transcript — Page 2

TRANSCRIPT – 2021 NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL

June 15, 2021 By admin

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Rick Allen

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jeff Burton

Steve Letarte

Sam Flood

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us for the NBC Sports NASCAR media conference call as NBC Sports takes over the remainder of the 2021 NASCAR season beginning this weekend with the series return to Nashville.

In just a moment we’ll be joined by our lead NASCAR team of Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte, as well as by NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood.

Let’s begin our call with opening remarks from Sam Flood.

SAM FLOOD: Thank you all for joining us today. We’re really excited to get this season started. It just feels like in the last month, the world is coming back to the way it needs to be with fans in the stands and the energy of live sporting events with people at the venues.

Having been to the Kentucky Derby and the Indy 500 for our shows over the last month or so, it really felt right. It felt like life was back to the way we want it to be, and for this NASCAR and NBC Sports team to be able to engage with the crowd at the racetrack, to be at the track, to be at the place these four guys and the rest of the team love more than anything else in the world is being at the racetrack, and we saw last year how special it was when they got back to the track for the last five or six races of the season and the engagement, being around the sights, the sounds, the smells, the energy of a NASCAR race. It made it special, and it’s even more special and more important now that the fans are back in the stands. It just turns a race into an event, and we love events, and no one makes big events bigger than NBC Sports and the team we have here.

This very first opening weekend in Nashville, to think that Brad Paisley and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are going to be hosting this pre-race show from an amazing venue back where it’s all going on in Nashville, a place that should have racing, and it’s finally back where it belongs in Nashville.

This group is ready to roll. The team on pit road, can’t wait to get going, pre-race show, across the board. Big time, big energy, big event, leaning into Nashville, leaning into the start of our half of the season.

Our hats go off to our friends at FOX; what a great job they did getting the first half of the season going. They had a spectacular season. The numbers looked very good. The ratings were where we like to see them heading in a positive upward direction. So we’re ready to take that mantle, carry it to the finish line, finish off this regular season and lead into the playoffs.

We can’t wait to get going. Rick, I’ll pass it off to you. Have some fun.

RICK ALLEN: Thanks, Sam. To echo what Sam was saying, a capacity crowd expected at Nashville Superspeedway. We feed off that, the crowd, the electricity, just the excitement that these events bring, and like he said, FOX I think has done a wonderful job. They’ve touted it as the best season ever.

We’re picking off where one driver has incredible momentum, Kyle Larson, what a story he has to tell from being suspended a year ago to now being the favorite for a championship. He’s really hot right now.

We’re excited to pick this up, excited about coming back to Nashville. It’s been 37 years since the Cup Series has raced there. The likes of Petty and Pearson and Waltrip were the big names when the Cup Series was there. Now you’ve got Larson and Hamlin and Harvick and Busch and all these other superstar names that want to make a name for themselves in Nashville, in Music City USA.

We’re really fired up to get going. As a team we have been chatting and texting and talking every single race throughout the entire season. We have a great line of communication that we’re able to just enjoy these races all throughout the first 16 races, and now we get to enjoy them shoulder to shoulder, side by side, in the booth and call and do what we love to do, and that’s watching NASCAR racing and enjoying it with the fans.

It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m going to hand off now to Jeff Burton, the Mayor.

JEFF BURTON: Hey, everybody. I think the word “excitement” may be overused today, but that’s okay because that’s how we all feel, not only to get back to the racetrack but to do it with friends, we all get along just unbelievably well, have a great time doing this together. That energy that comes from the fans that Sam and Rick just talked about, that’s real.

Going to races where we didn’t have fans, oh, my gosh, I so appreciate it now more than ever, that energy, that excitement, that enthusiasm they bring.

This town is ready for it. I was there a month ago or so doing a shoot with Mario Andretti, and the people in that town are fired up about this race, and that makes me fired up even more.

On track I’ve got to tell you, I think the drivers and the teams, they have been bringing it. It has been a really good year, a lot of on-track excitement. Clearly Kyle Larson has taken charge at this point in the year, but we know that that doesn’t always just go like that. Who can knock him off? Who can go and take that away from him? That’s going to be fun to watch.

It’s been a great year. I don’t see any reason why that’s not going to continue.

Our first race is a track that many of these drivers haven’t run on. Some drivers have in the Xfinity Series and in trucks. A lot of unknowns going into this weekend, and really in our first half of our year where we’ve got 10 races before the playoffs, there’s a lot of interesting racetracks coming up, and that uncertainty only adds to the pressure of the playoffs. That makes our broadcasts that much more fun, makes it more difficult on the teams, and as race fans and as sports fans, we all know the more difficult it is on the teams, the more fun it is to watch.

Can’t wait to get there this weekend, have a great time, feel that energy from the fans, and Jr., I’m going to turn it over to you.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I’m looking forward to getting back on the road and being back at a racetrack. When you go for a good period of time without being at a track and you come back and drive in and you hear cars running and carrying on, it feels like home, and you kind of remember — you have all these great memories that come rushing back, and you just get excited about what you’re going to see when the green flag drops.

It’s something that I need in my life, and lucky for me, I get to work with a great group of people that love to talk about racing and enjoy the same thing for the same reasons.

Yeah, it’s just a lot of fun to be able to go to the track and be a part of this broadcast. We’ve got an amazing season that’s starting to unfold. It’s kind of a good challenge and a unique challenge to pick the season up when we do. A lot of the playoff conversations are going to start happening — who can maintain not only the momentum that they have and the teams that are winning, but also where that cutoff is and who might make or miss the playoffs? All that stuff starts to really become part of the conversation. A lot of storylines start to really develop.

It’s a really fun part of the year as we close in on the playoffs. The playoffs have really brought a lot of good excitement and drama. They’ve delivered every year, and from a fan’s perspective, I guess I’m a broadcaster but I’m really just a fan to be honest with you. From a fan’s perspective, it’s been a great run here for the last several years, and we’ve got a lot of great momentum in the sport and a lot of energy in the sport. I’m excited to see how the season turns out.

Like Jeff said, we have teams that are really dominant right now, but I’ve seen this before. We see it time and time again, where there’s sort of an organization who comes out of the box strong and they have a great regular season, but then there’s someone that jumps out — comes out of nowhere and surprises — there’s a turning of the tide a little bit when the playoffs happen, and there’s a lot of reasons for that, and it’s a little bit different each year.

Some of these teams are going to change their performance a little bit and improve and bring the fight to HMS. I don’t think this is going to be an easy cakewalk for them in terms of crowning a champion in that organization like they did last year with Chase Elliott.

It’s absolutely theirs to lose, but I believe that they’re going to have plenty of competition when it comes down to it.

I’m going to pass it on to my favorite crew chief and broadcasting buddy, Steve Letarte.

STEVE LETARTE: Appreciate it, Jr. It’s been an amazing six months. I was able to be a part of the Rolex broadcast and I was able to go to Indianapolis and see my first ever Indy 500 in person, and those were both breathtaking events. There’s nothing like kind of returning home to your NASCAR family.

As you guys the three boothmates, have mentioned, we communicate and talk about racing all the time, but there’s nothing like standing above a full grandstand full of people covering the races live. I’m looking forward to that.

I would lie if I wasn’t — I really look forward to walking in the Xfinity garage on Friday and the Cup garage on Saturday. That’s a part that was taken from us through this crazy pandemic, and it’s the part of my job that I probably love the most. I appreciate the competitors’ commitment to Zooms, but I can’t wait to lean on a set of tires and see the competitors face to face and discuss their challenges, their opportunities and their approach to the weekend and then convey those storylines to the fans.

We’re also blessed to have a great summer schedule. I’ve been to Nashville Superspeedway many times. Never seen a race there in person. I’ll get to see Road America for the first time and I get to go to Indianapolis for the first time and see cars on the road course. Last year we covered that one remotely, so it’ll be good to be there.

These guys cover the storylines on the track. I think we’re very lucky to have not just storylines on the track, but like I mentioned, the track and the schedule itself is another storyline all in itself. We have a little sprint here to an Olympic break, and then when we get back from the Olympics the heat will be turned on completely for the NASCAR playoffs on who’s going to make it. And with already 11 different winners and some huge names yet to win, Harvick and Hamlin come to mind, I think that that playoff leaderboard is only going to continue to get tighter, and as the pressure increases, the entertainment increases.

It’s been a lot of fun to watch, but watching is a little bit of fun. It’s a lot more fun to cover, so I can’t wait to get there in person and do it again this weekend.

Dale, I think you’ve been heavy in the promotion for the Cup race and you’re part of the group on the INDYCAR race. Nashville is really hot right now. Everybody is talking about racing in Nashville again. I’m wondering why you think that the Nashville market will work for all this racing, and then there’s talk of the Fairgrounds, as well. How does the speedway differentiate itself from all this other racing talk and activity going on in the city?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, it’s such a unique track compared to the Fairgrounds and obviously the street course for the INDYCAR. I think the way that — physically they’re all different. They’re all going to provide a different type of entertainment, a different style of race, and I think that the town is big — there’s enough energy and enough entertainment to go around for everybody.

You know, I think a rising tide lifts all boats kind of thing, and the success from each event is a plus for the rest of them. They each can learn off each other and play off each other, and so I don’t see how it can’t work.

I think it is pretty interesting how all this — everybody is going to Nashville. Yeah, INDYCAR and NASCAR, everybody is kind of coming to Nashville and focusing on Nashville, honing in on Nashville as a place to be. I think it’s a long time coming to be honest with you. It should have happened years and years ago.

Nashville is a great fit. The town does have a lot of energy. When we were doing the Burnout on the Boulevard, that was a moment for me, I was upstairs in one of those buildings looking out the window watching all that happen, and it was clear as day that this was a great relationship and a great partnership with NASCAR and the city of Nashville. It just felt normal. It didn’t even feel new. It felt like an old friend and a buddy you hadn’t hung out with in a long, long time. I like it a lot, and I love the fact that we’re celebrating our champion there.

Vegas was a great time, New York was a great time. Very long way to go, but still a lot of fun any time you can get to Vegas. But Nashville for me can provide and be that same experience to where we feel like the crowning of the champion is the most important day in the sport in my opinion — where we celebrate the year and we acknowledge all of the things that happened in our sport in that one night.

I think that the fit for the city is a good one, and we need to be racing there. We need to have our product there. So now that’s happening. All of this seems to be coming full circle. It all makes sense to me.

I think it’ll be fun to see how it all works together. Like you say, with INDYCAR and NASCAR both trying to get into Nashville and make things happen, I think it’ll be fun to see how they might work together to make things better for everybody.

Just to be clear, you’re talking about the burnouts during the awards ceremony, you watched those from up in a building?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yes.

My question is for Steve Letarte on the crew chief side. Of course you have Daytona and Talladega coming up on the schedule and just earlier this month there was the announcement that NASCAR is going to implement new safety precautions for the superspeedway, including they’ll reduce the whole spaces in the tapered spacer as well as the wicker on the spoiler being removed and the additional roof bar being mandatory, this of course coming after Joey Logano’s scary crash. I was curious, when fans watch Daytona and Talladega on NBC, what effect do you think this will have on the races and what do you think fans can expect when they watch the superspeedways?

STEVE LETARTE: So when we talk about the safety improvements to the race car, a bar was added to the car. I don’t think the fans will be able to see that. They’ll have no idea. It’s just continuing the improvement towards the safest product possible. NASCAR has done that for years and decades and they’re just continuing.

There has been an adjustment to the power, to the speed, and I will be a hundred percent honest, I’m not sure from the grandstands or on TV you’re going to see the difference in the six or eight miles an hour that it may slow them down. I think the aggression from the pack and from the second-place driver will be just as high. I think the leader will have to work just as hard to try to protect that lead.

It’s a small adjustment that’s needed just for safety. The physics of a car getting airborne has a lot to do with the speed when it turns backwards and sideways, and NASCAR obviously felt like they needed to make an adjustment, but I honestly think that the product on track is going to be just as exciting as it has looked. The plate races recently have been a great balance of aggression and strategy, and I think that’s continuing — that’s got to continue.

I will say Daytona we learned a year ago as the cutoff to the regular season has a completely different feel than I ever remember the night race at Daytona in the summer having. That last-ditch effort for everyone to find a seat at the table when the playoffs start a week later I think has a completely different energy to it. There’s a new level of desperation, and then as you go into the playoffs and you see Talladega, it’s kind of the same way. It has a different feel than the spring race at Talladega because of what’s on the line.

There are some big names protecting their playoff positions and other people looking for that win needed to continue.

I think that’s the beauty of the two speedway races you’re going to see on NBC is their position within the schedule. I think to end the regular season is great, and then being placed where it is in the playoffs, it makes Talladega even more vital.

Steve, you were saying on Nate’s podcast, don’t worry about any of the data from all those test sessions back eight or ten years ago, but Chase Briscoe did say that he watched some video before he went and did the tire test there and he felt like it helped him some. I’m kind of curious, do you feel like these races will be anything the same from what we saw in Xfinity and trucks in the past? Or do you feel like these teams should just not look at anything from 10 years ago?

STEVE LETARTE: Well, I think it’s two sides of a question. If I’m a competitor trying to prepare, I would absolutely look at the prior races. I would look at the data of the track. I would try to understand what made a good car good and a bad car bad, what point of the racetrack does your car have to perform the best. If I was a Cup driver and crew chief, I would be there on Thursday to watch Xfinity practice in person, watch cars go around the racetrack, understand as much as I can about that racetrack before going on the racetrack.

Now, flip that same question, if you’re asking me as an observer, I don’t believe that what happened over a decade ago really relates to what we’re going to see on the racetrack right now. I’m a true believer that you could race the same racetrack five times in a row and get five completely different products because every race seems to be its own kind of living, breathing thing and the way people approach it and who may be good or who may not be good.

I know that’s a two-parted answer, but I think the history of the racetrack is very important to the people competing. I don’t believe the history of the racetrack is fair in any way to have any idea what we may or may not see. I’m thankful there’s some practice and qualifying to be honest. It’s going to give me kind of a good idea by the end of practice I think what the challenge of that track is for this type of car in this realm of technology, but until we line them up there — double-file restarts, that comes to mind. 10 years ago there were no double-file restarts. There’s so many things that have changed, I don’t think we have any idea really what the product is going to be, and I think some of the unknown is a little bit of the charm. I’m looking forward to it without a big notebook full of expectations.

For Dale Jr., I’m curious, do you feel like it was important to get this race, get a Cup race in Nashville at this track just to build on that momentum on the vibe from the awards ceremony? And I think Jerry Caldwell told the Nashville politicians that he believes both tracks could coexist on a Cup schedule, that that market could certainly be a two-race market.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I think that it absolutely can exist in the same season, and there’s a lot of different ways that can happen. The fact that the tracks are so uniquely different, it really helps that argument a little bit because you won’t see the same product or the same action at either one.

You know, there’s a lot of hurdles between that becoming a reality.

I think that there’s a lot of work that’s went into bringing back the speedway. There’s so much effort going into it.

I think that it’s important for us to be in Nashville. It absolutely builds on — imagine — I guess when we celebrated the banquet in New York City, it’s the big apple, it’s New York City, yes, it’s an amazing place, but we weren’t racing there, and so it was quite different as far as the vibe for me when we went to Vegas and we had a race in town. You could see us race and then we were going to be back to crown our champion. It seemed to make sense. The town embraced it.

I feel that same thing from the city of Nashville as far as how they — you want to feel welcomed or you want to feel wanted, and I absolutely feel like Nashville is eager to have NASCAR there, whether it’s the banquet, whether it’s the race, and they’re embracing that, and it’s a good feeling.

It opens up so many possibilities, so many possibilities for the banquet to grow into the marquee event that it is and for our NASCAR event to be an entertainment event, as well.

We have the race that happens on Sunday, but there’s so many other things or possibilities or opportunities to provide fans with an amazing weekend, things that can happen on Friday and Saturday outside of the racing events of the Truck and Xfinity and Cup Series, the entertainment side of that and the opportunities there are endless, especially in a town like Nashville that provides so much entertainment. It’s a hub for the music industry, and we can take advantage and tap into that and do so many crossovers with our athletes and musicians and so forth.

It’s just a great opportunity going forward to bring a ton of energy, and really our sport can take advantage of that. So I’m pumped up about the connection to Nashville, this new sort of renewed relationship that we have with the city.

I don’t know who wants to take this. I’ve got some big personalities on the call, including a many times over most popular driver. Chase Elliott is both the most popular driver and the champion, and yet he often is not in a very good mood after a race. I’m wondering how long you guys think that the way he sort of projects himself on TV and in those situations will work and if that’s a good look for the ambassador of the sport.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I guess I can take that. I’ve seen Chase in a lot of different moods, and we often sort of criticized him about how hard he was on himself and then he started winning races and started feeling like some of the attention was deserved. He seemed more comfortable when he started having the success that he thought he should be having.

Now he’s a champion, and I think that all of this is kind of happening so fast. He’s pretty young and still has a lot to figure out, and I think that to win a championship and have success and be thrust into this position that he’s in at such a young age, I don’t expect him to have it figured out. I don’t expect him to be perfect. I don’t expect him to know exactly how his personality rubs people, whether it’s the right way or the wrong way.

It’s all kind of trial by fire, and he’s kind of learning as he goes. He’ll make mistakes. He won’t get it right every time. I know that I didn’t. I think I guess what I’m saying is I can give him a lot of leeway and a lot of time to sort of figure out who he wants to be. He’s kind of struggling, I think, with really where he fits in.

We’ve been working on this piece with him. I have been working on this piece with him to know more about him and learn more about him and understand really who he is, and when you really get to know who Chase is, the thing about him wanting to stay connected to his roots, to his hometown so he’s not lured away from there by the need to feel — the feeling of needing to be in Charlotte near the race team and all this, he does his own thing.

I think once — he just does his own thing. It’s good enough for him, and like it or you don’t like it, it doesn’t really matter. I think when he wins, he’s happy. You get great reaction, and so far I guess — he’s got a long way to go. I think a lot has happened to him in a very short time at a very young age.

JEFF BURTON: I’ll add to that. I think that Chase has a real sense inside of himself as accountability, and I think that some of his comments and some of his body language is just a way that he — it feels like to me he holds himself accountable to whatever happens: Good, bad, and especially the bad.

I think that that comes across as negative to some people, when in fact I think he’s just saying, I need to be better. Like I’m not pointing the finger at somebody else saying, they need to do it. He just seems like he’s a very self-aware, I can impact this, and some of those post-race comments come across as really negative, but I just believe that he’s holding himself accountable.

I also think — Steve and I were in this conversation this morning talking about a lot of drivers. These guys are young, and they change. We all change in life, and we’re not the same people at 20 that we are at 30 and then again at 40. I think that we put the camera on these guys and we show them — what’s great about the sport, we have this unbelievable access to them, and right out of an event when you’re hot, mad, happy, whatever that emotion is, your life revolves around that stuff, we’re right there.

Everybody handles that differently, and they change and they grow and they mature. I think he’s actually — when you sit down and get away from everybody, he’s a very positive guy. He’s a very engaging person. But I think he’s very reserved around other people, but I believe that for my view of that is that’s for good reasons, and I think it’s all about self-accountability.

RICK ALLEN: I just wanted to reiterate, 25 years old. You look at athletes that come out of college that are 22, 23 years old, they’re thrust into the NFL, it’s a hard transition. You’ve got a kid who’s 25 years old who grew up in a household where his dad is a Hall of Famer, most popular driver forever until Jr. came along, and you just have great expectations. I’m sure he has unbelievable expectations for himself, and at the age of 25 he’s still trying to figure out how do I show these emotions, what do I give to people that are asking for so many things like Jeff says, right out of the car, just out of competition.

He’s going to learn, and at 25 years old, I think he’s done a pretty impressive job of showing us what a champion looks like in NASCAR. I think he’s a pretty exceptional young man.

Sam, with INDYCAR you’ll see very limited commercial breaks and side by side instead of just full traditional breaks. Given that INDYCAR does this almost every break, why isn’t that something we could bring in with NASCAR?

SAM FLOOD: We’ve been doing that for the last six years. We have a very similar pattern. NASCAR races are longer and there are a certain number of races that are on broadcast TV that have to be full screen. They’re called station breaks, and those will always be full screen commercials. When cautions happen, we try to get in our national full-screen commercials.

But the last hour and a half to two hours of race it’s always side by side. We’ve got a great structure in place. Our advertising community has embraced the technique and the policy, and that’s what we’ve been going with for a long time.

We’re on board with you, and we’re executing that.

Steve, this is probably something you might better understand as a crew chief. Chase Briscoe during the Goodyear tire test a few months ago said that the tires were cording after 20 to 25 laps in. Given that some tracks even with older surfaces we don’t see that happening, what exactly causes tires to cord during a tire test?

STEVE LETARTE: Well, I would assume a big issue with the tire test is just a lack of track activity. When you look at any surface, asphalt or concrete, it really makes no difference, it has a certain amount of coarseness to it, kind of like a piece of sandpaper, and if you can imagine a piece of sandpaper and you rub it on a softer surface like a tire, it actually fills in some of the ridges on the surface and actually makes that piece of sandpaper less course, and that’s what laps do. The more a car runs around a racetrack, it over time fills in some of the deeper and more aggressive areas of the track, and as it does that, the next time by and the next times it wears less and less and less.

This is a major facility; it’s a huge amount of concrete, and it’s going to take more than three or four cars at a tire test to see a big shift, plus Goodyear has to bring back a tire and try to guess a little bit at these tests of what kind of car versus track, and now that they have that data, I’m sure the tire they’re going to bring back this weekend is going to give the teams a great opportunity to put on a good show, and that’s really what we’re looking for. So not a big surprise that wear was very high at the tire test.

Rick, can you talk a little bit about the atmosphere of calling the race now that the fans are back in the stands?

