There are a lot of people on those ballots, a lot of people who you don’t hear anything about…Yes, you will have your  presidential elections, but your local elections are those people who will directly impact you on a daily basis and I would challenge people to not only find out who those people are, but find out what their job entails and find out what policies they stand behind.”

Boldin on the Players Coalition: “As the Players Coalition, we’re an entirely separate entity from the NFL. The Players Coalition is a player-led initiative that is fighting all the injustices in this country and we stand on four different pillars: education, economic advancement, criminal justice reform, and police-community relations. For us, those are the four places where we’ve placed our efforts trying to combat the injustices in this country.”

Boldin on the role sports can play in society: “I think sports could play a huge role…In order for that to happen, people have to be open and honest. I think a lot of times, we beat around the bush on certain subjects. We’re not completely honest about things that go on and then the conversation — I keep hearing people saying, ‘There’s a conversation that needs to be had.’ I don’t know if that’s the right way to say it because I think we all know what the problem is. So, it’s not so much of a conversation, and I’m at the point now where I’m kind of tired of talking and I’m more about putting action to what it is that we’re talking about.”

Boldin on if he’s interested in running for office: “No, not at all…For me, it’s about helping those that don’t have a voice and I know we say you can do that from office, but a lot of times when people get into office they seem to be handcuffed with what they can do…We have to shine a light on those things that are truly the problem, those people that are truly the problem, and I think until we do that and deal with the real issues…and unfortunately if we don’t, we’re going to be right back here again because you have to understand, this isn’t the first time this has happened. This isn’t the first time people in America have protested. This has gone on throughout our history, and people are outraged for quite some time and then it feels like everyone gets back to their normal way of doing things. I would hate for this moment to pass and there not be any type of change come about from it because we’re at a pivotal point in our country. Either we’re going to fight this, or we’re not. Either we’re against this, or we’re going to accept it. So, we’re at a point right now where we have to decide, as a country, what are we going to do? Are we going to truly be about change or are we just going to offer lip service and make people feel comfortable until this happens again?”

Boldin on Drew Brees’ comments: “If I were in that locker room, I would tell Drew, ‘Unfortunately, you have not been listening.’ From the moment players started kneeling, they had to repeatedly say it’s not about the National Anthem, it’s not about the flag, and players have told you why they are kneeling. I think every time somebody did an interview, they first started off by saying it’s not about the flag, it’s not about the flag, it’s not about the anthem. It’s about African American black men and women dying far too often at the hands of law enforcement. So, if you took what you just said from the conversations that we’ve been having over the last couple years, number one, you haven’t been listening at all to what your brothers in the locker room have been saying. You’re trying to tell a group of people how they should handle the injustices that have been happening to them since the beginning of this country. That’s disheartening, and it makes you wonder are you really about trying to bring about change, or do you just want things to be comfortable in the way that you do them?”

Chris Mannix on the NBA’s plan to return: “They have a got a format right now. I don’t think they have crossed all the hurdles yet. We still have to get the players on board, and I believe they are going to have a call tomorrow to discuss this format with the leadership committee.”

Mannix on the health and safety protocols of the NBA’s plan to return to play: “Health and safety protocols have to be negotiated directly with the union…the particulars, at least as of 20 minutes ago when I was texting with two general managers, are still unknown to a lot of people.”

–NBC SPORTS–