RICK ALLEN: Well, I think one of the greatest things that happened last year during the pandemic was when we got the call from Sam and Jeff Behnke that said we’re sending you guys back to the racetrack. We really appreciated Marcus Smith and him allowing us to call the races from Charlotte Motor Speedway, but there was just — it was really vanilla to be in a booth at a racetrack but not hear the crowd and not feel that energy and not hear the cars and smell the smells that you smell at a racetrack.

So when we were able to go back to the racetrack, it was an amazing transformation. We really appreciate being able to be right in the mix of what’s going on.

Our booth automatically has an energy because we love the sport so much, but that energy, it’s exponential when you add the crowd. When you see the crowd jumping to their feet and you hear them roar and you just feel that, we feed off of that. That’s something that we love as a broadcast team, just to feed off of that energy that the crowd gives us.

That’s why we’re so excited to go to Nashville this weekend, a sold-out crowd, capacity crowd. We’re going to feed off of that just like everybody in America is feeding off of it right now, being able to enjoy sporting events like we used to be able to. So we’re looking forward to this weekend.

Since you’ve been there before, what advice or message have you given your drivers at JRM about maybe what they can expect or what to look for coming up this weekend at the track?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, they will watch some videos of the races from the past there to be able to get an idea what the line is and where guys are making passes, how guys are setting passes up. But this track is pretty unique, and due to the concrete surface and the difference in how the tires grip the concrete versus an asphalt track, you think you can drive way deeper into Turn 1 than you can. You have to lift pretty early for that corner to have the grip you need in the middle of the corner. It’s easy to over-drive Turn 1.

That’s probably the first thing they’re going to learn, and they’ll figure that out.

And then the real challenge for a concrete track, especially a mile-and-a-half where you’re just constantly turning the wheel, is trying to get the car to rotate, getting the front to work without chattering the right rear tire because if you chatter the right rear tire or get loose at this track, you’re going to be really slow. It’s just going to be a balance of trying to get the car neutral to where you’ve got the car turning but not enough rear grip to lean on the right rear.

It’s a bit of a challenge. It’s very kind of frustrating to be honest with you. I always found the concrete surfaces to be super frustrating.

Now, I’ve had some fun and good races at Dover and Bristol, but those surfaces are aggravating as heck, and I think this one is going to throw a lot of challenges at the teams because it’s going to change so much throughout the weekend as more and more cars run on it, more laps are ran on it.

Harrison was talking about how he leaves a lot of the business stuff to you, and I’m curious when you’re trying to kind of manage or figure out what your son or driver should do, how do you do it when it seems like there’s all these talks of new owners and teams being bought out? How do you even know who to talk to and what’s going to — how to kind of try to set a path when you really don’t know potentially what teams are going to be out there in two or three years?

JEFF BURTON: I think as a sport in general, and we talk a lot about this, this new car is changing the Cup level, and I think that’s going to change Xfinity as well as Trucks. The big question is how? There’s a lot of unknowns in regard to what does next year’s Cup — how does their business affect what happens in Xfinity, Trucks, and then what opportunities get created by that.

So I think for Harrison, and I think it’s no different than for any young driver or experienced driver that’s looking for what is his opportunity next year is quite simply what’s available. What’s out there, what’s available? That all has to get sorted out.

Then does the new car create an opportunity that would not have been there? Does it take away an opportunity that would have been there?

I don’t know of a time in the sport where there’s been so many unknowns, and that’s not just for drivers, that’s for crew members, that’s for car owners, that’s for the industry in general. I think there’s a certain amount of wait and-see that has to happen. I think there’s also a certain amount of when you do see it and it looks right, I think you need to act. I think that’s going to be important, as well, because I think when things start happening, they’re going to happen rapidly.

Not just for Harrison, I look at it as a person that’s been around the sport a long time, is in many different roles, there’s just — next year I think is going to be crazy, and leading up to next year I think this silly season, as we call it, is going to be pretty intense.

I just think you have to look at what’s there. I think you have to respect the relationships that you have. I think you have to respect those relationships. I think you have to look at opportunities. It’s just eyes wide open, peek over and see what’s over there and see where you are, and that’s all you can do. I think that’s all everybody can do.

I think there’s just so much happening right now in the sport, and even though there’s so much happening, it’s hard to say right now these are all the opportunities. Some bit of patience I think is important, but at some point people are going to start to lose patience and start making decisions really quickly, but you just have to position yourself to see what’s available.

Again, I want to be clear, that’s not just for Harrison, that’s for everybody. That’s for every single person involved in the sport right now.

TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS’ 2021 U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN CONFERENCE CALL

May 27, 2021 By admin

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Morgan Pressel

Kay Cockerill

Paige Mackenzie

Brandel Chamblee

Beth Hutter

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to our Golf Channel, NBC 2021 U.S. Women’s Open media call. Today we’re joined on the call by a number of members of our broadcast team, analysts Paige Mackenzie and Morgan Pressel; our on-course reporter, Kay Cockerill; lead studio analyst Brandel Chamblee; long-time Golf Channel producer Beth Hutter. Beth is producing the U.S. Women’s Open coming up next week and she’ll make history as the first woman to produce the U.S. Women’s Open.

We’ll start with opening remarks.

BETH HUTTER: I just want to say that I’m really excited about this year’s U.S. Women’s Open. I know it’s one of our oldest women’s majors, our national championship, and what I know I’m looking forward to most is seeing them play Olympic Club, which is one of the most iconic clubs in our nation. We’ve seen the men play there numerous times, and I know the women players are phenomenal. And I am really looking forward to seeing them bring their talents out to the Olympic Club.

THE MODERATOR: Speaking of Olympic Club, golfers are always looking for local knowledge. That’s a nice segue into our on-course reporter who certainly has local knowledge. We’ll go to Kay next. Go ahead, Kay.

KAY COCKERILL: Definitely, thank you. I’m a Northern California product. I grew up about an hour south of San Francisco and just to have the U.S. Women’s Open back in Northern California again, and then to have it at Olympic Club where I’m fortunate enough to be a member – I’ve been a member there since 2002 – makes this upcoming week incredibly special for me. I’m really proud of the fact that the Olympic Club is finally hosting their first national championship for women.

It’s come a little bit too late, but at least it’s happening and I can’t wait to watch all the women get a chance to walk the same fairways that the men have been able to walk for many years and create their own history.

Everything that’s going to happen next week is going to be a first. It’s going to be an inaugural. ‘First round shot in the 60s, the first hole in run, the first string of birdies.’ These women are going to put everything down in history next week at the U.S. Women’s Open and I’m really happy to be a part of the group that’s going to televise it.

MORGAN PRESSEL: I’m certainly excited to join the broadcast team for the U.S. Women’s Open next week. It’s a very special event for me, a lot of history that I’ve had in the championship and definitely my favorite event of the year — like Kay and Beth both said, the biggest storyline is definitely Olympic.

We’ve seen really a lot of work has been done with the different organizations in golf and the USGA certainly being one of them, trying to elevate the venues where we play. So to play at such a historic venue like Olympic Club where I’ve had the opportunity to play myself quite a few times, I think it’s going to be a treat. It’s going to be an incredible test of golf and obviously there’s a lot of other storylines in terms of players looking for their first major, and certainly many past U.S. Women’s Open champions that will be gunning for a repeat. But I think Olympic Club is definitely the biggest storyline next week. And it’s really tough, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the field takes it on.

PAIGE MACKENZIE: For me, this week is just so special. When I think about as a child growing up and wanting to play professional golf, this is the event that I pictured, playing for the national open championship. It was the biggest event on the schedule. It always created the greatest test for the players and it felt the most historic.

It felt like you were a part of the history of golf, and not even just women’s golf, just the history of golf. And I feel like it was a privilege to be able to call any of the U.S. Open action, because it really is just a really special week and a special event on the calendar. And I echo what the other women on the call have said, which is anytime you get a chance to play a golf course that already has history and that you can become part of history, it makes it extra special.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I’m looking forward to being on site, sitting on the desk with Cara Banks. I believe Paige Mackenzie is going to be up there as well. And to talk about, I think, some very interesting storylines that have materialized, with Lydia Ko’s sort of re-emergence, and Inbee Park having played so beautifully in the U.S. Open’s — 14 times, she’s got nine top-10s, she’s got a couple of wins. If she were to win, she would join other three-time winners — Babe Zaharias, Annika Sorenstam, Susie Berning and Hollis Stacy — I think that’s certainly a story I’ll be having my eye on.

To echo Morgan Pressel’s comments, it is a beast, Olympic. A U.S. Women’s Open has been fortunate to be contested at some venerable venues like Oakmont, Winged Foot, Baltusrol, lower and upper. I think at least in terms of the golf courses I’ve played a U.S. Open on, I’ve never played a tougher one than Olympic. I played there in ’87 and ’98.

If you look at the yardage of the golf course and you think about not only it is at sea level, just how typically chip heavy the wind is — or, excuse me, the weather conditions are.

It’s at least feasible to talk about this as a golf course that’s going to play as the longest U.S. Open venue ever. We’ll take Broadmoor aside because that’s at altitude, but other than that you’re talking about Blackwolf Run. But this golf course will effectively play as the longest U.S. Open women’s golf course ever.

To that extent, how much will power play a role in the U.S. Open? It’s become an increasing aspect of the U.S. Women’s Open. The last three of four winners have finished eighth or better in driving distance. The one that didn’t certainly is not short on power – that’s Ariya Jutanugarn.

So, how much of a factor will power play in this? And the fairways at Olympic are notoriously hard to hit. I’m curious to see — I’ve seen and watched all of Kay Cockerill’s posts that she’s been putting out about the Olympic. It has a lot of doglegs, but the fairways will slope in the opposite direction of the doglegs. The over/under on us hearing the phrase “reverse cambers” is like a thousand because it’s a unique golf course in that regard. It’s very hard to hit the fairway.

I’m curious to see and wanting to hear from Kay and Morgan about whether or not these fairways are playing firm, whether or not they’re playing soft, because it will have a lot to do with the power, because most people will be — they’ll find it very difficult to find these fairways.

So, there’s a lot to look forward to next week. Some great storylines. But of course, at the top of everything is the golf course.

Brandel, who do you think this course favors?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Good question. If you look at players that have prevailed there in the past, they’re certainly not the most powerful players. At least we’re talking about the men’s U.S. Open.

But again, it will have a lot to do with how the golf course is set up. If the fairways are firm and fast as they were in 1987, it was almost impossible to find the fairways. Didn’t matter how straight you were, you were still going to end up in the first cut of rough as they sort of slid down these canted fairways.

But, look, you can’t get too far past Jin-young Ko or Inbee Park. I’m curious to see how Lydia Ko will play here. She’s not the longest or straightest driver on the LPGA Tour. I’m curious to see how she’ll work her way around the golf course.

Watching again to the degree that power has played into recent major championships, I can’t wait to watch Patty Tavatanakit tee it up here. Brooke Henderson, I can’t wait to watch her tee it up here. I’m curious to see if the lack of power will hurt Inbee Park. She has such a great U.S. Open record, but again, I think this will be effectively the longest U.S. Open course ever. So, will it tilt towards the power hitters? I think it will.

Kay, curious about your thoughts on Paula Creamer coming back to the city where she was raised and first fell in love with the game? She’s had some time off, but getting this opportunity on a special exemption to come back home, so to speak. I don’t know if you’ve ever talked to her about her feelings about the Northern Cal/Bay Area, but just curious what you think about her coming back to play Olympic?

KAY COCKERILL: I think her being given a special exemption was an excellent decision. I can’t think of too many that are more deserving of that. She’s been such a big part of women’s golf and Northern California golf. And this is really important to her.

She spoke a little bit about it last week at Kingsmill. She definitely still calls Pleasanton her home. She grew up playing Castlewood, which is about 45 minutes east. She’s very much a NorCal gal, even though she’s transplanted herself to Florida. I think it’s appropriate that she’s there. I’m excited for her.

I think it’s going to be tough, really hard for her to manage and play all four days. What I saw out of her game at Kingsmill was a bit of rust. And unfortunately she was playing with A Lim Kim and Jessica Korda. And the difference in their distance off the tee was pretty significant at times, 25 to nearly 40 yards.

So Paula is striking the ball pretty solidly, but she’s not a big hitter. And I think it’s going to demand a lot from her off the fairways hitting longer shots in, but I’m glad that she’s there. She brings a lot to the championship. She’s a former champion.

She’s played in numerous USGA events through the years as an amateur, junior amateur. So she’s a big part of the championship this year, just being on site.

MORGAN PRESSEL: Yes, I certainly agree with just about everything that Kay said. Definitely giving her the special exemption in a situation where she wasn’t, she didn’t take advantage of her tenth exemption last year after winning at Oakmont in 2010, and being pretty much home for her I think she’s certainly really excited about it.

But I do think it will be interesting to see the rough. I think getting a couple of rounds under her belt at Kingsmill was important towards shaking off the rust and having another week here this week to work out some kinks. But having taken that much time off sometimes it’s really challenging to throw yourself into arguably the most challenging test that any player will see all year. I think she’s excited to have the opportunity and hopefully she plays well.

Brandel, you mentioned playing at Olympic in ’87 and ’98, I hope you can elaborate on the challenges. What makes it so difficult? No player in ’98 or 2012 finished below par for 72 holes. As you mentioned, the canted fairways are a big part of that, but here’s a course with no water hazards, only one fairway bunker, and it’s historically tormented the top men’s players. I’m curious if you can articulate sort of what makes it so difficult?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I’ll give you an example. In ’87, I tried to hit it up in the left-hand corner of the 17th fairway all four days. I hit what I thought were good tee shots. Excuse me, two days, because I missed the cut. But let’s just say, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

But we all stood on the tee, and we would all hit it in that left-hand corner of the fairway. We’d walk down there it would be in the first cut or in the rough and you’d have a 1-iron back then. A 1-iron was an actual club and you’d have some ridiculous long iron out of the rough to an uphill, very small target of a green.

It was almost impossible to hit that green in two. And that was to some degree true of even shorter holes than the 17, because the 17th was a converted par-5 that year. But that has a lot to do with it.

The thickness and the length of the rough was the worst I had ever seen. It was true that way in 1998 and the greens are notoriously slick. You can remember in 1998 Payne Stewart hitting a putt from pin high to the back, left pin. Hit a good putt, settled about a foot from the hole, and it rolled all the way to the front of the green. I was first off Friday morning, I remember hitting a putt from the middle of the green on 18. It stopped by the hole and then rolled back to me 20 feet away or something.

So, the greens were ridiculously slick, thick rough, lots of different, awkward lies. The ball above your feet, below your feet. It plays a little bit in terms of the awkward lies like Augusta National, except it’s chilly and the air is heavy and the ball just doesn’t go very far.

You add all that up, and the greens are really small targets as well. So, you add that all up — I always found it to be the most difficult Open golf course that I’ve ever played.

Morgan, I’m curious your take on Lucy Li, who is from here in the Bay Area. I don’t know how much you’ve seen her play, because obviously she’s not in the LPGA, she’s been playing the Symetra. If you could speak about the challenges of bursting on to the scene young, as you did and as she has. She qualified for the Women’s Open at age 11, as you probably recall, at Pinehurst. Now she’s 18. What are sort of the challenges, and what do you think about her path — turning pro at 17 and now being on the Symetra for a couple of years as she tries to make it to the LPGA?

MORGAN PRESSEL: I’ve not really watched Lucy play, so I’m looking forward to seeing it. My one real personal experience with Lucy was seeing her on the range at Pinehurst when she qualified. And I just remember looking at her and thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, was I that small when I was that young?’

And it was cool to see her out there and her spunk and her passion and all of kind of the fun youthful energy she brought to the Open then. Yeah, it’s tough when you’re that young and thrown into a media spotlight. It takes a good team around you, great support from family to help you get through it all and manage it all.

Obviously, she’s got a lot of game to back it up. It’s a little bit unfortunate with the situation regarding COVID and how it’s just much more challenging this past year without the Q-Series and things like that to make it onto to the LPGA Tour. But I have no doubt that she will at some point and the whole world will get to see her game week in, week out.

And I think she might be feeling a little bit of pressure playing at home. I would imagine hometown events like that and on such a big stage, but a little bit of youthful exuberance and kind of a rookie mentality sometimes does you well in those types of pressure situations.

Beth, any unique or cool or high-end production elements that we can expect in terms of specialty cameras, graphics, anything of that nature? And as a follow-up to that, from your perspective, over the past year or two, whether it’s more live aerials, more graphics, what are some things that have become a more common part of golf coverage that you feel have really added to your ability to tell the story of a live golf championship?

BETH HUTTER: So, for this year at the Women’s Open, I think the biggest thing this year is just the amount of hours we’re on. Really excited to showcase basically as many players as we possibly can. We’re on for 26 hours over four days. In addition to our broadcast, we also have featured groups that are on throughout the day all four days, which will be a separate production.

We have the use of drones this week at Olympic Club. I think they’re going to be awesome showing a lot of the subtleties of the course that Kay and Brandel were talking about. We’ll be able to see those a lot clearer.

The tracer, I think, is the thing that we’ve been seeing a lot more on our broadcasts. And I think for the women players, it showcases their strength and accuracy, which is the best part of their games. And I think that’s what intrigued most people when they tune into the women’s game is, A, how powerful they are. We watched Patty Tavatanakit when she won her first major and the amount of fairways hit, how straight they hit a ball is really unbelievable. But if they need to cut it or fade it, they can absolutely do it.

So I think that tool on our broadcast is one of the neatest things to watch. And we’re going to have a lot of them out at the Olympic Club.

Paige, Kay, Morgan, what is it like working with Beth as a producer? And what does it mean to have her be the first woman to produce the first Women’s Open?

PAIGE MACKENZIE: Beth’s great. She’s incredibly organized, she keeps it very fun, especially on weeks like this where it’s going to be a lot of long hours. She takes her job very seriously in making sure that the audience is getting the good storytelling of the players as well as highlighting the great golf.

I’m sure Beth can speak better to being a female in this role, but certainly being in the sports world where it has been so typically male dominated, it’s obviously a big deal that she’s been given this responsibility and she works week-in, week-out on the LPGA Tour. It’s no surprise to us that know her. I don’t think for us it feels as big of a deal, because she deserves to be put in this position.

KAY COCKERILL: Very well said, Paige. I’ve gotten to know Beth now for over 15 years or so and she’s become a very good friend of mine.

That said, I really admire her for her work ethic and her organization and just how she runs a telecast from top to bottom. And she does it in a very professional way. She gets the most out of those working for her and everyone wants to do their best for Beth.

And Beth comes from an athletic background. She was a standout soccer player at UVA. And she played a multitude of sports. She’s very competitive. She’s taken to golf more recently in the last 10, 15 years, and has become quite a good golfer herself. So, she understands everything about the game and everything about competition and what it takes to win and lose. And really goes above and beyond in her preparation, thinking of other storylines and coming up with graphics and side stories. And she sometimes gets us to think outside the box, hey, what’s happening with XYZ players.

Like Paige said, she has produced men’s events as well. So she’s very versed as a producer and it’s about time that she does a U.S. Women’s Open. It’s hard to believe that this will be just her first one producing, because she’ll slip right into the chair and it will be like she’s done a dozen of them.

MORGAN PRESSEL: I agree with you, Kay and Paige. It’s about time. And I have only worked with Beth, let’s see, is this our third week, I think, now, Beth, it will be. She’s had a lot of patience with me, which I really appreciate, too. But like Paige said, she keeps it light. There’s a lot of laughs in your ear through the telecast and keeping it fun.

Helping, she’s especially helping me learn the ropes, understand my job, my role and how we can communicate better throughout the telecast to add more insight and to be the first woman to produce the Women’s Open, there’s nobody more deserving of that opportunity. And I definitely think it’s about time.

KAY COCKERILL: By the way, she’s also an out-of-town member at the Olympic Club, so has that connection as well.

Kay and Paige, following up on the question about Lucy Li, just your own philosophy about a path like hers, and I don’t know that you have to speak specifically to her, but incredibly talented at a young age, succeeds at a young age and now she’s chosen not to go to college. She’s grinding on the Symetra. Her stats aren’t that great, her results are decent. Can you guys speak to your own thoughts about a person taking this path rather than a college path to get more experience and have that experience?

PAIGE MACKENZIE: I think when you are speaking with somebody, whether it’s Lucy or any other, what I would call ‘prodigy,’ certainly the average 11-year-old is not going to be qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open. So when you’re talking about such a gifted player, I don’t think there’s a playbook. I don’t think there’s a path that is the right way to do it.

I feel, and I’m empathetic towards the parents who are trying to navigate how do you best allow your child to challenge themselves and to continue to get better and to provide those opportunities but still realize they’re young. And so I don’t have a strong opinion on a player that’s just trying to figure that out.

I know there’s been a lot of mistakes made and a lot of successes in young golfers who have been successful at a young age. My path, I went to college, but I certainly wasn’t anywhere near the level to try to compete at the highest level at a young age. That was the path for me. That’s what I needed.

Other players that are young, they need the challenge to stay competitive and motivated and all that. That’s my general take on it. Unfortunately, it’s not real specific because I don’t think you can have one way to do it right.

Kay, do you know Lucy well, played with her much? And what are your thoughts about her path?

KAY COCKERILL: I haven’t really played with her, but I know she was out at Olympic Club. I saw her out there several times. I think she played the course at least three, if not four times. And I actually hooked her up with a member at Olympic Club, Daniel Connolly, who just played his last year at SMU. He was on the SMU team — and I think he’s pondering whether he’s going to turn pro or not. He’s going to caddie for her. He’s a fine young man and a really good player.

I’m a big proponent of going to college and at least having a couple of years of college to learn how to become more independent and more well-rounded and learn to be a little more on your own and separate yourself from your family and start like becoming that independent person that you hope to be for the rest of your life.

But Lucy is a very smart young woman. She’s very intelligent, and I think she would have flourished in college. But I think she’s also still working and always working on herself mentally to become even smarter and more educated.

It’s a tough grind to jump into professional golf at a young age. And I think even those that have won everything around them and transition into professional golf, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to succeed.

Who knows? Maybe she peaked at 14, 15. Maybe her peak days are up ahead. Who knows? But she’s a nice young kid and she has a passion for the game. She’s choosing to follow it. I wish her the best, but it’s not going to be an easy road.

Kay, you know the course as well as anybody on this call. How does the USGA handle all that we’ve talked about, all the challenges of Olympic? Because they’ve done a great job at Oakmont and Pinehurst of really kind of creating the same experience. And I know Shannon’s trying to do the same there. How do you think she can accomplish that? How can the USGA accomplish kind of making it the same test and not overdoing it?

KAY COCKERILL: Shannon Rouillard is the lead setup person, and she’s been looking at all the information from the last years of the men’s competition there and she’s been analyzing the fairways and how wide they were and what the percentage of fairways hit was.

And she also contacted quite a few players that played in various U.S. Opens and asked what clubs they hit in on certain holes, the average clubs they had in and she’s trying to set the course up sort of relatively speaking that the women will have roughly the same clubs in.

She’s not doing an intermediate cut. She’s doing fairway cut to rough, which is pretty, actually, severe, because when you do get the ball rolling and releasing on the side tilts, it’s going to end up next to the three-and-a-half-plus-inch vertical cut of rough. And that’s going to be very penalizing.

I thought that was pretty severe. And who knows, maybe she’ll change. You never know. We have another week, they might come and decide they’re going to rip through and put an intermediate cut in. She’s doing three and a half inches of rough for nine feet and then four and a half, four-plus inches there on after.

It’s pretty extreme. I don’t know that the fairways are going to be as tight and as firm and fast as they were for the men’s Open. And maybe that’s the way they’re going to widen the fairways just a tad, that they’re not going to be running 13 on the Stimpmeter and ending up in the rough like they did the last couple of times.

And maybe the greens won’t be as firm and fast. They might be a half a foot or a foot less speed. Those are things we’re all going to see next week.

Even Shannon, I’ve known her for a long time, she doesn’t give up everything. And she’s analyzed the hole location. She knows all the hole locations and what’s worked and what hasn’t.

She’s done a tremendous amount of in-depth looking at the past. She was also out for several of the practice rounds early that I went out and played with some of the gals in town. She watched us and she asked questions and she’ll talk to players, ‘What do you think? What about this?’

So she’s very, very — she brings in a lot of knowledge, and it’s not just — she’s not just flying by the seat of her pants. There’s a method to her madness, and we’ll see what they end up coming up with come next Thursday.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Kay, did she say why she wasn’t going to have an intermediate cut? Did she give a reason for that?

KAY COCKERILL: She felt like the fairways were plenty wide and that they’ve done this cut, this no-intermediate cut, and there’s been precedent for it in past championships and she felt like the fairways were wide enough to not warrant having an intermediate cut.

I was like, well, they were kind of wide, but they’re really half as wide because they’re tilted. So there again I think, Brandel, I think if they’re not as tight and firm and fast as they were the last few, maybe that is true.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Got it. It just sounds like there’s going to be a lot of people up against the three-and-a-half-inch cut because the ball rolls out sideways and that’s —

KAY COCKERILL: She talked about cutting the rough with like a bezel — I’m sorry, I can’t remember if it was bevel or bezel cut — which actually angles it a little bit, which would make it a little easier.

Beth, because you can go commercial-free, how excited are you? And what opportunities does this present?

BETH HUTTER: Great question. I love commercial-free. I do the Evian Championship over in France for the world feed, and we do not take commercials and I love it. I love not missing a single shot of action.

And that said, I mean it just opens the door to being able to show so much more. Getting the shot slightly earlier, as opposed to waiting for a break, trying to time that out, and seeing all the interactions — player/caddie as they get up to their ball, being able to maybe tell a few more stories.

You can hang on some players. And even just getting in more shots, I think that’s the most exciting part. And like Kay and Brandel, everyone said, just like everyone said, this course is so neat and all the different nuances of this course, we’re going to be able to tell those stories so much more.

Kay, has your phone been ringing off the hook with players looking to play some practice rounds with you and try to gain some local knowledge? And then in general, how fast can somebody learn this golf course, or do you think whoever else thinks this may play into somebody who has had some experience there before?

KAY COCKERILL: I was home for about three weeks the week before last and I played practice rounds with In-gee Chun and Austin Ernst, Gaby López, Sei-young Kim, Lydia Ko. I had played with Yealimi — Yealimi Noh had come in but I don’t think she qualified for the Open. Yeah, it was interesting to see some of the players that came in early, either on their way to Asia or coming back or after the ANA.

Funny though, they asked me a few questions and the tendency of the hole and where you don’t want to miss it, but most of the time they’re just kind of getting a general sense of the course and really the lines off the tee, where you want to hit it so that when they come back for real and they really dive into some of the more details, they’ve already got the kind of — laid the ground work. They know the course, the routing, the general lines off the tee, then they can work on the detail work.

Last week in Kingsmill, I had a lot of players come up to me and ask me about the course, what’s it like, what do you need to do to play well. So I was answering them as best I could and encouraging them, just saying it was pretty traditional. Like, you can’t go wrong if you end up in the middle of every green, because they’re small.

If you were in the front, middle front of every green you’d be in great position to have a relatively short-ish birdie putt or an easily two-puttable putt. And I said work on your short games and bring extra layers, just pack layers, because you think you’re going to California, it’s going to be 72 degrees, 75 degrees. Not the case.

Paige and Morgan, do you think this plays into those who have either come in early or have talked with Kay or have played with Kay, do you think there’s any kind of advantage for those players?

PAIGE MACKENZIE: I’ve not been on property. I’m one of those players, asking Kay for all the information. We set up a time where I’m going to walk with her and pick her brain. So absolutely, Kay is the most valuable asset out there, but certainly there’s the advantage to see the golf course ahead of time.

MORGAN PRESSEL: I mean, for me, I always like to see the U.S. Open course early. I feel like it takes pressure off the week itself. You don’t have to feel like you’re playing 18, 18, 18 to learn a new golf course.

I would always try to get a local caddie to come with me or whatever it might be somebody who knows the golf course. But in this situation, who knows this golf course and how to play a U.S. Open more than Kay Cockerill.

So that’s just any player who took advantage of that, and Kay was generous enough to help a lot of players and still continues to do so. And I think it’s really smart and the players will have a little bit more course knowledge and I think a little bit less pressure in their preparation going into the week.

People talk about how familiarity with a course helps a player. How does familiarity with a course help a broadcaster?

KAY COCKERILL: That’s good. Well, I don’t have to go out early and really scout the course before the round because I know it so well. I will of course be paying attention to hole locations because the USGA may put, they’ll put the holes in places we don’t see day-to-day as members.

And the tee box locations will change. Shannon has it set up at the max distance, but they like to move the tee boxes around.

But, yeah, it makes my life a little bit easier in that regard, because when you first go to a course, sometimes you can’t remember, what’s the 15th hole, what’s the 7th hole. I don’t have to tax my brain too much about thinking which hole, that hole location, wow, that’s going to be really brutal, that’s going to be one to pay attention to. So those things will come very naturally for me.

And that gives me extra time to focus more on the players and what they think of the course and how they’re attacking it and maybe their season leading up to this point.

— NBC Sports —

TRANSCRIPT – 105TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL

May 26, 2021 By admin

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Leigh Diffey

Townsend Bell

Paul Tracy

Sam Flood

THE MODERATOR: Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our NBC Sports Indianapolis 500 conference call. In a moment we’ll be joined by our lead INDYCAR team of Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy, as well as NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood.

Sunday’s race will be NBC Sports’ third broadcast of the Indy 500 and will feature roughly eight hours of coverage. Pre-race coverage begins at 9 a.m. eastern on NBCSN, followed by more pre-race coverage at 11 a.m. eastern on NBC. There will also be an hour-long post-race show at roughly 4 p.m. eastern.

We will begin with some opening comments. First up is NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood.

SAM FLOOD: We’re really excited to be covering this spectacle, the biggest crowd we’ve had in this country since COVID started, probably the biggest crowd ever assembled since the COVID crisis got going. To get the sports world looking full with folks in the stands celebrating this great American tradition on Memorial Day weekend, we couldn’t be prouder to bring that to America.

Our producer Rene Hatlelid is really on top of this, has mapped out great content through the whole day starting at 9 a.m. on NBCSN, 11:00 a.m. on Big Bird NBC. They’ve got a drone flying around for us getting the great shots. The only thing faster than the drone is Jimmie Johnson, our new guest analyst for the show. Jimmie was really engaged this past weekend, hardworking, showing his personality. Gets to work with Danica, Mike Tirico and the rest of the crew.

We couldn’t be happier and more excited about an event like this on a beautiful weekend coming up, Indianapolis, as the world reopens particularly with an event with this many folks celebrating.

With that, I hand it off to the man who calls anything that is a race, announced earlier today that Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play voice of track and field in the Olympics, but is home now calling INDYCAR and the Indy 500 for the third time.

LEIGH DIFFEY: Good afternoon, everyone. I was reminded just so harshly the other day how fast and exciting these cars are when I came in for the final couple of days of practice. I drove through the turn two tunnel, I stopped my rental car, got out near the museum there, watching the cars go through one, down the short chute to two. It was such a wonderful reminder of how extraordinary this place is with those cars.

We’ve been here for the last two weeks. But from watching them go around the Grand Prix circuit, standing there and watching the brutal speed and sound, then to look up and see some people sitting in the turn one grandstands, it just kind of felt right. It felt fantastic. To see the hubbub in the garage area, Gasoline Alley, the concession area, to see people back, people happy to be back.

I think I’m more excited and looking forward to this one perhaps even more so than our maiden one in 2019. We’re back on Memorial Day weekend. The fans are back. We get this unbelievable gift of calling the biggest race in the world when the championship and the series is arguably at its strongest point. Five different winners in five races.

You have the superstar veteran names blended with these exciting new young guys who aren’t afraid to do anything. I just think we have this amazing gift right now and we’re not going to squander it, we’re going to cherish it, give you guys and all of our viewers a fabulous Sunday afternoon of INDYCAR racing.

Townsend, you’re ready to roll, mate. Take it away.

TOWNSEND BELL: I’m glad you mentioned speed because over the last few years I’ve been encouraging INDYCAR to continue to push the limits. Ever since I was a kid at 11 years old, 1986, going to the Indy 500, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing was built on one single ethos, which is how fast can the cars go, how fast can these drivers push these cars, what kind of limits can they break with new track records.

I’m pleased that this year is the fastest field in Indy 500 history, at over 230 miles an hour average for the entire field from qualifying. It was an electric day on Pole Day there at Indianapolis with the Fast Nine shootout. Scott Dixon getting his first pole position in two years.

So exciting, as Leigh said, to see this wave of new young talent that has come in with incredible skill, bravery, and an amazing ability at such a young age to kind of guide these missiles to record speed.

To see (Rinus) VeeKay go out and do what he did in Chevrolet, Colton Herta answer him. VeeKay is 20 years old. Colton Herta is 21 years old. You thought when Colton ran, what a magic lap that was, hanging it out there. We all thought at that time it was probably pole. Lo and behold, here comes Scott Dixon at 40 plus years of age, the veteran with all the experience, but still all of the courage to put it on the line was a great story.

Super pumped to get back there. Glad the cars are breaking records. When you talk about one INDYCAR by itself, it’s something special to see it and feel it, like Leigh pulling over and watching and listening. We have to remember this is the only race in the world in terms of the top level where you’re going to grid three-wide, 11 rows deep, fire it off into turn one at these incredible speeds.

Super pumped to get out there. As long as Paul Tracy doesn’t interrupt me, we should be great. Paul, over to you.

PAUL TRACY: I have to reiterate everything that Townsend just said. We truly last weekend had a treat of seeing the fastest field ever assembled. I think lost in that, in all the excitement of that, we had a David versus Goliath monumental battle between Penske Racing and A.J. Foyt and R.C. Enerson, the lone one-car team, trying to topple the giant of Penske Racing and force them out of the field. It was truly something to watch.

It just shows now how competitive this field has become and how important it is to have every I dotted and every T crossed when you come to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If you even just hiccup, you’re not going to make the field.

When you look at a guy like Will Power, who is arguably one of the fastest INDYCAR drivers that has ever sat in an INDYCAR, just look at the amount of pole positions he has scored over his career and wins, championships. For him to be hanging it out there, banging into the wall trying to out-qualify R.C. Enerson was a sight to behold. It was truly nothing like I’ve seen him have to go through because it always comes so easy for him to score these poles. It just seemed so effortless.

For the race, what I’m looking at is Scott Dixon is obviously the man to beat. He’s the odds-on favorite to win the race. Clearly he has shown that. But he’s got a tightrope to walk. He’s got a seventh championship on the line. Is he willing, a double points race, to put it all on the line for an Indy 500 win and forego the championship points lead if he gets into a wreck with somebody or gets into a situation? He is so good at managing his overall year-long program. Is he willing to put it all on the line for the 500? He hasn’t delivered a 500 in many years, but he certainly delivered a lot of championships in between.

When it comes down to it, there’s guys like (Alexander) Rossi, (Ryan) Hunter-Reay, they’re ready to kill themselves for a race win. When it comes down to it, is Dixon willing to do that? I feel Rossi and Hunter-Reay are ready to do it.

Sam, not the easiest question. I’m going to try to ask it in a way I might be able to get an answer from you. It is a contract year with NBC Sports and INDYCAR. There has been different reports and speculation out there that says NBC Sports is out of the running on this. I’m wondering what you can or cannot say. Does NBC Sports want to be back with INDYCAR?

SAM FLOOD: We love INDYCAR. We love the Indy 500. We love the partnership we have. We hope we can continue that partnership. So whatever reports are out there, all I know is, we are fans of this relationship and want it to continue. I’m on the content side of the business, and the commerce side of the business has to navigate that side of the equation.

As partnership and as the growth we’ve meant to the sport, working with the team at INDYCAR, we’re really proud of all that’s been accomplished over these years and hope it continues in the future. That’s the way we proceed into this season, planning on being partners for a long time to come.

I know all three of you love the series. I know what it means to you, that you take great care in presenting the series professionally and respectfully, showing it for the strong series it is. What does it mean for the three of you to be part of this series and to be the storytellers of the series?

LEIGH DIFFEY: That’s a great question. To me I came to America for INDYCAR, so it means everything to me. To use the old adage: I’m living the dream.

The team that Sam and his staff have put together for us to blend, one of the most common statements made to us by fans or even people within the industry, they say, Sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun. It’s true, we are. It’s not manufactured. We treat the environment that we work in seriously, but with flashes of humor. That comes throughout on the air and through our delivery.

We take it seriously because it is serious, but we’re also in the entertainment business. I’m pretty sure you’re going to get a similar answer from Townsend and Paul. It means the world to us.

TOWNSEND BELL: It’s a privilege. The privilege is no greater than when we go to Indy this weekend to cover this race. I didn’t know what to expect back in 2019 when we had a chance to call our first Indy 500. What I realized in that moment is that the race and our job to tell the stories is one of celebrating. I think the passion that not only the three of us have in the booth for the sport, but the 250,000, 300,000 fans that gather with us there.

I’ve always felt like Indy is just that one big celebration where, sure, there’s fans that are rooting for different drivers, but I think it’s different than a Super Bowl or a national championship college football game where you’re either a red team or a blue team. At Indy it just feels like it’s more of a religious experience where everybody is celebrating speed and the glory of going after the biggest prize in racing.

It’s a tremendous honor. I think we all bring something pretty unique to the table. I think even our opening remarks, just look at the insight that Paul brings. He just brought up something about Scott Dixon that I hadn’t thought about. Paul has said that on the broadcast, said, Hey, think about Dixon racing for points versus an overall Indy 500 win. That’s something that we could debate whether that’s the case, would he go down that path. I think people enjoy the different perspectives there.

I enjoy the fact that I hear about these things and am surprised by some of those insights as they’re happening in real-time. It’s not like we rehearsed this out. It’s a stream of consciousness that we’re proud to deliver, hope we get to do for many years to come.

PAUL TRACY: I guess when I stopped driving and I wasn’t around for a while, I didn’t realize that once I got back into the sport with NBC when they had me come onboard with them, I didn’t realize how much I missed the camaraderie that I had with the drivers. I didn’t have a lot of that when I was racing because I was so competitive and I was so fiery. I kind of kept guys as an enemy.

But as I’ve grown into this broadcasting role, I’ve become very good friends with a lot of the drivers. They’ll express to me a side of things that they typically wouldn’t say to a journalist or a pit reporter, will talk about things. They let me on the inside of things. Some things I can’t say on air and some things they’re okay with me saying on air. I really enjoy that part of it.

Also being around the fans. When Townsend and I walk around the paddock together, go to lunch, the amount of people that come up to us, Diffey as well, say, Man, you guys are the best, the best team ever that’s been calling races. We hear that at every single race that we go to, every single market.

Sam has put together a fantastic team of people that are all really good friends. I think we do an amazing job at putting out a product, putting people on the inside of the product and giving them the information that they typically wouldn’t get anywhere else in any other sport.

Do you think anybody could do a better job than the job NBC Sports is doing with INDYCAR?

SAM FLOOD: The bar is very, very, very, very high.

Mr. Flood, to have the race from a TV standpoint back on its traditional date, how important is that rating-wise? I know there was a little bit of disappointment with the ratings from last August, the fact that maybe a lot of casual sports viewers didn’t realize the Indy 500 was happening that weekend.

SAM FLOOD: I don’t think that’s specific just to the Indy 500. It’s the way the mismatch of the sports calendar last year was very different. The Kentucky Derby was run on a different day, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, all on different days. All these sports had different time frames. The comparatives aren’t real.

We don’t worry about that. We worry about what’s in front of us, which is the time to have an incredible Indy 500 with the world coming back to normal, fans in the stands, and the story of the race is great. Even better yet might be the story of the people that finally get to get back into that environment and celebrate this great American tradition.

Have you seen a realignment of data from what you saw with this year’s Kentucky Derby? Did it compare favorably to other May Derbys and expect the same thing for the Indy 500?

SAM FLOOD: I can say the Kentucky Derby number was up dramatically. Obviously 2019 for the Derby is tough to compare because it has the controversial finish that extended the drama for 22 minutes after the finish as they decided to throw a horse out of the race for the first time ever. For that reason, the number was exceptionally high. But our Derby number from the first Saturday in May was up in that stratosphere.

History tells us that there are good numbers out there. As we all know, there are a million factors coming into ratings. Weather is a big part of it.

You’re in the storytelling business. You brought in some additional storytellers to tell the story this weekend. Jimmie Johnson is an INDYCAR rookie, but of course he’s a seven-time NASCAR champion. You have Steve Letarte, Dale Jr. is going to be back, Danica. Do you believe having a broad-based group of storytellers from the INDYCAR side, the NASCAR side, helps bring in a bigger audience?

SAM FLOOD: Our goal is to serve the fans, and we’ve got a group of talent that serves the fans exceptionally well.

The one thing I’ll tell you is the three gentlemen on the phone with us right now call the race and have exceptional ability to see what’s happening before it happens and tell you why it matters. Then we’re going to add context with a group of talent we have in and around them.

Nothing at NBC Sports is a bigger message that it’s a big event than Mike Tirico as the host. That lets the world know this is big-time. Mike is going to have some fun people to play with and work with over the weekend. We’re thrilled.

Our lineup tells you how important it is to us and this company.

Sam, obviously you produced the show last year without any fans in the stands. You’re coming back to full stands. How will the fans play a role from the actual visual part of the broadcast after not being there since 2019?

SAM FLOOD: You obviously shoot the race a little bit differently. The spectacle is back. Last year, empty stands all around the racetrack is a very different visual. You could have the greatest football game or the greatest basketball game, if there are empty seats, it’s not an event, it’s a game.

When you have a packed house or a very full house at a car race, it becomes an event again. It’s more than a race. Our job is to lean into that, celebrate that. Some of the content in the pre-race show is going to be looking at the people who are so passionate about this event that aren’t necessarily sitting in a driver’s seat, but their passion is sitting in the stands outside turn two, or down the backstretch, wherever they might be, what is their preferred angle of watching this race. We’re going to tell that story and show how special it is to be back home.

Do you know the applications of where that drone will be and how much that drone will add to the broadcast this year?

SAM FLOOD: It’s always a process. We’ve had great success with drones on other events. Sean Owens is this exceptional young director. He’s got great ideas. He’s going to work it in and make sure the camera has the quality and the look that takes us to the next level.

The one hard part about drones is they’re not up in the air for a very long time, so they’re up in spurts. He’s got a time when he wants to do it. Does he want to do it for a restart? Does he want to do it for pit stops? When do you want to utilize it? They’re up, then got to come down and re-power before they go up again.

It’s a bit of a math equation. No one said the directors have to know math, but Sean is going to have to know some math on Sunday to know how he wants to deploy it the right time in the race.

It certainly is going to be beneficial building the hype.

What would a Scott Dixon win this weekend do to further cement his legacy?

LEIGH DIFFEY: I think that it adds to the story, like it adds to his incredible story. He was so mad last year with the way that the race finished, that he was denied a chance to beat (Takuma) Sato and get his second win.

Across the spectrum of his career, he doesn’t rate last year when he won his sixth championship as his best year clearly because he didn’t win the Indy 500. He rates 2008 as his best career year. That’s how much it means to him.

I think it just elevates him further in the sport’s history. I think it would be appropriate if he won. He’s such a good steward of the sport. He’s such a great ambassador of the sport. In my opinion, he deserves to be a multi-time 500 winner.

TOWNSEND BELL: I’ll add to that and say I think if you look at the multi-time winners at Indy, (AJ) Foyt, (Rick) Mears, (Al) Unser, (Helio) Castroneves, et cetera, Dario (Franchitti), Dixon with one, that doesn’t seem fair or appropriate when positioned next to his six championships and potentially a seventh this year where he’s well on his way at least in terms of the first five races.

I go back to Paul’s point earlier. I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how he decides down the stretch of the Indy 500 to play his hand. Last year the strong indication was that you obviously had to make your move early, like Sato did. It wasn’t going to be a last-lap thing.

Based on what we’ve seen in practice, it seems like that is still going to be the case. INDYCAR has increased the race-ability of the car with some of the aero changes. But the last 10 or 15 laps in a tire stint are difficult, the field tends to spread out. If there’s a restart in the last 20 or 30 laps, it’s going to create huge urgency to make moves. There’s going to be some guys willing to take some huge risks.

How big of a risk is Scott willing to take, knowing what he learned last year, a painful lesson about Sato making the move early enough, Scott just couldn’t really counter, couldn’t get close enough to respond before the final caution, versus wanting to drive for championship points, extend his current lead in the championship. I think that will be fascinating to watch.

No question the lessons from last year, what all the drivers have learned this year in practice so far, is going to put a huge priority on those first probably five laps on a restart. That creates a lot of drama and a lot of high risk for the drivers. That’s where it’s fun to watch.

PAUL TRACY: I’m thinking of how to put my answer to that. A second Indy 500, a seventh championship, what it does to change his status in the sport? I don’t really think it changes too much, other than he’s going for these individual glories as a driver and competitor. There’s no denying his level of talent, his level of commitment, his level of fitness.

But does it change his perspective from the outside looking in? I don’t know. He’s the type of character, and this is no disrespect to Scott, I think he is one of the most talented race drivers that has ever sat in a race car, but if you sent him out in downtown at any race we go to, people don’t really recognize him out on the street because he’s so understated, mellow, not controversial. He blends into the crowd.

From a sporting perspective, from a general public perspective, I don’t know how much it changes if he wins another Indy 500 and another championship. Certainly within the sport, there’s no denying that he is going to go down as one of the greatest drivers of all time. Whether that resonates with the casual fan, I don’t know.

Do you think there are any concerns with Team Penske thus far this season? What are your expectations for the team on Sunday?

TOWNSEND BELL: Yeah, I think there are concerns. Team Penske has not won a race in the first five races of this season. The last time that happened was 2013. 18 Indy 500 wins, they’re head and shoulders above any other team in the sport. The qualifying performance was a shock to everyone, including their drivers, and I’m sure ownership as well.

The crazy thing about the last week is that if you watched Peacock in the 40-some hours that we broadcast live during the week, for each practice day, certainly Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of practice, with a ton of laps run, a bunch of group running and race simulation running from the field, I would say 60% of our praise was heaped on how strong the Team Penske cars were in race configuration, how excellent the balance looked, how close their drivers could trail another car in turbulent air. We were surprised as anybody to see them struggle in qualifying trim.

But, boy, doesn’t that train up for an unbelievable Indy 500 to have the most successful team in the history of the race starting mid to deep in the pack with four drivers and four cars that in practice look to be better than anybody.

It’s almost like an accidental reverse grid or something in that there’s these incredible race cars that are going to be fun to watch. They certainly don’t appear like they’re going to finish anywhere near mid to tail end of the pack. They have a lot of great cars and drivers to pass. The excitement will be there from the very beginning with those four drivers.

I think we’re in for a real treat. I hate to say it, but I think we’re lucky to have them struggle in qualifying because they’re going forward, for sure.

LEIGH DIFFEY: I think the interesting thing, too, is when was the last time you saw Will Power have that look of shock and disbelief? He’s normally got those piercing eyes on his target. He looked like a deer in the headlights. He was seriously concerned, knew the threat was real he wasn’t going to make the field. That’s one side of it.

The other side, too, is their qualifying performance this year very much mirrored what occurred last year. Josef Newgarden was not far away from those top four in last year’s race. Have Dixon and Sato swapping for the lead, Rahal right behind them, Santino Ferrucci. The next one in the field was Josef Newgarden.

Townsend’s point is very accurate. I think it’s going to be spectacular to watch and come through.

PAUL TRACY: I agree with both of these guys. I think Penske’s cars in race trim are fine. I think they have good handling cars. For whatever reason, they’re lacking the qualifying speed. That really all just comes down to — it’s not one thing you’re going to put on the car that’s going to fix everything — it’s a hundred little things, minute things that make the difference.

Certainly in this field, in a 500-mile race, you can win from anywhere in the field. To give you an example, I started 32nd in ’02. Guys have started from the back and won 500-mile races before. But it certainly doesn’t make your job easier.

You kind of put yourself in the danger zone we call it, Townsend and I, where the things that happen in the back of the field, you get caught up in other people’s mistakes, the things that happen. The guys in the back, the middle to the back of the field, actually race you harder and are more aggressive than the guys who are running inside the top five.

You’ll see the top three or four runners, there’s give-and-take, they’re kind of letting each other go, shuffle back and forth. When you get back 10th on back, those guys are not willing to give up a position to anybody. They’ll run you into the pit wall if they have to.

Like I said, the guys in the middle and the back of the field get really aggressive and territorial about their running position, and do not want to give up a position at all.

Coming through from the back of the field is extremely difficult. You’ve got to take risks, big risks, to make it happen, and also take big risks on your strategy and do something different than the leaders are doing which can either hurt you or help you when it comes down to the end of the race, whether it turns into any type of a fuel mileage race. You can either be on the good end of it if everything goes right, or you could be speckled at the front and be light on fuel, have to save fuel to make it to the end when other guys don’t.

It’s a juggling act. It’s a three-hour, five-balls-in-the-air juggling act to win a 500-mile race.

TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS’ KENTUCKY DERBY CONFERENCE CALL

April 27, 2021 By admin

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Mike Tirico

Jerry Bailey

Randy Moss

Eddie Olczyk

Steve Kornacki

Larry Collmus

Rob Hyland

THE MODERATOR: This marks the 20^th anniversary of the Kentucky broadcast. Joining us today are Rob Hyland, who has worked on NBC’s Kentucky Derby every year in that stretch. This is Rob’s tenth year as the lead producer of the Kentucky Derby. We have host Mike Tirico; analyst Randy Moss; two-time Derby-winning analyst Jerry Bailey; handicapper Eddie Olczyk; Larry Collmus; and the newest member of our Derby team, from NBC News and MSNBC, Steve Kornacki.

I’ll turn it over to Rob Hyland, our coordinating producer.

ROB HYLAND: Thanks, Dan. You make me sound old. 20 years ago I was part of NBC’s first Kentucky Derby. I think I’ve said it before but it was about a two-hour show, with a small team of reporters, a couple of feature story elements, and that was the lead-up to the big race.

This year, we have more than a dozen announcers, a production staff of more than 200 and about 15 hours of coverage. And the big difference is last year we produced the show out of Stamford, Connecticut, our rural headquarters. This year we’re back in Louisville and we’re very happy to be back.

MIKE TIRICO: Good afternoon, everyone. Rob is a little bit older. It’s his birthday today. But in all seriousness this is my fifth Derby. I’m only around for a quarter of these 20 years. But I’ve always admired what NBC did from afar in raising the quality of the Kentucky Derby presentation to one of the most watched shows of the month, one of the most watched shows of the season.

And super proud to work with Rob on the shows that he produces. I think all of us can tell you his work ethic on these shows is nothing short of complete and thorough — I think our whole group was really proud with the difficulty of last year’s show — not being in Louisville to see it nominated for a Sports Emmy just talks about what the folks over the last 20 years, led by Rob and everyone else, have put into this show.

It’s an honor to be part of it with an amazing group of analysts who you’ll hear from in a minute. People often ask, do you get nervous before you go on TV? I’ve been doing this for 33 years or 34 years. So, the nerves are gone. But I was nervous on the first Saturday in May last year. There was no Derby as you know. We re-aired the Kentucky Derby from a few years before. And the Kentucky Derby trophy was in my house on the makeshift set in my office.

And I was never more nervous when they shipped the trophy to my house and I had the gloves — you had to handle the trophy with the gloves and put it in place because we’re all doing everything in work from home on our own.

I will be a lot less nervous this year on Derby day, first Saturday in May, than I was last year the first Saturday in May when I had the Kentucky Derby trophy under our roof and in my hands.

Needless to say, it’s a thrill to be back in Louisville, to be back at the Derby. When you work with Randy, Jerry and Edzo and Larry and the rest of our group, you just shut up and get out of the way. So it’s a great day to be a point guard and pass it off to some of the best in the business. It’s an honor to be part of the show one more time. Randy, I’ll let you go next.

RANDY MOSS: This is my — let’s do the math — my 41^stKentucky Derby. I know I can’t possibly be that old, either with newspaper or television, my 11^th with NBC. And it goes without saying that last year’s Kentucky Derby, such as it was, not just from the TV end of it, but just in general, was unlike any other Kentucky Derby in the history of the sport.

So we’re getting closer to normal for the 2021 Derby. Not quite fully normal yet. But at least the Kentucky Derby is back in its usual spot on the first Saturday in May. And that’s a lot of progress right there. Jerry?

JERRY BAILEY: I’m just happy to be out of my bedroom doing these shows. I’ve only left my house twice, once for the Derby last year up in the studio and at the Breeders’ Cup in Lexington last fall, so although the commute to the dinner table is only five minutes, I’ll miss that. It’s so good to be around the crew again, the fans.

It’s particularly hard, I thought, to get a sense of what Randy and Mike are thinking when I’m sitting all by myself with a camera on me. So back on the set we can kind of work off of each other. That’s going to be a lot of fun being able to do that again. And what a Derby we have.

To me, in prior years we had a stand-out horse or two. It’s not that way this year. There’s three, at least three that I think have a really, really good chance, and not that far apart in talent. And there’s three or four or five right underneath those. So it’s a wide open event. And it’s a lot of talent — three undefeateds, as was mentioned. I’m looking forward to a really good race.

EDDIE OLCZYK: Great to be with everybody. Great to be on our way, some of us. Some are there. To be back together and with the leadership of Rob and his entire team behind the scenes and Mike being our captain on the set.

We’re going to do it as well as we always do. And just looking forward to getting back and seeing some familiar faces, socially distanced, probably behind masks a lot of the time. But that’s okay.

And last year I was in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in the bubble, doing the NHL playoffs for NHL on NBC. And I was in an empty rink for about seven hours trying to pick the winners, and something I’ll never forget. And our crew did an amazing job to even allow me to be a part of the show, with all the moving parts last year trying to navigate through the pandemic.

Jerry touched on it from a handicapper’s point of view, from a gambling point of view, with the way that the draw ended up today, there is value up and down the board. If you don’t like the favorite, which will be Essential Quality, who is perfect in his career, you have an opportunity to make a lot of money if you’re going to go against the favorite.

I’m certainly leaning that way. But that is what we call a tease in television. And you’re going to have to tune in on Saturday to see my final pick. But I’m just really excited to be back with our team.

And usually at this time of year we’re right in the middle of the NHL playoffs. And I’m missing a playoff game here or there. But with a 56-game season this year in divisional play, I’ll be missing a couple of regular season games. But still the atmosphere and the points feel like playoff games because of the way the format is with the North Division and then the three divisions in the U.S.

So pucks and ponies in my life. There’s nothing better. And I’m just looking forward to seeing everybody in Louisville here in the next 24 hours or so.

So I get to pass the puck. I know Larry is a big hockey fan. Larry, I’ll pass the puck to you — the voice of Triple Crown on NBC, the legendary Larry Collmus.

LARRY COLLMUS: I appreciate the introduction. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since I got the unexpected phone call from NBC asking if I would be interested in calling the Kentucky Derby.

But here we are for the 11th time. And it’s really exciting. I think I might have been the only one that was in my usual position for the Kentucky Derby last year, up on the seventh floor of Churchill Downs.

But it was a little bit different for me because when I looked outside my window there wasn’t anybody there. The whole place was completely deserted. It was a pretty odd feeling to be calling the race and not seeing so many people with their hats and suits and different colors. But it will be back to that this year. I’m really excited about seeing everybody.

It’s also a really intriguing Derby, three unbeaten horses for the first time in many, many years, and one of those is 50-to-1 on the morning line, which is Helium. I think that’s pretty interesting considering he’s undefeated.

Also it seems like it’s a race where we’re not going to be too sure who the early leader is. It’s not that clear on paper. So there’s a lot to look forward to. And I can’t wait for Saturday. Very much excited for the Derby.

ROB HYLAND: Thanks, Larry. Newest member, Steve Kornacki.

STEVE KORNACKI: Yeah, I’m the newest member. It’s a thrill to be on this call. I’ve been watching the Kentucky Derby just as a viewer, as a fan, really my whole life. Just to be out with Mike, Jerry, Randy, Eddie, Larry on this call and eventually on the broadcast, is going to be a thrill.

You mentioned 20 years on NBC. I definitely watched every Derby, run-up to every Derby on NBC all these years. I think the first one must have been 2001, I think Monarchos would have won. I would remember that one as Dollar Bill who was one of the many losers that I’ve picked in the Kentucky Derby over the years. If he didn’t run dead last, he came pretty close. And I’ve certainly picked more than my share of those.

I’m really looking forward to getting the chance to be in Louisville. I’ve never actually been to the Derby in person before. So I’ve only known this event as a television viewer. Really excited to get the chance to do that. And just to take a look at — everybody’s talking here about the opportunities for bettors with the morning line coming out today. Really curious to see where the money starts to move, who the public kind of gets behind here.

Question for Steve and Edzo, just wondering how the interplay will be between you two during the weekend? And for Edzo, do you see this as kind of, you’re the old-style handicapper Daily Racing Form type guy, and Steve might be more of a new age handicapper?

ROB HYLAND: Steve will be integrated throughout the show with trends, history says what about the Kentucky Derby as we look at the field. Edzo will handicap every race throughout the five hours on NBC. And Steve and Edzo will be together for specific topics, i.e., long shots in this year’s field. Or bias if you’re a late closer in the Derby.

So I think Steve will have more of a big-picture lens looking at the trends of the Derby, what history tells us, where the money’s moving. Edzo will be a little more granular to each race and his selection, but the two will interact. So I’ll set that as sort of the context and Edzo and Steve can take it away.

EDDIE OLCZYK: I think as far as my philosophy or my handicapping tools are, I think I’ve become much more aware of how the track is playing — is weather involved whether it’s the day of, the day before, whether it’s the turf course or the dirt.

Having an idea on all the races of who I like going in. But you could like Known Agenda going into this morning about 9:55 Central Time and then all of a sudden he gets the number one post position even though it’s a new starting gate and then go, okay, is that going to change my thoughts.

So, I think for me, yeah, I am old, first off. I’m not as old as Rob, I know that. And second of all, I do rely on the video and just the feel of how the race is going to play out, and getting the chance to talk to Randy and Jerry as good as they are as analysts in our sport and just pick their brain. And how do you see this playing out? This is what I see. Tell me that I’m crazy or that I’m wrong and that’s some of the best stuff.

I wish we had a camera going on in the trailer and, again, to be able to see the dialogue and the questions that are asked because I think that’s where you really get an opportunity to kind of talk to the best, learn from the best. And then it’s up to you as a handicapper to apply it, agree with it, disagree with it, how do you see it. And the money management part becomes the biggest thing, because you can like a couple of horses, but how do you play it? How do you wager it?

And I say all the time, you don’t have to wager a whole heck of a lot to make a lot of money when it comes to Derby weekend with the Oaks and the Derby on Saturday.

But I’m old school when it comes to handicapping and I’m pretty damn proud of it.

STEVE KORNACKI: I think for me, the parallel I kind of see here to what I do with elections and with political numbers kind of in general, really does have to do with watching the odds change, watching where the odds are moving during the course of the day and the run-up to the race. Who suddenly is getting a lot of support. Who looked like one of the favorites early on, but the public maybe is backing away from.

I think it’s kind of looking at the trends, looking at the movement that way. Looking at the historical view of it. How the favorite’s done before, how horses have come in with strong closing times and prep races, things like that, just looking at some of the bigger historical trends.

I think there’s a bit of a parallel there to maybe the kind of stuff we’re doing with politics and elections. In terms of handicapping, I’ll happily defer to Eddie on that. I love racing. I love to go to the track. I love to bet on the races, but there’s nothing sophisticated about what I do.

I’ve got my uncle’s system from Suffolk Downs from the 1960s. It’s a lot of hunches and mysticism and just completely illogical stuff. So, I’ll happily defer to Eddie on that.

ROB HYLAND: Hey, Steve, you’ve got a 13 horse in the race, too, with King Fury, right?

STEVE KORNACKI: There he is. I was hoping he’d be more than 20-1, but there’s a 13-system horse. This was — the 13 system — this is my uncle’s system from Suffolk Downs; when I say unsophisticated, take the last three horses that the horse has run, add up how he finished — 10th place, second place, first place — if it adds up to 13, bet the horse. And guess what? King Fury is at 13. So that’s the level I’m at.

Larry, I know in years past, when we’ve spoken, you have a set preparation for how you call a race. But I’m wondering this year, in terms of anticipating, last year you called it without noise. And this year you’ll call it with sound. And I just wonder taking a guess how you think sound will impact your call of the Derby this year?

LARRY COLLMUS: I remember last year that it seemed odd, especially the lead-up to the race to not hear all the noise from underneath. And it almost made the Derby a little bit easier to call. I think, last year, because a lot of times all that noise you hear can accelerate your heart rate a little bit, make you a little more hyped up.

And without that noise, all of a sudden your heart rate slows down a little bit and maybe you’re able to see more during the call than you would not normally have been able to see.

I think it does play a role. This year’s sound won’t be quite like the ones from 2019 and the years before that because we won’t have the full house. We’ll have about a third of the normal audience. So, that certainly plays a role there.

But when the race runs, I don’t really — I guess subconsciously, like I said, my heart rate went down a little bit because of the crowd — but I don’t really notice.

I have myself kind of cranked in the headset so I don’t hear the track announcer outside and I don’t hear too many noises around me. So that all seems to help. But I guess we’ll see what happens this year. But last year was definitely different, that’s for sure.

Jerry, in your estimation, what does Hot Rod Charlie need to do to win this race?

JERRY BAILEY: I guess the short answer is that he has to run faster than everybody else to the wire. But that’s tongue in cheek.

To me, he’s one of the most, if not the most improving horse in the race. He was second last year in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to Essential Quality, who is the favorite. He wasn’t beaten far.

And his first race this year was a good race. He was only beat by a neck, although he was a third. But he was also in between horses; he was sandwiched down the stretch, which to me is a pretty good effort because it’s hard for young horses to take that — fighting on either side and still running well.

And of course he inherited the lead in the Louisiana Derby and won, so he’s versatile. And Luis, he was three or four or five lengths off the lead, then he led.

I would expect that he’s going to be in a stalking position. I think he’s got to avoid anything worse than a three-wide trip on either turn because even though he might be best, he’s not good enough to go wide on both turns and still win, in my opinion.

So, he’s going to be forward. I think if he can avoid wide trips, no more than two, three wide at tops, but preferably two wide on the first turn and then the second turn, then I think he’s got an excellent chance to win. Randy?

RANDY MOSS: Like Edzo said earlier, we won’t necessarily give away the store before the show on Saturday. But just suffice to say that both Jerry and I have Hot Rod Charlie picked, let’s say, in our top three. A lot of respect for him.

MIKE TIRICO: I’m going to jump in for a second, not on the analyst side of it. But I was out in Southern California — I’ll tell you why in a moment — and had a chance to visit with Doug O’Neill and see Hot Rod Charlie last week in the barn, great disposition. Doug is so excited about this horse and the path to get here.

There’s a lot to like about Hot Rod Charlie in so many different ways, including the story of the nephew or Doug’s nephew, Patrick, and he and his four Brown football teammates being a part of this.

There’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm around the horse, which I think is really going to help tell one of the stories in the lead-up to the Derby that people will get attached to.

I just wanted to point out that trip out to California was to do an interview with Bob Baffert that will air on our show. In addition to that, we have a three-way interview with me, Bob Baffert and Bill Belichick. Baffert is going for his seventh Kentucky Derby as a trainer. No one has won as many as he has. He’s tied with Ben Jones, six all time. Baffert has won six Kentucky Derby’s, the Super Bowl of this sport. And Belichick has won six Super Bowls as a head coach.

We got the two of them to chat. They know each other a little bit. And the conversation was fascinating. I left completely jealous of Baffert because he got better answers out of Belichick than any of us in the media have for the last 15, 20 years.

It was a fun chat. Hopefully people will enjoy the two six-time champions in the biggest event in their sport talking with each other about horse racing and football and preparing athletes, or in Bob’s case equine athletes, for the big game.

Randy, I’m writing a story, in 2020, a year where seemingly everybody had money for both recreational activities as well as investments. We saw the sale of thoroughbred horses decline 26 percent year after year. We saw people buying digital horses and breeding digital horses. Why the decline in thoroughbreds?

RANDY MOSS: There’s really two primary reasons for that. First of all is that when horse owners purchase horses at auctions, they rely heavily on bloodstock advisors who like to examine the horses in the flesh.

Every sales company this year had a virtual element where people could actually look at horses and bid on horses online. But so much of picking out a young race horse and gauging his future ability has to do with these bloodstock agents — boots on the ground, examining the horses in person. A lot of times they can’t necessarily tell you what they’re looking for, but they know it when they see it. And the pandemic took away all of that in-person element to looking at horses prior to sales. That’s one part of it.

The second element of it is that horse ownership is, by and large, a money-losing proposition. And the reason why so many people enjoy owning racehorses is the experience that goes along with it — being able to go to the barn, watch your horse train in the morning, feed him peppermints, show up to the race in the afternoon, the excitement of the race with all your friends at the racetrack, maybe getting your picture made in the winner’s circle if your horse wins.

All of that went away during the pandemic. And I think a lot of owners sort of felt like, hey, if I can’t enjoy that aspect of horse ownership, I’m just going to sit out until I know when it’s going to come back.

Rob, saw you guys are going to be using a drone this year and a couple of live rider cams. Could you tell us a little more about that and how you and (director) Drew (Esocoff) are going to utilize them in the broadcast?

ROB HYLAND: Sure. Every year we walk away from the Derby and we’ll review, as a production team, the coverage from the last year and say to ourselves, ‘How can we enhance the viewer’s experience?’ And we thought about a live drone in ’20, but then obviously the Derby got pushed and re-imagined as a production.

And so the idea of a live drone came up a couple of years ago, but for the first time we’ll have a live drone that our director, Drew Esocoff, can utilize and really take you places that we haven’t before with our traditional cameras, specifically wrapping around the twin spires, going between the twin spires to the paddock, from the paddock back to the front side, around the track, back to the chute where the mile chute is – where it’s hard to get cameras, a very narrow area.

We believe this camera perspective will be a great, call it, magic carpet ride, for the Derby viewer of five hours of our telecast.

Then something that’s not new to horse racing and especially over in Europe, there will be two RF jockey cam systems, something we’ve done before on the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. But we’re bringing over the vendor from England, Jockey Cam. And for the races throughout all of our broadcast windows we’ll effort to have two live cameras on jockeys in every race that we are televising.

And we think it will be a really cool replay for both the turf races and dirt races. And, again, an effort to bring the viewers closer to the action and give them a sense of the speed and the decision-making that goes on in each race and how fast it is. So we’re really excited about these two new additions.

And we are bringing back a camera that we have had in the past. We debuted the bat cam in 2018, which is a two-point rail cam system suspended about 20 feet in the air, and it covers the entire back stretch of Churchill Downs. So that will be part of the complement as well.

And Drew and Kaare Numme, our MSNBC director, are very excited about the new toys we’ll be playing with on Friday and Saturday.

Jerry, I guess part one about Essential Quality, do you regard him as maybe an unusually vulnerable favorite based on some of the speed figures? And the second one is about his trainer, Brad Cox, an incredible rise to the top of the sport in the past year. What strikes you about what Brad’s been able to do?

JERRY BAILEY: Let’s go to the horse first. Essential Quality, I believe, Randy, if I’m not mistaken, on the sheets number he might be the fastest. He’s not the Beyer’s, from the Daily Racing Form, which I subscribe to most often. But even if he is or isn’t, it’s not much between the top three horses. It’s really not. Maybe very little, but he’s got so many intangibles that he has already been through.

He’s had trouble here at Churchill Downs, still won. He’s been close to the pace. He’s been far off the pace. Depending on the pace, if it’s fast he can be farther back. He’s not pace-dependent. I think the biggest obstacle Essential Quality might have is loss of ground on both turns from his post, but that’s with any come-from-behind horse. He’ll be a come-from-behind horse in the Derby. It’s just according to the pace how far back he’ll be.

RANDY MOSS: He’s very solid, as Jerry pointed out. Not that many weaknesses on paper. He hasn’t run that fast for a Kentucky Derby favorite historically. I would say he’s solid but not spectacular. He’s slightly below-average, I would say, for a Kentucky Derby favorite historically.

Now, looking at the other horses on paper this year, that might be good enough to win. But if there are any other horses in the race that are capable of jumping up and running an above-average Kentucky Derby, then they’ll probably beat him, but he’ll be right there plugging away. He’s a very, very consistent horse that doesn’t have to have things his own way.

Now, we’ll transition to the trainer part. Brad Cox has made a meteoric rise. I think I just heard a stat that he’s one of two trainers in history that have won an Eclipse Award as champion trainer of the year before they even had their first Kentucky Derby starter. Allen Jerkens one, and now Brad Cox two – last year’s champion trainer.

Most of the owners that deal with Brad Cox on a regular basis attribute his success to his all-consuming approach to training horses. They say that’s almost all he thinks about, all day, all night. He’s a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the history of the sport. He just puts so much time and effort into all the little details surrounding his horses that it’s really impressed the owners that he works with, and so, consequently, he’s getting better and better horses to train.

ROB HYLAND: We have a camera crew outside of his house in Louisville just a few blocks away from the track…for a story we’ll have on Saturday.

I want to ask everybody, for everybody I want to know what’s the longest shot you have to hit the board or hit the superfecta. That’s the question for everyone. For Mr. Steve Kornacki, I want to ask you about how are you going to break this down and what is it going to look like compared to what you do for the election? Are you going to have a big board? You mentioned that you’re going to look at the odds, how the odds change, and I know from watching your other work that you have tons of data. And I want to get an idea, what kind of data are you looking at. Are you looking at post position, speed figures, percentage of time the favorite wins? I’m really interested to learn how are you going to work this.

ROB HYLAND: I’ll begin. Steve joined us on the ‘triplecast telecast’ that we’re apart of at the beginning of April, featuring the Wood Memorial, the Bluegrass Stakes and the Santa Anita Derby. He’ll have plenty of data. He’ll have a big board. It will look a lot like his presentation on either NBC News or MSNBC. I’ll let Steve take it from there, but he’ll be equipped with his big board and plenty of data.

STEVE KORNACKI: I mean, I think I was mentioning earlier parallels that I kind of see to what I do with elections and what we can and will be doing here. And I think one of the things in the political horse race that we’re looking at, in sort of the run-up to the election, is trying to use historical data to put polling data in context.

So we might look at a poll that shows a candidate leading by five points two weeks before the election. We would look to historical data to put that into context. OK, how many other candidates have had a lead like this this close to election? How many went on to win? How many lost? How many won going away? How many won in squeakers? I think we’re constantly looking to use historical data as a way of providing context for what’s in front of us right now. That’s the approach I take here in the run-up to an election night, and I think that’s sort of the parallel that I see to what I think what we can do here in the run-up to the Derby on Saturday.

And so I think what you’re mentioning there, actually a lot of those things are things on our mind here, where you talk about, look, obviously movement on the board itself, movement in the betting. I see what’s his name — the mattress guy — is throwing what? $2, $3 million on Essential Quality? Curious to see how that moves the odds. That’s a big chunk, potentially, of the win pool right there. I’d be curious to look at that piece of it alone.

I think it’s everything you’re saying about the history of favorites in the Kentucky Derby. And more recently the favorites have been doing well. You take a step back about two decades, they couldn’t win for years. But looking at the historical trends when it comes to favorites, when it comes to horses running near the front of the pack, the speed in the Derby, how that’s been doing better lately than it had been 10, 15, 20 years ago.

So, I think it’s just trying to find historical trends, historical data that will provide context for understanding what we’re kind of all building towards and anticipating here. And I think if election night is the parallel to the Kentucky Derby, that’s kind of how I’m thinking about it.

ROB HYLAND: We worked closely with our data provider, SportsMEDIA, to be able to take snapshots of money movements throughout the day, which is a feature we’ve never really had in the past. Steve will be able to track money that’s coming on any of the individual horses in the race on Derby night, and we’ll be able to take snapshots of that and explain it to the public.

RANDY MOSS: First of all, Steve has already demonstrated his passion for the history of the sport with his reference to Dollar Bill. This is the 20^th anniversary of Dollar Bill, who is the only horse in Derby history that can get in trouble in a two-horse race.

Secondly, maybe Jim McIngvale, Mattress Mack, will have as much success with his bet on Essential Quality as he did with his seven-figure bet on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs to win the Super Bowl against the Chiefs. So Mattress Mack has shown some ability to do that.

Finally, to answer your question, Jerry and I, superfecta, I really, really like a long shot to hit the board potentially in the superfecta. His name is Dynamic One, trained by Todd Pletcher, who was beaten in a photo finish in a very weak Wood Memorial, but he probably was four, five lengths the best horse in that race. And he’s looking really good in Churchill Downs in the run-up to the Derby.

JERRY BAILEY: After Randy explained to me what a superfecta is, I’ve landed on King Fury, the winner of the Lexington Stakes. He’s in form. What’s he got to win, fourth or better? It will be a photo, but he’ll be right there.

Eddie, aren’t you the best handicapper there? Who is your —

EDDIE OLCZYK: That’s Randy and Jerry. That’s their cup of tea. I’m still trying to figure that out. Unfortunately, I think what I need to do is teach Jerry what an exacta is, trifecta, superfecta.

MIKE TIRICO: If I ever own a horse, I’ll name him Elusive Edzo, because that’s what he is when you ask him around this time, ‘What do you think, what do you think?’ He saves it all for Saturday.

I’m going to throw my hat in the ring with Midnight Bourbon, 20-1 morning line odds. When I was in California speaking with Mike Schmitz, he really likes him. How can you go wrong in a state that produces 95 percent of the world’s bourbon? Want to have some fun? Throw a horse in there that’s been in the money all seven starts, second in the Louisiana Derby — Midnight Bourbon.

It’s a great country when you can say “the mattress guy” and “the pillow guy” and a lot of people know who we’re talking about.

Jerry, you know a little bit about trips. If you were on Rock Your World, what do you think?

JERRY BAILEY: What do I think, how would I ride him? I would ride him just like John Velazquez rode Authentic last year. Be very careful with him the first quarter of a mile. He’s got the outside post, there’s that, and let your speed take over as you approach the turn.

I’m curious your thoughts on Kendrick Carmouche as a rider, he’s the first Black jockey in this race since Kevin Krigger in 2013, only the fourth in the past century. Your thoughts on Kendrick and his ability to aspire as a young rider?

JERRY BAILEY: I don’t know Kendrick well, but I met him several times, had some discussions with him. He’s a very likable guy, really likable and some would say cocky. I would just say he’s confident. He’s very confident in himself and his ability and he’s a very aggressive rider. Whether he means to or not, he intimidates a lot of guys out there just by his self-confidence and aggressiveness. I think he’s tailor-made for this race, but he’s got his work cut out for him because Bourbonic is going to be a very, very long shot. But it’s good to have him here.

RANDY MOSS: For anybody out there that doesn’t know the history of Black jockeys in the Kentucky Derby, it’s phenomenal. Obviously there haven’t been many in recent decades, but you go back to the early years of the Derby, the late 1800s, early 1900s, Black jockeys dominated the Kentucky Derby.

Guys like Isaac Murphy, Jimmy Winkfield, if anybody is interested in reading about that, there are two fantastic books on the topic, both written by the late Ed Hotaling. One is called ‘Great Black Jockeys’ and the other one is ‘Wink,’ the story about Jimmy Winkfield. It should have been made into a major motion picture a long time ago.

Rob, using the 20-horse gate with a 20-horse field in the Derby, I’m wondering how much better is it going to be for the inside horses, for instance, No. 1, Known Agenda, and how are you going to show it?

ROB HYLAND: Good question. We saw this gate a year ago in the Kentucky Derby. I’ll let Jerry speak to how a rider would get out of the gate quickly, but we will have a camera isolated on stalls one through 10 and a second camera isolated on stalls 11 through 20.

The 14 horse will be isolated out of the gate, your favorite, Essential Quality, and we always have the full field covered out of the gate, and the overhead will always show the start of the race and any movement a horse makes from overhead to try to avoid that rail if that is in fact an issue.

JERRY BAILEY: You know, but many on this call may not know, that with a double gate that they had prior in past years, to make it fit on the track itself, the 1 post had to essentially be looking at the inside rails. If you were in stall 1 on a horse, if you ran straight, you would run right into the rails. You had to do a little bit of maneuvering as you broke and ran the first hundred yards.

But that’s pretty much typical with any race — you do a little maneuvering once you leave the gate. The benefit of 1 gate, it’s deeply placed into the track, so as the No. 1 horse looks down the track, he won’t be looking at the inside rail. He’ll be looking at a running lane. But honestly, I don’t think it’s going to be that much different in how the races are run.

ROB HYLAND: I’ve got two things to add to that. Number one, the notion that the No. 1 post position is a huge disadvantage and horses get buried down on the rail and they’ve got no chance because they draw the 1 hole. Even with the old starting gate, it’s a bunch of malarkey. It defies geometry. Some people think you get to the Kentucky Derby and suddenly geometry doesn’t matter. Data proves that, and the new starting gate will only help that. And the other thing I have to add…and down the stretch they come!

For the analysts, looking past the Derby, looking to the Oaks and other big stakes on Friday and Saturday, who are some of the horses you’re looking forward to watching or horses you think might make for some good value in some of those stakes?

JERRY BAILEY: Let’s start with the Oaks. You’ve got the first four favorites are the winners of all the major preps. It’s a pretty good race in itself. The Derby you have, in my opinion, three pretty closely grouped. I think you have almost four pretty closely grouped in the Oaks. The winner of the Fair Grounds Oaks, the winner of the Ashland, Malathaat, the Fantasy, Pauline’s Pearl, and then the Gazelle winner, Search Results.

Malathaat is the favorite but I think Search Results, she could have some value.

The Eight Belles is a terrific race. The Turf Sprint is a terrific race. Randy and I just looked over Friday’s card and almost every race is a great value race to bet and a lot of talent.

RANDY MOSS: The great thing about the Kentucky Derby is that with 20 horses, now 20 different betting interests since the early 1990s, it’s not difficult at all to find good value on a horse that you like, that you think has a chance in the Derby. I mean, the challenge is just picking the right horse, which is a challenge that Jerry and I and everybody else have from year-to-year.

But you can go down the line and you can look at Dynamic One, a horse that I mentioned that should be a good price. O Besos, who was just beaten for second money in the Louisiana Derby. Midnight Bourbon, the horse that beat him for second, he’s going to be a good price. All sorts of value everywhere in the Kentucky Derby and fantastic undercard races all weekend.

JERRY BAILEY: Some of the headliners on Friday, you have the Oaks winner from a couple years ago Shedaresthedevil. On Saturday you have Charlatan. In the Sprint Race, you have Gamine, last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint champion. There’s some big names out there this weekend other than the Derby and the Oaks.

EDDIE OLCZYK: Friday’s card is — I’m looking at it. You can go three- and four-deep in the majority of the cards, but specifically in the Eight Belles, you’re asking for a specific horse, which is just a tremendous race.

I like Li’l Tootsie, with Flavien Prat for Tom Amoss, going to be a nice square price. Going to be using that horse up and down and hoping to pad the bankroll for a bit later in the day for Oaks and into the Oaks/Derby Double. A lot of my plays on Friday will be in Race 9 with Li’l Tootsie.

Rob, on the use of the drone, do you plan to actually use it in the race? Is there a wind restriction? And I assume it’s in addition to the blimp rather than replacing?

ROB HYLAND: It is in addition to the blimp, and we’ll be doing rehearsals with the vendor tomorrow afternoon and Thursday after training and just establish our comfort level with the camera. It’s a new toy but not the only camera we have. Churchill Downs has been great in working with us and the vendor has been great. Our number one priority is safety.

We were worried about the bat cam years ago. Horses have never noticed it in a race, so I’m hoping that we will effort a shot of the race or each race from the drone from the infield, sort of mimicking what the bat cam does in the back stretch, perhaps the drone handles on the front stretch. That will be determined over the next 48 hours of testing.

Mike, what has been your favorite memory with covering the Derby all these years that you have covered it?

MIKE TIRICO: Well, it’s only five years for me so I’m new compared to everybody else, but certainly the 20-some-odd minutes we all sat there with Maximum Security and Country House. There have been 146 Derby’s to this point and there’s never been an end to the race quite like that. That time was I think the best of what you hope for when you’re involved in live television.

Tremendous job by our producer, Rob, and our director. The best is Randy and Jerry walking us through a situation we hadn’t had happen before. The foresight of our group to have a camera with the stewards and watching them agonize over this decision that eventually changed the course of history — and for one horse, a Kentucky Derby winner; one horse has the biggest asterisk you’ll have in Derby history. Of the four, that’s the one that sticks out for me for the moment.

And the joy of live TV is that what we saw this year, we’ll have no idea what will happen, and we hope we’ll handle it the best we possibly can.

TRANSCRIPT – LIVE FROM THE MASTERS CONFERENCE CALL

March 31, 2021 By admin

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Brandel Chamblee

Justin Leonard

Rich Lerner

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining today’s call. We’re going to be joined by NBC Sports’ lead golf studio team featuring Rich Lerner and analysts Brandel Chamblee and Justin Leonard.

RICH LERNER: Thanks for joining us. Now that I live in New England, in Connecticut, the GOLF Channel has moved, I’m more acutely aware of the waiting game that golfers play. Wait for the snow to melt. We had plenty of it. You wait for that first warm day. And obviously if you love the sport, you wait for The Masters. It’s always nice when the waiting is over.

Last time we were together at Augusta National, we were talking, if I remember correctly guys, we were talking about Leo Diegel and Denny Shute and Willie Fernie, who are the only men to have won majors later in the year than Dustin Johnson last November. Brandel can give you a full debrief on Willie Fernie.

The storylines that I have my eye on, I think a lot of people would like to see, if I had to sort of rank them pre-tournament, I think the best story would be Jordan Spieth winning again at last, his first time since Birkdale in 2017.

Bryson at Augusta. Rory completing the slam in his seventh try. Dustin becoming the fourth to repeat. I’ll throw a curveball here — Phil at 50. And though he hasn’t been great of late, you never discount someone like Phil at Augusta. And I think the other story, I think if it happens, if he plays, Brooks Koepka on one good leg.

A lot of really good storylines going in. Brandel, how about you?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Look, there’s a lot to look forward to this week. Starting off for me, I’m going to be watching and talking about the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The inaugural gave us an epic back and forth between Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi, not only of athleticism but of goodwill towards one another.

I think that was the sport represented at its highest. Jennifer Kupcho did her best to duplicate the shot heard around the world in 1935 when Gene Sarazen, not at the 13th but the 15th holed it out. But who could forget Kupcho’s shot in the 13th for a final-round 67. Of course, she’s gone on to have a good start to her LPGA career.

Also looking forward to the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals.

And as the week goes on, just watching Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Elder get The Masters started. It’s been two years since we’ve had one in April. And while it was nice last year for us to get to see The Masters played, and it was beautiful in fall colors, I think most people are looking forward to the golf course playing more with players who are accustomed to — a little firmer, a little faster.

I’m also looking forward to Bryson DeChambeau take two. I think the first go-around was not what he was looking for, not what anybody was expecting.

And then, of course, the shortest time elapsed between a player winning in his defense, Dustin Johnson, not much has happened since then in terms of his game falling off. It’s still almost as sharp as it was coming into the event. So, looking forward to watching Dustin Johnson try to successfully defend and just be the fourth player to do so.

Justin, there’s always a lot to talk about, those are just headlines for me. But we can go on and on and I’m sure you could as well.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Certainly could. You guys hit on so many great storylines that we’ll be really detailing starting Monday night, first part of the week, and then kind of see how the golf plays out.

It seems like I was just driving from Augusta to Atlanta to catch a flight a couple of weeks ago. Even though it was four months ago, it seems a little strange for such a quick turnaround.

I know that, I believe the last two editions of the Masters Tournament has set scoring records. I’ve also heard through a couple of different folks that the golf course right now, or at least in the last week or two has been playing very, very firm.

And I’m guessing that, and I look forward to finding out for sure, that we’re going to find a little tougher Augusta National. I think they want to put a little bit of teeth back into it. Certainly, you know, we’re under some constraints weather-wise and the overseed everything in November. I think they’ll have a little more control over the golf course starting this weekend.

And it will be really interesting to see if they keep the golf course firm. I doubt it will be as firm this weekend. But going into this tournament, starting Monday through Wednesday, how the golf course firms up, the weather looks to be pretty good.

And, like you say, Dustin Johnson, can he win two in a row? Bryson after his first go-around, what adjustments did he make? And then, of course, Jordan Spieth. And also one name you didn’t mention was Rory McIlroy, trying to complete the career grand slam.

I don’t think he has a whole lot of confidence in his game right now. But maybe he can gather some this week and find something magical next weekend.

Q. I’m wondering if Augusta National does play as difficult as some people are pontificating, who do you think that benefits next weekend?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I think Brandel has convinced me that the angle of descent is very important at Augusta National, even more so when it’s firm and fast. When I played in it in the years I did, I always looked forward to playing fast because it meant that I would be hitting 4-irons into all the par-4s.

But knowing what I know now, and thanks to Brandel just continuing to hammer this home with me, it’s the guys who can bring it in from a steep angle.

And I think if the golf course turns out to play fast, I still love Dustin Johnson and his ability to play that golf course. I think Rory McIlroy, I still think that when he gets to Augusta, having such a shorter timeframe from November to April rather than having to think about it for an entire year, probably suits him.

Then you have to go to a guy like Bryson, with as high as he can hit the ball with less clubs than anybody will hit into the greens and especially the par-5s, I think a firmer golf course plays even more into the longer hitters’ hands. And certainly a guy like Bryson would be somebody you’d have to consider. If not the favorite, then certainly one of the top four or five.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I would agree, it’s somewhat counterintuitive. The softer the golf course plays, the more it opens it up for everybody, even those with lower ball flights and less spin. And the firmer it plays, the more it’s sort of imperative to control your landings with angles.

So I would look at Justin Thomas for sure under any circumstances, but certainly Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau. And beyond that I’d go to those players — if it’s playing firm, obviously what a player does tee to green is important, but around the green is hugely important. So I look to the most well-rounded players, and that’s Patrick Cantlay. He’s certainly in that group.

I hope Rory McIlroy finds something with Pete Cowen and his team. I hope he’s able to show up with some sort of semblance of form, that he’ll have an aha moment sometime between the last time he played at the Match Play and we see him at Augusta.

I hope he has one of those aha moments. Justin can certainly can speak to this, you just never know. You can go out to the range one day completely lacking in confidence and think you stink, and walk home that night and feel like you’re Jack Nicklaus and think I found it. Nobody else may know it. But he could really show up and be a completely different person because we’re talking about — two weeks I think one of the most exciting things going into this Masters really for me is to see what Pete Cowen and Rory McIlroy are capable of doing when they’re home for a week and they have time to work on — if you’re arguably looking at the most talented golfer in the world and you’re already talking about arguably the most talented teacher — I’m curious what those two could do.

I don’t think it’s going to take the two-year incubation period that Nick Faldo took or Tiger Woods took, or at least I don’t think it should have to. I think teaching has improved since those two-year incubation points, as the ability to measure with more accuracy golf swings, because of the devices they use teaching has improved.

So, I’m really curious what Rory McIlroy shows up with at Augusta National.

RICH LERNER: I would throw in one other name among others, but Jon Rahm. To me it’s not a question of if, but when. And I think it will be soon and I also believe it would be a Greg Norman/Ernie Els surprise if he never won a Masters. So well suited does he appear to be for Augusta National. I think he has a ton of game. Jon Rahm, another guy, I think that will play well.

Q. You already mentioned a little bit about Bryson. What do you feel like he did wrong last time when he tried to take apart — he tried to just overpower Augusta National. Is that something that can be done?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Look, I believe him when he says he wasn’t feeling well that week. I think some weeks you show up and you don’t have it physically. And I think it was an off week for him. I also think he was hugely unlucky at the third when his ball — I’ve never seen anybody lose a golf ball there. We’ll be watching The Masters for the next 20, 30, 40 years, you’ll never see another golf ball lost where Bryson hit it.

It was a hugely unlucky break. He got off to a bad start. I think one of the more, if not the most, ironic moment of 2020 was him making double bogey at the 13th hole in the first round after all the buildup to what he might do there.

So a lot of things have to go your way for a player of any skill to have a great week. And one of them is to feel well. I take him at his word, if you’re paying attention, he’s altered his diet. He’s come a long way down from the four, five, or 6,000 calories a day; he’s having 1,500 calories a day. And I’ve thought this all along, that a larger part of the equation of him hitting it far was not his diet and his bulk, but the changes he made in his golf swing.

He says as much when he talks about the more sinewy build of Kyle Berkshire. He’s going to come into Augusta more sinewy than the last time we saw him, less bulked up and hopefully feeling better. And Bryson DeChambeau take two at the 2021 Masters, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gave us all the excitement that we were expecting in 2020.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I think for Bryson is not trying to do too much as far as there may be a hole where it’s fine to hit a 5-wood or a 4-hybrid, if he had his cracked one replaced, which I’m sure he has from THE PLAYERS.

But not try and completely overpower every single hole on every single shot. There’s times when it’s a good idea just to play to the corner. I think of the hole like 5 where if it’s a stretch for him to get over that last fairway bunker. If he hits a 3-wood out where most of the other players are playing from, he’s still coming in with a shorter iron than they are. He’s still coming in with a steeper angle.

So I think it’s a void — the need to overpower every single tee shot there. I think it’s take advantage of the ones he’s comfortable in doing and maybe driver at 13 is not the right play. Maybe it is.

Obviously he can hit it very high. He can do it from right-to-left. But I just would like to see him avoid some pressing and trying to do too much off the tee, because his game is solid enough to get around that — he doesn’t need to drive it perfectly on every hole in order to put himself in position.

He can play to certain spots where the rest of the field is playing from and he still has an advantage. And yet on the holes where he’s very comfortable off the tee, those are the ones where he needs to put the pedal down.

RICH LERNER: I would just add that I think Bryson, what makes him so intriguing is that he’s pushing the sport to its most modern edge. But I think with that, he’s having to figure out how to manage every aspect of it, when you come into a big championship. And so it’s not just, to Brandel’s point, managing his diet but it’s managing the media and managing expectations and managing the hype.

And so as Bryson figures that end of it out, and I think he’s in the early stages, I think we may see something really extraordinary, because I think we’re just — this moonshot has just been sort of liftoff. The other side of that is how long can Bryson, at full throttle, he always appears to be at full throttle, how many events have we been to where the round was over — it was at Winged Foot and deep into a Saturday night, he’s still hitting driver full force.

So the other side of it is how long can he last without sort of the engine blowing. And I think Bryson and his team are smart. And I think they’re looking holistically at his program and how to best manage it. So to that end I think there will be a much better performance from Bryson this time around.

Q. Justin, but please, Brandel, can jump in as well. You’ve heard Phil say many times that no matter how poorly or indifferent he had been playing before The Masters, that once he got there and drove down Magnolia Lane, that everything seemed to change. Do you think a lot of players feel that way? Or maybe just players who have won there before, or just Phil?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I think there’s a few players. That list is pretty short. It certainly works for Phil Mickelson. I think Jordan Spieth is another player. He’s probably not — there probably isn’t another golf course in the world where he’s more comfortable, he’s more excited about playing than Augusta National. I think he and Phil, of the modern players, they’re really the only two players I can think of, maybe Tiger Woods as well — and the reason I just didn’t say it immediately is because he’s not playing.

But for those players, I don’t think it matters what sort of form that they’re in when they get to Augusta National, because they’re so confident in what they do on that golf course, in particular.

And that their recent form doesn’t really matter. Now the fact that Jordan Spieth is coming in regaining his form rather rapidly over the last two months says to me that’s a little bit dangerous for the rest of the field because he’s got to be one of the favorites. Phil, you wouldn’t have him as a favorite, but it’s certainly fair to watch because of his record there. And he’s talked about it. It’s his favorite week of the year.

And while I know he’s playing this week in San Antonio, I don’t think it matters a whole lot how he plays, because the shot that he’s hitting this week in the tournament, it’s all with next week in mind.

So those two players, I think, you have to keep an eye out for them no matter how they’re coming into the week.

Q. Rich, you’re such a big sports fan even beyond golf. And so often in sports we always talk about the teams that kind of sneak into the playoffs under the radar and then do something once the playoffs begin. So you were out there in Austin last week, obviously, calling golf for five days. Is there somebody off the radar that you think we should keep in mind that maybe you talked to on the range or saw something that you think could have a big week next week?

RICH LERNER: Well, personally, I can’t quite expunge from my mind the image of Tyrrell Hatton, who seems to have perfected the art of club flip. And as questionable acts of decorum go, his happens to be mildly endearing. But as I called it, sort of the peaky blinders put on, shouldn’t detract from the fact that Hatton can really play.

And I think you look at his body of work — in the last two to three weeks he hasn’t been great and he wasn’t especially good at the Match Play. But if you look at his body of work over the last two years, oddly enough, after a wrist/hand issue — and here’s another guy you could look at, though he’s more of a little low ball hitter, that typically is not the best at Augusta — but that’s Daniel Berger, who also had a wrist/hand issue and has rebounded nicely.

I’ll give you Tyrrell Hatton. I’ll give you Danny Berger. I’ll give you Webb Simpson. Again these aren’t prototypes. This is not Jon Rahm, high ball hitter, for the obvious reasons that you like.

Webb — and Brandel and Justin can correct me if I’m wrong here — Webb would fit into the category more of a Patrick Reed — excellent short game; hard, competitive streak; doesn’t give much away.

And he’s a Wake Forest guy. Right? I think he went to Wake on the Arnold Palmer Scholarship. He certainly would know what Augusta National meant to Arnie. But those are a few guys I would throw out there.

Q. To the point about Daniel Berger, and Justin and Brandel you can weigh in on this, he’s had to wait the longest for this because he won the first event out after the restart.

When you’re someone like Daniel Berger who thought that they should have figured out some way to get him in for 2020, he did not. He’s been waiting and now he finally gets this chance, how do you keep yourself mentally focused going into Thursday knowing how long you’ve been waiting for this moment to happen?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I don’t think he’d have a hard time keeping mentally focused. Quite the contrary. I think he’s probably never been more focused in his entire life because you work your whole life to have these sorts of opportunities. And you could make an argument that since the restart after the pandemic, there’s been maybe two or three players play as well as Daniel Berger.

So he must realize you can go in and very easily calculate your own World Ranking points accumulated since the pandemic. And he would see right there plain as day, and he would know this as well, that he is amongst a handful of favorites to play well.

So I mean I’m sure it’s focused like using a magnifying glass on the sun on paper. That would be how focused you’d be. And he would be doing everything in his power to have the right mental state.

And in terms of players off the radar, look, it’s a very hard tournament to win if you’re outside the top 15 in the world, flat out. It’s the easiest tournament to predict who is going to win of all of them.

THE PLAYERS would be the hardest. The Masters is the easiest because, one, there’s the smallest field in major championship golf. And some of them are past champions, well past their prime. So it’s even smaller than the number.

And then once The Masters sort of identifies those with the talents necessary to play well there it has more repeat winners than every other major. And basically those talents are, it allows you to have wiggle room off the tee, but if you have the ability to hit high cuts off of hook lies or in the case of the lefties obviously the opposite of that, you’ve got a tremendous advantage at Augusta National.

So ball-striking is important everywhere, of course. But you have to look at players that are capable of hitting high cuts. And because we are asked so many times there, even a back, right hole location on 6 on Sunday is so important. If you think about what Dustin Johnson did last year on Sunday, after bogeying 4 and 5, the hole location’s over on the right on 6, the high cut of his that he only went to in December 2015 is when he stumbled onto that cut. And that’s when he’s done his best work. And that high cut on that hole like 6, you just have to have it.

So I look at sooner or later, another first timer is going to win at Augusta National. So outside of 34 and 35, Fuzzy Zoeller is it. So the question always is, who is the first-time player there or who was the someone with the least amount of experience who is likely to win?

I almost look at November as sort of a wash because you wouldn’t have learned what you needed to know from the November Masters to play in an April Masters. But I look at Will Zalatoris, who is amongst the elite, and I’m talking about the top-five-strokes-gained-tee-to-green players in the world who can show up and — I say surprise; he wouldn’t surprise his peers, but he would surprise the sort of the casual golf fan who mostly tunes in to watch the bigger events and certainly The Masters is one of those.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I was sitting here going through the World Golf Rankings, and there’s always debate on what’s off the radar. It’s hard to say that a player is off the radar if they’re ranked top 25, top 30 in the world. But as Brandel laid out, it’s typically guys up there at the very top of the World Rankings that seem to do well. But I look down and think of a guy like Harris English, a guy who likes to hit high cuts, who’s putting as well as he has in his entire career.

And I think somebody like a Harris English has a great chance playing on a firmer golf course, hitting those high cuts, and obviously he’s played with a lot of confidence through the last two years, and then finally getting that victory back in the fall. He’s somebody that I’m definitely going to be watching with a lot of interest.

Q. Brandel and Justin, curious your thoughts on why Jordan Spieth — and you touched on this a little bit already — why is his game so well suited for Augusta National? Is it as simple as it’s a good draw and there’s a number of holes that set up for a draw? And then obviously the short-game skill-set there. Or is there something more to it than that?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, as you know, Augusta National did not allow green reading books. So many players are so used to using those books each and every week and I think for Jordan Spieth, he gets there and he sees the line of putts on the greens and he doesn’t have to go to his book to kind of reconfirm that. I think the fact that he’s got some room off the tee, he understands the angles, hole locations, certain places where you can miss it, other areas where you can’t. And you don’t have to hit the ball perfectly around Augusta National, but you do have to manage where you miss it and when you miss it, and I think that’s something that Jordan has done so well around Augusta National and throughout his entire career.

But I think the big thing is on the greens. He’s just so comfortable there on the greens with his short game, being able to get the ball up-and-down. And it is, it’s going to be at more of a premium assuming the golf course is firm and fast. Ball-striking is going to be important, but got to have your wits about you on the greens, understand where you can miss it and then play the right shot from there.

So, to me, those are his biggest strengths, and I think they’re on display at Augusta National.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: And I certainly agree with everything that Justin said. I’ll go back to this time and time again. You look at the man who won the most Masters ever, Jack, and his release pattern. You can just scroll through any Masters he won and watch. You can just watch his release pattern and watch how high he finishes. You can see the way his left arm works through impact.

It’s very much sort of the chicken-wing look that Jordan Spieth has. It’s funny how he was criticized for that, so was Jordan Spieth. But the very thing he’s criticized for is the thing that makes him great. It’s his release pattern. And his release pattern goes left to right. And you think about how many times you have a ball above your feet or a hook lie, and if you have a draw, you’ll slam that club into the hill and get a surprise pull left. But if you’re cutting across it, you get no surprise. You hit high soft cuts into the greens and you can always sort of – the ball’s general working left to right on greens that are sloped from front to back. And they stop quicker and more often than not they end up underneath the hole.

It’s a combination of Jordan Spieth being able to, yes, as you said, work it beautifully right to left when he needs to. Mostly he does that with his 3-wood. He’ll hit 3-wood at 13 mostly, he’ll hit 3-wood at 2 mostly, and he’s a smart enough player to know when to hit 3-wood and when he can go with driver.

Beyond that, it’s his extraordinary iron play coupled with his ability to pitch the ball like Phil Mickelson. There’s been very few players come along who have been able to trap — everybody talks about using the bounce. And, look, I get it, how using the bounce works. But Phil didn’t. He trapped it, covered it in his pitch shots. So does Jordan Spieth. They sort of trap cut them in their own way and on tight lies where there’s very little room for mistakes, Jordan Spieth, more often than not, hits the most amazing pitch shots.

The audio on his pitch shots is like Phil Mickelson’s. And it’s like Jose Maria Olazabal’s and Sergio Garcia’s. I mean, these are great pitchers of the ball.

So, again, it’s a place where he gets to show off and the golf course is a perfect fit for him because he’s not the best driver of the golf ball, but it allows you room to recover and then he can work his magic.

RICH LERNER: One other thing I would add — this is obviously not as technical — but if ever a play seemed to be sort of born for a place, it was Spieth. You think about the depth of his experience at Augusta and he’s only 27. In 2014, he’s chasing Bubba (Watson) on Sunday. He led it early and then Bubba pulled away.

2015, he tied what was then Tiger’s scoring record, since broken by Dustin (Justin). 2016 he has the mini meltdown at No. 12 and (Danny) Willett wins. So, he experiences the range of emotions inside of two years.

In 2018, he shoots 64 in the coulda, woulda, shoulda game. Had a chance to be 61 or 62, which I thought at that moment would have been the greatest Sunday in the history of the sport had he come all the way back to win and then (Patrick) Reed ended up winning.

So just the depth of what he’s already experienced there is uncommon at any single venue for any player. He obviously loves it there.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: And to Rich’s point, he’s the only player since 2000 that’s shot multiple rounds of 64. It is just a perfect fit for him.

Q. Brandel had a great post on Instagram yesterday where he wrote when you watch younger players come up, you wonder if there’s any of him or her left in their swing or are they simply chasing some emulative dream. Could you expound on that and why is being more results-driven tending to yield better results than players who pursue this technical perfection? And of the young guys that you mentioned — Morikawa, Wolff, Scheffler — who has the best shot of winning the Masters?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: In an age of so much data and information and video to sit down and ponder, there are a lot of ways you can use that. And when I see players chasing some aesthetic ideal, I see them not really ever taking ownership of their game. They essentially turn over their entire swing, ideas, their thoughts to teachers or other people who are around them.

When you see somebody take ownership of their game — and I’m really thinking of Viktor Hovland or Matt Wolff or Collin Morikawa, the players I posted — they take ownership of their game. And there’s vitality in that and there is a certain arrogance in that.

Lee Trevino certainly had that in great quantity. And I think — it’s curious to me, in an age where we have so much data about the golf swing, and there’s so much video on YouTube of all these great golf swings — and I see this even on the LPGA Tour. I see some of the best golf swings losing to golf swings that are more idiosyncratic like Inbee Park. If you looked at Anne van Dam and you looked at Inbee Park on the range, you’d never in a million years guess that Inbee Park can beat Anne van Dam handily. Mind you, Inbee Park beats almost everybody handily. But I think there’s a difference in chasing an aesthetic ideal and learning from the ball flight.

This is one of the great things about Butch Harmon, is that none of his players swing alike. And Butch uses the ball flight more than anything else. He talks about how the ball flight never lies.

And I think these players have come along in an age of data and they’ve used it to shape their strategy, and they’ve used it to sort of complement their, I guess, intuition about how to play the game; but they haven’t used it to conform to an aesthetic ideal or to methods that are everywhere out there in the world.

And every teacher has an idea about how to swing the golf club and they differ. Almost every single teacher differs with one another.

But to see the players come along and look so idiosyncratic and look like — I quoted Bob Dylan in that speech only because the singer Bob Dylan reminds me of the players I was sort of posting about. There’s this beautiful imperfection. There’s this wonderful sloppiness to their work, like a Jackson Pollock painting. You can’t quite make it out but it’s amazing. It works. And I love that about this generation.

And to answer your question, I think Collin Morikawa is the obvious choice, because simply, of all those players I posted, he is the best iron player, he’s the best ball striker, and that allows you to separate yourself from everybody else quicker and more consistently.

RICH LERNER: Brandel, quick comment on top of that because it’s fascinating. But you still play golf; you don’t swing golf. It’s a game to be played. And that’s entirely, the swing — not to minimize the importance of certain sound fundamentals — but you quoted Dylan, I’ll quote Hal Sutton, who said to me once, ‘You show me a guy with a homemade swing and I’ll show you a guy who believes in himself.’ So you think about the long history, right off the top, it’s Arnold. It’s Hubert Green. It’s Lee Trevino. It’s Raymond Floyd.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: It’s even Jack Nicklaus, by the way.

RICH LERNER: Right.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Yeah, Jack Nicklaus’ golf swing would have been nothing that anybody was teaching. You think Jack Nicklaus took up the game in 1950, that was the year that Hogan came back from the accident and won the U.S. Open, and the whole world was in love with that flat golf swing. And Jack came up with this fly-the-right elbow. His swing would have looked as homemade then as Bryson DeChambeau’s does now.

JUSTIN LEONARD: And to throw a couple other names, to prove Brandel’s point, Scottie Scheffler, with his really high hands and his footwork is kind of all over the place. And Joaquín Niemann. Those are two golf swings that you don’t — probably don’t — you probably don’t have a lot of junior players that are putting pictures of those two swings up on above their bed.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Right not at all.

JUSTIN LEONARD: But they’re two golf swings that work beautifully for them and there is beauty in imperfections.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Think about it. Those are the players that made it at the youngest age — Scottie Scheffler, Joaquín Niemann, Viktor Hovland, Matt Wolff, Collin Morikawa. And you look at those people and say how did these players — go to any driving range at an NCAA event or top amateur event and you’ll see nothing but Adam Scott’s.

I’m not disparaging Adam Scott’s golf swing. It’s amazing. But the point is you’ll see nothing but technical perfection and they didn’t make it. These kids did and it begs the question, ‘How? Why?’ And you have to say at some point it’s empowering to be different.

RICH LERNER: How about Jon Rahm?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Jon Rahm, much the same way. You wouldn’t teach that swing. You couldn’t teach that swing.

RICH LERNER: Right.

Q. Brandel, what have you seen in Jordan’s swing that’s different in this little resurgence?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Well, if you watch him when he rehearses before he hits a shot now, it’s weird. Even when he’s hitting bunker shots, he’ll make this very flat golf swing and then in transition, he’ll bring his right elbow much closer to his left elbow than I’ve ever seen him, and then he will round it off and sort of curve the hub.

He’ll swing very much around and to the left. The only other person I’ve ever seen make practice swings like that is Jason Dufner. So it would not surprise me in the least if he was not — if he wasn’t taking lessons from Jason Dufner, talking to Jason Dufner about the golf swing, or watching Jason Dufner make golf shots. Or Cameron McCormick is.

RICH LERNER: He has, Brandel. I spoke to their camp at Bay Hill and he has confided in Dufner, which sort of caught me by surprise.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: There you go, because you can see it in the moves. And, look, anybody who watched Jason Dufner hit golf shots knows that, for a guy who doesn’t have great club head speed, there’s still an audio to his shot that is arresting. And he’s a high-quality ball striker and he’s spent a lot of times studying the swing — mind you it’s a very golf machine-oriented view; but, listen, the answers are wherever you find them.

And this has worked wonders for Jordan to keep from getting stuck. It’s got the club flipping out in front of him again so he can get on top of it. And it’s teacher-speak. We say swing left or whatever, but it’s getting around and getting the club back out in front of him and stop getting it stuck.

Q. D.J. has been doing this for years. Have you seen more guys with the bowed left wrist? You look at Rahm, Morikawa, Hovland, do you think there’s a reason we’re seeing more of this, or just idiosyncrasy that some of these guys share?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I don’t think we’re seeing any more of it. I just think that golf is on TV 24 hours a day so we’re noticing it and we have high-speed video and cameras so we can see it in slow motion. But there was a great teacher, unheralded teacher by the name of Kelvin Miyahira, who almost every teacher today has either, I say steal from, borrowed from, been influenced by — sadly he had a stroke a few years ago.

But Kelvin did a deep dive into the number of bowed left wrists, shut faces, and the majority of major winners since World War II have had bowed left wrists and shut faces. The majority of them. There’s obvious benefits to it in that you have less work to do on the downswing and you only need clear your body as fast as you can to hold off the face. And it helps you hit cut shots which, again, is the more preferable ball flight when it comes to winning major championships for the height with which you can hit it, the way it works left to right, so forth.

But I think the equipment, too, has allowed guys to have stronger grips, which has made the face even more shut at the top; allowed them to sort of hang back a little bit with their upper body, have more spine tilt, stronger grip, and launch it higher. So the equipment is contributing to it to some point, and maybe that’s why you’re seeing even more shut faces. But the bowed left wrist — Palmer was that guy. Claude Harmon was that guy. Loads of players are shut-faced players in the past.

RICH LERNER: I want to say thanks to all the guys. It’s obvious you’re covering this sport and not soccer. Those were some great questions. And we look forward to seeing you guys next week at Augusta.

TRANSCRIPT – DREW BREES INTRODUCTORY CONFERENCE CALL

March 17, 2021 By admin

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Sam Flood

Drew Brees

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today for our call to introduce Drew Brees as the newest member of the NBC Sports team. In just a moment we’ll be joined by Drew as well as NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood. As you all know, it was announced on Monday that Drew will be joining our team as a studio analyst on Football Night in America and as a game analyst for our Notre Dame broadcasts. Let’s begin with opening remarks from Sam Flood.

SAM FLOOD: Thanks, Chris, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We are thrilled that Drew is officially on the NBC Sports team. He scared a bunch of people when he was pushing that sled and getting that massive workout in a few weeks ago, throwing people off the scent and even giving us pause.

But we’re really excited to have a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and future Hall of Famer working for us, coming in in a Super Bowl year, joining Football Night and Notre Dame, and he’ll be part of big events at NBC like the Olympics and the Derby as we go forward, and a perfect year to have him join the Super Bowl out in LA. We can’t wait to get going.

Then for the Notre Dame games, Mike Tirico and Drew will have a lot of fun in South Bend. A Boilermaker calling the Notre Dame games. Should be a fun listen and a good chance to experience college football again, which is one of the things that’s exciting about this deal, touching multiple parts of the company and of the sports world.

With that, we welcome Drew and want to pass it off to you because he’s the person everyone wants to hear from right now. So, Drew, take it away.

DREW BREES: Thank you, Sam, and thank you to everyone who’s tuned in. I could not be more excited to be joining the NBC team. Certainly, in my opinion, it is the best of the best from the top down. My experience thus far with every member of NBC has been first class, and I’m really looking forward to jumping on board. Again, being part of the college football broadcast as a game analyst with Notre Dame football and then as a studio analyst with Football Night in America. I look forward to working very closely with the team, especially Mike Tirico, Rodney Harrison, Tony Dungy and many others.

At this point, I’ll turn it over to everyone for questions, and I’m excited to get started.

Q. Sam, how do you foresee it working out with Mike Tirico and Al Michaels with Al in the last year of his contract and then also with Drew and Cris Collinsworth in terms of Drew potentially doing Sunday Night Football and maybe the Super Bowl one day?

SAM FLOOD: Well, first of all, with Mike and Al, that process, conversations continue. It will be similar to this last year in terms of how we map that out. In terms of the booth for Sunday Night Football and Cris, Cris remains among the best to have ever done it, and the plan is to have him in that chair for a long time. So, the opportunity down the road is not something we’re looking at right now. We’re focused on Football Night in America, the Notre Dame partnership with Mike Tirico, and that’s really what this opportunity is about.

Q. From the Notre Dame side of things, what do you remember about your trips there, however many years ago, and what you may remember coming forward this year when Purdue will actually be their second game?

DREW BREES: Yes, don’t think I didn’t see that on the schedule right away. No, I remember vividly my two experiences at Notre Dame, both in 1998 and 2000. Both games, in my opinion, we should have won and somehow, someway Touchdown Jesus got us in the end. But I’m extremely excited to be in the booth with Mike Tirico broadcasting those Notre Dame games. There’s no question that that is really one of the epicenters of college football. The history and the nostalgia that exists there and I think just what that place represents to so many people, it is a special place.

I will say this, I will be impartial for every game with the exception of the Purdue game because my bloodlines run deep with the black and gold and the Boilermakers.

But on a serious note, I’m excited to be a part of that and really continue, I think, the legacy of what Notre Dame football has meant to so many and obviously extremely excited to be in the booth with Mike Tirico.

Q. Even though you’re not initially doing the booth for the NFL, any quarterback coming into this business these days is going to be judged a little bit against what Tony Romo has done. What do you think about the way he made that transition and how much of what he’s done do you kind of study as a template for how you might make that transition?

DREW BREES: Sure, I think Tony has done a great job. I think that what Tony did was — I think he very quickly showed football fans everywhere just the way that an NFL quarterback can see and process the game, and it’s obviously maybe much different than what they’ve seen or heard before.

Obviously, he’s had a ton of success and, listen, Tony has his own style, and I think that the best piece of advice that I’ve gotten so far when stepping into this business and stepping into the booth is just to be yourself. I think that’s exactly what Tony has done. I think that if you look at all the great broadcasters from Cris Collinsworth to Troy Aikman to Jon Gruden to all the guys from history, man, everybody had their own style, right? John Madden. You certainly want the fans to kind of get a glimpse into the way that you see and process the game but also feel your love and passion for the game.

I think that’s what was so intriguing about this transition from being a player to going into the booth is that I love this game, and I love watching this game, I love talking about this game, and it gives me the opportunity to stay very closely connected, to show my love and passion for the game but in a different way, and also for fans to get a glimpse into how I see it, how I process it. And then the trick is to be able to articulate that in a way where fans can not only understand it, but I want them to walk away from the game after listening to me talk about it saying, ‘Man, I know a lot more about the game now’ or ‘I know a lot more about that play or that team’ or ‘I have a new appreciation for it’ and also feel that it was very entertaining.

Q. With everything you have going on with your pro football career, how much Notre Dame football have you been able to watch recently? And within that question, what are your impressions of the Notre Dame program at this point?

DREW BREES: You know, ironically, I watched quite a few games last year. Obviously, they had a phenomenal run. It was fun to watch them on that journey. I feel like just from watching them this last year, I got a bit of a feel for their team and their style of play, their offense. Obviously, they had those two big games with Clemson along the way, as well, so those were fun to watch.

Obviously it’s one thing to watch it on TV, it’s another thing as you begin to really study the team and study their personnel and the coaching staff and just — college football is so interesting, right, because you get your recruiting class that comes in, and in most cases you know that you’re going to have these guys for four, five years, and so you build your team, you build your program off of that. Obviously, the NFL can be very different from the perspective that, man, the complexion of a team can change very quickly from year to year with free agency and the draft, etc., etc.

I’m interested to dive back into college football and understand the style that’s being played. I think more so now than ever, you see this crossover of NFL and college. You’ve got coaches that are jumping back and forth, and I think you have the styles of play that are beginning to mimic each other because you have quarterbacks going from college football into the pros and they’re so versatile, they’re so athletic, they can do so many things that you see these offenses in the NFL skew more towards really catering towards the skill set of those players coming from college.

I’m really intrigued to dive into it and understand it further, study it further.

Q. Just wondering when you were at Purdue, had broadcasting been something that you always thought about? Just thinking that former Purdue QBs Bob Griese and Len Dawson have had successful broadcasting careers.

DREW BREES: You know, I probably didn’t think about it until two or three years ago. I’ve always loved watching football, even when I wasn’t playing it. People would always ask me, ‘Do you go home and just shut the TV off because you just have had enough of it?’ And I was like, ‘No, absolutely not.’ I love the game. I’m a fan of the game. I love watching college football, I love watching NFL. So, if a game is on, I’m typically watching it. Usually I’m sitting back and watching it from a quarterback’s perspective, I’m studying the game, I’m studying the offense, trying to anticipate what moves are going to be made on both sides of the ball. That’s kind of the way we process it as a quarterback.

Over the years I really started listening to commentators and listening to their delivery and how they would set things up and the topics they would choose to talk about and the game became even more interesting that way just feeling like that was something that I could transition to.

I’d say the defining moment for me was a few years ago, actually before the NFL season started. I believe this would have been 2017. I flew my family up to Indianapolis because Purdue was hosting Louisville and Lamar Jackson in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. It was before our NFL season had started. We had a weekend off, so flew the family up there to watch the Boilermakers and was watching the game and was invited into the studio to chat football and the upcoming season, but also to comment on the game.

I’m telling you, when I put those headphones on and I started seeing the game from that vantage point and then beginning to talk about it, it was like the lightbulb went on, and I said, ‘Man, I can do this and I would love it and I think I could be really good at it.’ I think that’s when I started to think about it and take it serious.

Q. How much does football and the preparation of it, how much do you think that transfers over to the studio?

DREW BREES: I think it transfers a lot because, listen, I went from playing the game to now talking about the game, right? There’s a way that I would study opponents. There’s a way that I would prepare to go out and play my very best. I think the analysis of a game, of an opponent, of a team, is very much the same in that regard.

From that perspective, I think that especially having a great familiarity with the teams certainly in the NFL and once I have a chance to really study Notre Dame, I think that you’ll begin to anticipate, have a really great understanding both offensively and defensively what’s happening. Be able to anticipate what’s coming, the things that are happening. You watch players grow and develop and mature and you’re able to talk about that. I just think there’s so many positive themes and so many great things that we’re going to be able to talk about, and also just allow fans to see the game obviously, again, from a quarterback’s perspective and a guy who’s fresh out of the NFL game and certainly sees and processes a game differently than probably what they’ve heard before.

Q. You have obviously talked a lot in the past about feeling like you could play until you were 45. I probably would have taken the over on 20 years. What ultimately made you come to peace with this being the time and feeling like you were ready to walk away?

DREW BREES: Well, you know, you’ve heard me say this before. The last — I’d say ever since the 2017 season — I have truly approached each season like it could be my last. I’ve approached the off-season that way and then I’ve approached each and every game during the season that way. There was no additional pressure with that because I really tried to play every game like it was the Super Bowl, like it was the most important game of the season. So my preparation was always the same. It was always consistent. I always wanted to put my absolute best on the field every time out.

What I started to do was just enjoy some of the little things a bit more, the bus rides home, the plane rides home, the locker room after, just smell the roses, so to speak, and really just stay in the moment and enjoy it, and knowing if something happened where all of a sudden it was an injury or something and that was my last game, then I know that I poured everything I could into it.

I’ve just approached each year for the last four or five years that way, with that mindset, and I feel like that’s served me well. I think I’ve played some of my best football during that time.

At the end of the day, the factors that go into this are — I’ve always said as long as I could play the game at a high level, I’m having fun doing it and able to stay healthy — then this is something I’ll do forever. Obviously I’ve had some injuries the last two years that have been frustrating, both of them kind of freak things. I don’t think they were injuries that were saying I was getting old, but nonetheless, I have the thumb that holds me out five games two years ago and then had the ribs and the lung that holds me out for four games this past year. Could I keep playing? Yeah, I’m sure I could, but I’m also looking at my kids, my family, the age of my kids, and just gauging all of those things, there’s a balance there.

I also just felt like I would just feel it. I would feel when it was time. And I felt that it was time.

Q. Obviously you played college football in West Lafayette and played the Colts numerous times in your career, now you’re going to be going to South Bend in the fall for college football Saturdays. What stands out to you about the passion of fans from the state of Indiana, and did Notre Dame show any interest in you as a recruit out of Westlake High School?

DREW BREES: No, Notre Dame did not show me any interest and I do not blame them because there was nothing memorable about me, I don’t think, as a high school quarterback, or certainly nothing that would have jumped off the page. We had a ton of success as a high school program, and we never lost a game, won a state championship my senior year, went 16-0 and won the 5A State championship, I was the 5A State Player of the Year.

But I really wasn’t recruited by anybody. I was recruited by Purdue and Kentucky, and then I’d say the only reason I was recruited by those guys is because they had two brand new head coaches, Joe Tiller coming to Purdue from Wyoming, and Hal Mumme came from Valdosta State to Kentucky. Both of them had spread offenses, and both of them had gotten hired in late December and had to throw together a recruiting class, so those guys I think just kind of went out and took who they could get at that point, and I certainly ended up in the right place at Purdue, got an incredible education and four years of Big Ten football where we went to bowl games every year and won a Big Ten Championship and had a Rose Bowl appearance my senior year.

I would say the passion of the fans in Indiana — it’s a shame that that Purdue-Notre Dame annual match-up went away for a while. I hope that it comes back in perpetuity at some point. I’m really happy to see that Purdue will be at Notre Dame this year. That’ll be a great matchup and kind of renew that rivalry.

But when I got to Purdue, man, we were playing Notre Dame every year, we were playing IU every year, so just these in-state rivalries, and you’re playing for the Old Oaken Bucket or you’re playing for the Shillelagh (Trophy), all these trophies that are involved in the games and the history, and obviously the state is divided because you’ve got all these alums from three schools all spread out, it just made for an incredible atmosphere.

Q. You mentioned what you’ve seen and learned from Tony Romo in his transition. Have you had a chance to talk to him about that transition, and if so, what did he say?

DREW BREES: You know what, I have not talked to Tony yet, but he’s certainly on my list of people to talk to.

Q. You’ve of course been the Saints’ unquestioned quarterback for 15 years. How did you tell your teammates of your decision to retire and what message did you give Jameis (Winston) and Taysom (Hill) about carrying on the torch?

DREW BREES: Yeah, I’ve had some great conversations with my teammates. I think really over the last few years, I’ve been very up front about my mindset going into every season, and that is I’m going to play every season like it’s my last, and I will take time at the end of each season to evaluate where I am, both mentally, emotionally, physically and then make that decision one way or the other.

I’ve taken that time the last few off-seasons to do that. I think everybody probably felt like this was going to be my last year, and I think that created a great sense of urgency for all of us as we made our way through the season and had a very successful season.

I’m really excited for the opportunity that both Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston have. I can’t tell you how much fun we had together as a quarterback room, really a great group of guys, a great group of human beings — guys that really love the game of football, love their teammates. We love to work hard. We love to push each other. It was highly competitive. At the same time, we were there to support one another and help one another because we just wanted the team to win.

As you saw last year, there were moments where Taysom obviously had to start and did a phenomenal job for four years. There was a moment where Jameis had to come off the bench in the second half of the 49ers game when I had the ribs and the lung injury, and he came in and did a phenomenal job. I’ve seen so much growth and maturity from both of those guys over the last few years for Taysom and then last year for Jameis.

We’ll see how it plays out. It sounds like there’s going to be a pretty good quarterback competition, but it’s going to bring out the best in both of them.

Q. I was wondering what was the most difficult part of ultimately making that decision to walk away from the game?

DREW BREES: This decision was, of course, it’s a difficult one. I think the biggest thing is you have been a football player for so long, going back — I’ll count high school because high school football was very important to me. From high school to college to the NFL, that’s 28 years, so that’s two-thirds of my life. I’m 42 years old, so for two-thirds of my life, every decision that I’ve made has had football as the focus. Every decision you make is based on you as a football player, what’s going to help you be in the best position to succeed as a football player, every decision from the perspective of diet, what you’re putting in your body and how you’re working out and how you’re recovering and the amount of time you’re dedicating yourself to being the very best you can be at your craft.

You know, I understand why guys have such a hard time with the transition from football. I would compare it to if you are a heart surgeon and you have trained a majority of your life to be the very best heart surgeon that you can be, from college to your postgraduate studies to med school to your residency to then finally becoming a doctor, being a heart surgeon, having the chance to do something that so few get to do, but you’ve trained your whole life and have these dreams and ambitions of becoming this and all of a sudden, you wake up one day and somebody tells you you can’t do it anymore.

I get that — I’d say that’s where the biggest maybe fear and stress for most guys is, just from conversations I’ve had with so many, is man, there is a transition. There is a transition from playing the game to going and doing anything else because you can’t replicate the locker room and you can’t replicate running out of the tunnel. There’s just moments and feelings and emotions that are really, really hard to replicate after you’ve been a professional football player.

Now, I think the great thing about the opportunity that I have is, number one, I transitioned from one incredible team to another incredible team with NBC, the best of the best. I transitioned from a locker room, where man, I had so many great relationships and so much love and appreciation and administration for the people that I work with. I know this — Mike Tirico has been one of my favorite guys in the business for a very long time, and I’m as excited to be in the booth with Mike Tirico as I was to throw passes to Michael Thomas on Sundays, and I’m dead serious when I say that.

I get to talk about the game of football. I get to eat, sleep and breathe the game of football still. I get to show my love and passion for the game still, but just in a different way.

I feel like that’s certainly what will help ease the transition for me from being a player to now this role.

Q. What’s your ultimate goal? Do you want to do a Super Bowl? What’s your ultimate goal as a broadcaster?

DREW BREES: Most importantly for me, I want to create as great a fan experience as I can. I know what it’s like to watch a game, and I know what I would want to hear while I’m watching a game. I think what’s so unique, again, about the position that we’re in as an NFL quarterback, now transitioning into the booth, is I’m excited to show fans how I see the game and how I process the game and the things that I’m thinking about and the things that I’m anticipating and articulating it in a way that’s both educational and enjoyable to listen to.

Listen, I’m going to have my own style. I don’t even know what that style is yet, but I’m going to be myself, and I’m going to talk as if you’re sitting right next to me in my living room and we’re just watching the game together.

It’s going to be as authentic as it can possibly be because that’s the only way I know how. I hope people enjoy it. I hope people love it. At the end of the day I am going to work as hard at this as I do everything in my life.

And as far as what the future holds, I have no idea, but I do know I’m a part of the best team in the business with NBC, with one of the very best play-by-play guys in the business in Mike Tirico, and others that will be great mentors for me, guys like Cris Collinsworth, guys like Al Michaels and others that are part of the NBC team and I think do a phenomenal job. I’m very excited with this opportunity.

Q. A lot of people in New Orleans are wondering if you and your family will continue living in the city as much as you have during your time with the Saints, or if you will now relocate to San Diego or somewhere else. Just was wondering if you could take a moment to discuss what you and your family envision on that front.

DREW BREES: We will always have a strong presence in New Orleans. I have more things going on in the city of New Orleans right now than I have since we’ve been there. I’m sure you might have seen the article that just came out in regards to the proposal we submitted for the RFQ for the Jazzland Six Flags piece of property, where we intend to bring a nonprofit urban farming initiative that’s just going to be incredible for that community, for New Orleans East.

There’s that, and there’s about three other things that will slowly become public knowledge over the next weeks and months.

I’m as excited about that as I have been about anything that we’ve ever done in New Orleans, and honestly I feel that now, not being a football player, that I will have more of an opportunity to be involved in community initiatives and helping continue to push New Orleans forward as we’ve always tried to do.

TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS NFL WILD CARD PLAYOFFS CONFERENCE CALL

January 6, 2021 By admin

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us on today’s call.

This weekend we’re excited to present a pair of primetime games as part of the NFL Super Wild Card Weekend. We have Tampa Bay at Washington on Saturday night, which will be called by Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy, and Kathryn Tappen. Then Sunday night, it’s the Browns and the Steelers, called by Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, and Michele Tafoya. This also marks the first ever NFL game streamed on Peacock and the first NFL playoff game on the Telemundo broadcast network.

Joining us on today’s call are the Chairman of NBC Sports Group, Pete Bevacqua, our Sunday Night Football executive producer Fred Gaudelli, and our two announce teams for this weekend: Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Mike Tirico, and Tony Dungy. Each will have an opening comment and then we’ll take your questions.

With that I’ll turn it over to NBC Sports Group Chairman, Pete Bevacqua.

PETE BEVACQUA: Hello, everybody. Happy New Year.

Certainly an exciting week for us as we head into this weekend. I just wanted to start by thanking Fred and Drew and our entire production, engineering, and announce teams. To think about what everybody has gone through this year, it’s been a trying year, a difficult year, and we want to salute the NFL and all of the teams for pulling off a very successful year under, as I said, very trying circumstances.

For us, certainly a good moment. It looks like we’re very much on pace to be our 10th year as the number one show on primetime. That literally has never been done before. So that again is both exciting and a real testament to the great work of our team that you’ll hear from.

As we head into this Sunday, we’re so excited about this Super Wild Card Sunday and the two primetime matchups we have. When you think about the quarterbacks we have, Tom Brady, Alex Smith, Ben Roethlisberger, and Baker Mayfield, I don’t think we could ask for better matchups.

We’re not only excited to have these two great games on NBC, but we’re also really excited for Sunday night for the first time ever to stream an NFL game, a Wild Card game, on Peacock. We’re also going to have it on Telemundo. We think we’re set up for what should really be a great weekend of NFL football.

FRED GAUDELLI: I’m going to echo a little bit of what Pete said. I’m really grateful to be here, having made it through 19 regular-season games this year with just a few hiccups along the way.

I think when we talked back in late August, we talked about adapt and adjust. That certainly happened pretty much on a weekly basis this year.

I just wanted to say thanks to our engineering, operations, production, our emergency health and services department, for all the constant adjustments that had to be made throughout the season to put the show on the air, with little disruption to the production of the show.

It’s great to be in the Wild Card round. It’s great to be in the NFL Playoffs. The league did a phenomenal job. I don’t think many people thought we’d get to the end of the season on time, and we have. Hopefully a lot of excitement yet to come.

AL MICHAELS: I think doing the Browns’ first playoff game in 18 years to me is both very cool and now totally full of mystery. Kevin Stefanski, Joel Bitonio, and others out of commission, but you still have Mayfield and Chubb and Hunt and Landry against that Steelers defense in a really good matchup.

The Steelers of course had that swale period after the 11-0 start. Seemed to get it back together when they had to against the Colts in Week 16. Once again, Mike Tomlin has really done a superb job. It gets sometimes lost in the shuffle. Here is a guy who has been there since 2007, has never had a losing season.

You have two cities within driving distance, a good rivalry. As my pal, the late great Keith Jackson would say, they don’t like each other very much. It should be a good watch.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: You talked about the mystery of the Cleveland Browns a little bit. How about the mystery of the Pittsburgh Steelers this year? Just got finished watching them on offense against the Colts. Of course, they had been struggling and trying to work their way through some things.

First half, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Steelers look worse on offense. Second half, they looked like they could beat anybody in the league, and they were the team that went 11-0.

This is a mysterious team. The constant is on the defensive side. On the offensive side, I just don’t know what we’re going to see in this game. But I do know the history of this franchise. It’s a proud franchise. So many times, when you start to think you might be able to count them out, they just make you look foolish and come back and do it all over again. That’s what I expect. I expect their best out there on Sunday night.

What do you think, Michael, about Mr. Tom Brady?

MIKE TIRICO: It is pretty cool to see Tom Brady play a playoff game for the first time not in a New England uniform. It will be very different. The Buccaneers and their fans have been waiting since 2007 for a playoff game, haven’t won a playoff game since back in Super Bowl XXXVII. When they signed up for all of this, this is what they hoped to see, Tom Brady leading them to the playoffs.

I’m sure we’re going to have a very interested fan base there in central Florida. Obviously very interested in Washington and the DMV surrounds with the Washington Football Team winning the division at 7-9, which a lot of folks didn’t expect anybody to emerge in that NFC East division with a chance, but their pass-rush certainly will give them one.

I’m sure we’ll also have a lot of interested viewers up in the six states we call New England. For the Patriots fans over the years who got used to January evenings and late afternoons watching Tom Brady in the playoffs, they’ll be watching, but with very different emotions. I think you put all that together, we’ve got a really fascinating end to the Super Wild Card Weekend.

Tony, just in talking with you about the game Sunday night, as we were back in the studio together, and early this week, you’re really excited to, one, get to see Tom Brady in the playoffs, but this time from up in the booth instead of across the field on the opposite sideline.

TONY DUNGY: You’re right. It’s going to be much more pleasurable. I’m actually at the Tampa Bay practice right now. You talked about that excited fan base. I live here in Tampa. It is totally fired up and pumped up for Saturday night.

I have never seen Tom Brady play any better than these last four weeks. It’s been awesome to look at. His team is fired up around him.

But Washington, it’s going to be a great matchup because they have the antidote. They have a very strong defense, they have a great front four, young, fast, aggressive people. It’s going to be great to see. I’m looking forward to calling my first NFL playoff game.

Q. I believe it’s the Sunday game you’re simulcasting on Peacock. Going forward, do you see simulcasting things on Peacock? Is that a one-off thing?

PETE BEVACQUA: You’re right. Our Sunday game is the one that will be on Peacock, obviously as well as NBC. When we talked to the NFL, when the additional Wild Card games became available, we negotiated for one of them, it was important for us to also acquire the rights for Peacock. Peacock is obviously a major part of our future. We are seeing that sports on Peacock really does have great success. We’ve seen success with the Premier League, with the U.S. Open. We’ll continue to chart that success.

We have made no decisions necessarily about the future of additional games on Peacock. We’re just excited about this first game on Peacock this Sunday. We’re looking forward to seeing how it is received by the fan base.

Q. For anyone who wants to answer it, Boston’s hometown team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Everyone talks about Tom Brady, but I’m curious about the other guy. Rob Gronkowski, played 16 games this year, numbers were a little bit down, but he did catch seven touchdowns. What have you seen from Gronk and how important is he to the offense?

TONY DUNGY: I think he’s very important. He has rounded into form. Obviously when you don’t play for a year, it takes a little while to get back. I think he’s done that. At first it was more in the blocking, then he got more comfortable, and now you see him kind of back to his old form. I think he’s going to be very much a force in the playoffs. He’s someone that Tom has looked to in this final stretch of the year. He’s looked more like the Rob Gronkowski we’re used to this last month of the season.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: I agree. I know when we were getting ready for our game with Tampa, his shoulder just was not right. I’ve watched Gronkowski block for hundreds of games, and he simply wasn’t right. I think now that’s getting healthier, I think his legs are getting under him. You throw Antonio Brown into that mix, starting to round into form, they’re starting to look pretty good.

Q. Pete, how would you describe your level of interest in keeping Sunday Night Football?

PETE BEVACQUA: I would say it’s tremendously high. The NFL partnership for us is obviously of extreme importance. When you talk about how I started the conversation that we’ve been fortunate enough to have the number one show on primetime television now for hopefully 10 years in a row. We all know what a great property the NFL is. So it is an absolute priority for us to retain our partnership with the NFL, 100%.

Q. Al and Cris, on Sunday, did you get any feedback from either the NFL or the Eagles about your stance on how they played the quarterback position on Sunday?

AL MICHAELS: I haven’t. We’re doing it in real-time. That’s what we felt at that moment in time. I thought it was appropriate considering what was going on to reflect what I think most of the fandom felt, not only New York but the rest of the country.

No, I haven’t heard anything. Have you, Cris?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: Nothing. No. Sometimes I do (laughter). Sometimes I do. This is one I didn’t.

Q. Fred, I think last I’ve seen there won’t be fans in Washington, there probably won’t be in Pittsburgh. If that is the case, is there anything you can do differently in the booth, on the field to create or display that playoff atmosphere that won’t be there from the fans?

FRED GAUDELLI: Well, I know Washington already said they won’t have fans. Pittsburgh I think will have 2,500. I think they’re hopeful that there could be 6,500. I’m not sure where that stands. 6,500 people in 70,000-seat stadium still looks empty.

I think we do what we did the entire season. We had for different games some fan component, whether it was fans virtually or bringing back shots that people could relate to. When we did the game in Buffalo, we talked about the Bills Mafia. When we did the game in New Orleans, we rolled in a package of all their fans. There wasn’t a way that Aaron Rodgers would have been able to operate the way he did that night if it had been a typical game in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

We met this morning, our production team did, and we talked about the Browns fans, what this means for them. Obviously you’re talking about two very passionate fan bases when you talk about Cleveland and Pittsburgh. There might be an element or two in this game regarding the fans.

But in terms of shooting or covering it, I don’t expect we’d be doing anything differently.

Q. Pete, to follow up on your answer regarding NBC’s interest in Sunday Night Football, philosophically would that interest extend if somehow the NFL wanted to parcel out a different package to NBC? I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but is that presumption you’re interested in being in the NFL business, you want some NFL football, if it turned out to be another package, NBC’s interest remains the same?

PETE BEVACQUA: I would tell you again, we think the NFL is a special property. Obviously from my role in our Sports group, it’s a priority for us to retain that partnership. But I would also tell you that we are very much singularly focused right now on retaining Sunday Night Football. It’s worked incredibly well for us really because of the power of the schedule, the power of the matchups, the power of the NFL brand.

Quite frankly, it’s because of the people on this phone call starting with Fred and Al and Cris and Michele and the great work they’ve done. We’ve seen how Mike, Tony, Kathryn, and others, Rob Hyland, all the great work we do with Football Night in America. It’s a time slot and a platform that has worked so well for us on NBC, I think we have a real ability to make big, important events bigger and more important. I think we’ve proven that with Sunday Night Football.

Our hope is that we can continue to do that well into the future.

Q. Fred, talked to a lot of producers and broadcasters about the Zoom calls you guys have done in lieu of production meetings. There’s a lot of thought this may become the norm for teams, particularly in the NFL where instead of meeting with people in person, you end up doing these on Zoom. Do you have any thoughts heading forward, if you think what’s been so standard for you guys, production meetings at a hotel or facility, will still happen, or do you think teams will adapt what’s been going on in the post-COVID universe?

FRED GAUDELLI: I hope they don’t adopt what’s going on right now. I think the thing I miss more than anything the entire year, the NFL plays into it, is just the human touch; shaking somebody’s hand, slapping them on the back, whatever you want to say. There’s value to that. You get to know people by sitting in a room and talking with them through the years.

Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Peyton Manning games, you’re going to lose something if it’s just Zoom. Now, I can see Zoom being used in situations where it’s a tight week or the team is getting in late or something like that. But it’s funny, two quarterbacks this year bemoaned the fact we were on Zoom: Aaron Rodgers two weeks ago, and Drew Brees early in the season.

I’m not going to say every player misses it, but they expressed the fact that they wish they could be sitting there. There is no way I’m a proponent for doing it this way going forward.

Q. Tony, could you shed some light on the decision Ron Rivera has for this weekend with his quarterback. Alex Smith has taken them this far, but I’m also sure you saw the game, he’s not 100%. How do you manage that as a coach, communicate that with the players?

TONY DUNGY: It’s really a difficult call. You know your team responds to Alex, you know he’s the best option for you to win, but you don’t want to put him out there if he doesn’t have a chance to be himself. That’s what you try to gauge during practice. You’re going to give him every opportunity, even if he’s not 100%. If he can win the game, you want to let him do that.

The question becomes how effective is he going to be? That’s always a difficult call. But I can tell you any head coach is going to give his starting quarterback, his ace, every opportunity. He’s going to bend over backwards to make that happen. It’s only going to be a situation where you say no, Alex really is going to struggle if we put him in.

I expect to see him out there at least starting the ball game.

Q. Tony and Cris, what does Washington have to do to pull off the upset here?

TONY DUNGY: They have to deal with the tempo of Tampa. Tampa wants to get big plays on offense and they want to pressure you on defense. It’s going to be up to their front to get pressure on Tom Brady so they can use seven guys in coverage and take away that big play, the quick strike from Tampa.

Then on the other side of the ball, they’re going to have to handle the pressure. Todd Bowles is going to bring heat. They’ve got to deal with it, not turn the ball over, then make a big play here and there. I don’t think they’re going to have to put up 40 points to win, but they’re going to have to take advantage, make some plays.

They’ll have an opportunity to do that.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: I think the health of Terry McLaurin is going to be really key in that game. Tony is dead on. I remember the Green Bay game earlier this year [against Tampa Bay]. Green Bay jumped out to a 10-0 lead. I’m not sure they scored another point. They blitzed them relentlessly. Green Bay had no answer. It was amazing to watch it.

This is a first-class blitzing team. I think they’re missing Devin White in the game. So big plays have to be had. Terry McLaurin, you have to hope that he’s even healthier than what he was a week ago.

Q. Fred, how do you mix stadium sound with no fans, which is probably going to happen in D.C., and with some fans that you’ll have for the Steelers-Browns game? What have you learned from the setup this year you might be able to incorporate moving forward as things improve?

FRED GAUDELLI: Well, in terms of answering your first question, it won’t be the first time we have fans at a stadium this year. We did two games in Kansas City. I think we had fans in Arizona, maybe a couple other places. It’s really just a mix. You’re obviously going to play up the real fans. You will backfill with some of the artificial sound that all the networks have been utilizing this year.

The one thing we leaned into in the second half of the season was the sound coming off the field. Because there’s little or no one in the stadium, those sounds were heard in a way, I’ll reference the game in Vegas with Patrick Mahomes and Derek Carr, we were hearing things that you would never, ever hear before.

As it got colder, we know that’s more conducive to sound, getting natural sound off the field. It’s really just a mix issue, how you want to profile the different sounds that you’re getting and prioritize them.

Obviously Al, Cris, and Michele, number one priority. The other part of it is really leaning into the field with the opportunities that no fans provided this year in that regard.

Going forward, there were a lot of lessons learned this year. I know I’ve made quite a few notes, I’ll probably take a look at that once this season is over.

Q. Al or Cris, even Tony, when it comes to Steelers-Browns, it’s hard to ignore how tilted this rivalry has been towards Pittsburgh recently and historically. Some people don’t like to call it a rivalry, at least not any more. Is this maybe finally the era of Browns football, they can get over that hump that’s two hours to the east?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: You know what’s kind of interesting about it is that now the Cleveland Browns are the power football team. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the throw-it-quick, passing kind of team. Forever you always thought of the Steelers as being this really going to thump you, get down to the fourth quarter, they have a four-point lead, they’re just got going to give up the ball, they’re going to run it right down the field. They’re going to play renegade, all the different things that go with it (laughter).

Now the Cleveland Browns have some ability, bad weather, multiple backs, catch-and-run kind of situations, a mobile quarterback. So I think they bring a good bit of it. Really, this Browns offensive line going against the Steelers defensive line is going to be one of the real highlights for me. I wish Joel Bitonio was going to be able to play in this thing, one of the best guards in football.

It’s power against power now. It’s really made the rivalry a little bit better for me.

TONY DUNGY: I’ll speak from my experience as a player and a coach. It’s always going to be a rivalry. I think there was a time when the Browns had never won a game in Three Rivers Stadium or hadn’t won in years and years. They were still knock-down, drag-out dogfights. Every time we went to Cleveland, it was a dogfight.

That is going to be there. I think you’re going to see the same type of game Sunday night.

AL MICHAELS: I’ll weigh in. Nothing lasts forever. Even though it’s been a one-sided rivalry, I think it’s the dawn of maybe a new era here. Pittsburgh is annually good and Cleveland should be pretty good for a number of years when you have a really good quarterback, a lot of fun. You have a great running back, a great offensive line. You have a head coach who did a hell of a job this year.

I think Cleveland-Pittsburgh is one of the better rivalries going forward.

Q. Fred, Mike, and Tony, what kind of conversations go on before the game talking about how much you talk with the name change throughout the broadcast for the casual viewers tuning in for the first time? Mike and Tony, what is it like calling Washington just by ‘Washington’ or ‘The Team’ rather than their former name? Is that something you have to stay conscious of throughout the broadcast?

MIKE TIRICO: The whole calling them the ‘Washington Football Team,’ obviously it’s an adjustment because we’ve called them something else our whole lives, our whole careers. I found doing it in studio for the 17 weeks of the year, you know, sometimes you get close to saying it, but kind of correct yourself or catch yourself beforehand.

You do your best. We’re all only human. You do your best during the week to practice that, make sure when it happens on Saturday night that it happens naturally.

Certainly, in terms of the football stuff, here we are in the playoff game. There’s been a lot of stuff that’s happened with the organization during the year. Here you are at a playoff game, which is one of the most significant moments of the season. You want to keep your focus on the game. The team has been on plenty of times during the year for all of the conversations that have taken place.

That’s at least how you approach it. But you come prepared for everything because you never know when something could become a significant topic on short notice.

FRED GAUDELLI: I would just say it’s a playoff game. We know what’s at stake. But even last week one of the things that we were talking about, whether it be the name change, the league’s investigation, the strife within the ownership, none of it is new. It’s pretty much been happening since the beginning of the season.

Other than using it the way I know Al used it the other night at the top of the show, forced to change your name for the first time in 87 years, turmoil with the ownership, it paints a picture, especially as it relates to (Ron) Rivera, along with the fact that he was battling cancer, what he had to overcome, Alex (Smith), what he had to overcome, but I don’t think it really warrants any deep inspection because there really isn’t any news at the moment. It’s something that, as Mike just said, has been ongoing really since the summer.

Q. Al, during the last telecast, you said people said the NFL’s TV ratings are down. They went from number one to number one, which is a pretty good line. My question about ratings is this: when did ratings, which is this arcane measurement that nobody outside the business cared about, become this political football where everybody wants to weigh in on the NFL’s ratings, good, bad or indifferent?

AL MICHAELS: That’s a great question. I think a lot of it has to do with — oh, how shall I put this — entertainment websites and the rest. We’re always talking about box office, this movie, that movie, the whole thing.

Ratings, they’re in this mix. I only say this because even all the people I know who are not in the business say to me, we heard the ratings are tanking. I mean, to me, the reality is, if we’re tanking then the whole world is tanking. I just threw that out there the other night. It’s a line I’ve used privately with a lot of people.

I said, ‘yeah, we went from number one to number one.’ It’s still the number one show on television. It’s still I think appointment television for a lot of people. Even though the ratings are down, I think we live in this world right now where we’re measuring everything against what took place in the past. When I have to see a headline that says: Sunday Night ratings get sacked, I’m thinking, excuse me? Sacked means we were No. 15 or 20.

Anyway, that’s the way I look at it. Like I say, as Pete mentioned at the top of this conference call, 10 years in a row being number one on television is pretty good. I don’t want to say it’s painful, but it’s a little frustrating to read about our ratings are getting sacked.

FRED GAUDELLI: I want to add on here, obviously it was the most unusual of years in a number of reasons. The political environment, COVID, sports playing out of season, major events happening out of season. It affected everybody. It affected every sport, every network.

Next year you might be writing, they’re up, like, 25% or 30%. To me it’s always a cyclical thing. The context that Al used there is the perfect thing. You’re still number one. There’s nothing to be ashamed of being number one.

Q. Cris and Tony, could you talk about the effect it’s going to have Baker Mayfield not to have Kevin Stefanski? Do either of you know Alex Van Pelt very well?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: I know Alex has called a few games in the past. Those guys are going to work so closely together even this week. Tony knows a lot more about play calling and how all that works within the coaching staff. For the most part, I think the game plan is going to be put together virtually like it’s been all season. Kevin will have a lot to do with that.

Then Alex is going to call the plays on the field. But the NFL has also evolved to the point where so many of the calls are actually made by the quarterback. They give you an option of plays, audibles out there. The fact that there’s no crowd out there to disrupt the communication for an offensive football team, I think you’ll lose a little bit, to be perfectly honest with you. I think you’ll lose a little bit of having potentially the Coach of the Year on the field.

But as far as the pure play calling, other than the fact it’s the biggest game in the last couple of decades for the Cleveland Browns, it’s going to add some pressure to the whole thing.

Maybe in some ways it takes a little pressure off. They’re going to be running the same plays, still be turning around, handing it to Nick Chubb, throwing it to Kareem Hunt, getting Jarvis Landry involved. They’re going to be doing the same stuff.

Every once in a while, it’s nice to look over at your head coach, get a nod or a pat on the back and that will make a difference, too.

TONY DUNGY: No doubt, Cris, they’re going to miss Kevin Stefanski not being there on the sidelines. The actual mechanics of it are not going to be that difficult. They’re all in the process of formulating the game plan and the calls. What Alex Van Pelt wants to know, what Kevin Stefanski wants to know, is what play is Baker Mayfield really comfortable with. It’s that crucial 3rd and 5, what does he feel good about? Alex will have a good feel for that.

I sat on the headphones for seven years with Tom Moore, he called every play. There was never a play that he called that I was surprised. I didn’t think we were going to call that on 3rd and 6. I would have never thought that. Everybody is on the same page. It’s just those critical moments when that play-caller and the quarterback, they’re in sync. He knows what the quarterback wants.

I think also they will have that to a great extent, maybe not like Kevin would, but it’s going to be close.

Q. A quick thing about Baker, on such a hot streak, now he hasn’t been throwing for 300 yards the last couple games. Do you see anything there?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: The only thing I’d say about Baker, man, his runs had a lot to do with that game the other day. They clinched it, a quarterback sweep, almost fell out of my chair. It was a great call. Got the extra blocker out in front.

Baker was running hard. I mean, he probably ran the ball four or five times, but he was running like a fullback. He was running like he was born in Cleveland and it meant something a little bit extra to him.

I think that he has really become sort of the embodiment of that fighting spirit right now of the Cleveland Browns, that poor fan base that doesn’t get to go to the games right now. I just got to feel like the people in Cleveland are about ready to explode to get back into that stadium and cheer with a packed house the way that they used to do back in the day I can remember so well.

I think, if anything, Baker has even kind of risen here a little bit lately. He’s made some big throws. He’s doing most of it without Odell Beckham Jr. They miss Odell when they get into some of those single-coverage situations. It sort of galvanized the rest of the team, too, forced some people to move forward with that receiving corporation. Probably Donovan Peoples-Jones, the number one person on that list.

They may be a better team going into next year once Odell comes back.

TONY DUNGY: I would say, too, it’s not always numbers. It’s what you have to do to win games. If Baker has to put up big passing numbers, I believe he’ll be able to do that.

His focus is on winning the game. I think he’s played well in spite of the fact that the numbers maybe haven’t been what they were earlier in the year.

Q. Talk about Tom Brady, the sort of relationship, the respect, the humor that you guys maintain.

TONY DUNGY: The whole Indy-New England thing, we had great respect for them. We played a lot of big games against each other. I didn’t know Tom that well when he was playing for New England and I was coaching, but got to know him through some of his ex-teammates, Adam Vinatieri, guys like that, then Rodney Harrison for the last 12 years.

We have a lot of love and respect for each other. He sent my son Jordan a Tom Brady jersey, probably the biggest Tampa Bay fan in the city. Very sweet of Tom to do that.

It’s all in good fun. Tremendous respect for one another.

Q. Cris, you mentioned Joe Bitonio a little bit. How much do you think that affects the battle you’re looking forward to see?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: A lot. I think it impacts it a lot in part because of who they’ve got behind it, between Nick Harris and Chris Hubbard, the guys that were supposed to take his place. Who fits into that guard position now? Especially when you’re going against the likes of (Stephon) Tuitt, (Cameron) Hayward, (Tyson) Alualu, you’re a power running team anyway. The pass protection being such a key component part of it.

We talked about it a little bit on the broadcast the other night. 5/11^ths of the football team are offensive linemen. The strength of your team, which I think the strength of the Cleveland Browns, is their offensive line. When one of those key guys gets taken out of it, that can be a little bit of a tough go for a football team.

They’ve been through it before. Wyatt Teller didn’t play the last time we called the game. They survived that one pretty well, so I presume they’ll survive here, too.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the Browns-Steelers rivalry. You were part of it for a bit. What is your favorite memory from your time playing against the Browns?

TONY DUNGY: Well, I can remember the first time I played them in 1977, going to Cleveland, Jack Lambert told me, whatever you do, once you come out of the dugout, don’t take your helmet off on the field because these fans don’t like us, they’re crazy. As a rookie, I put that in my memory bank, I never took my helmet off.

He got thrown out of the game for taking his helmet off. I remember looking at him and saying, what did you just tell me (laughter)?

It was that type of game. We had some back and forth with those guys. They were always tough games. Healthy respect. But it was pretty strong, no question about it.

Q. For Cris and Tony, obviously from Washington’s perspective, pressure on Tom Brady is going to be key. That seems easier said than done. What is the key for them to do that? On the other side of the ball, what have you seen from Scott Turner this year that suggests he could have success against the Tampa defense?

TONY DUNGY: I’ve been watching them. You’re absolutely right. Jack Del Rio, Ron Rivera, this defense is built around rushing with four guys and covering with seven. They’ve got five tremendous rushers. They’ve got to alternate those guys in the defensive front. They got to pick their spots to blitz and create pressure.

But those four guys have to pressure. That’s their style. If they don’t pressure Tom Brady, it’s going to be a long day. If they are able to, they’ll have some success.

Tampa’s protection has been excellent this year. That to me is going to be the battle and the key to the game.

On the other side, we talked about it earlier, Todd Bowles is going to bring heat, things from a lot of different directions. Scott Turner is going to have to dial up some plays to beat that blitz.

There is pressure on him to do that because that’s what’s going to happen. It will be great to see how it plays out. I think you’re right, for Washington to win, Scott Turner is going to have to have a good game and that defensive front is going to have to have a good game.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: It’s interesting with Scott Turner, he comes from a family and a background that running the football is important. You can sense that. They move their offensive line a lot. They’ll get blockers in front. They have really versatile backs with (J.D.) McKissic and (Antonio) Gibson. They kind of give them the ability to look like they’re running, then throw the ball, or vice versa.

They can use that, but I think the one thing with the blitzing team that maybe people don’t think about so often is that sometimes you can wash down one of those blitzes and pop a run, slow a blitz down, too.

I think with Alex Smith, obviously going through what he’s going through with his leg and the calf, the whole thing, there’s a chance that you’ll see Washington pop a couple good runs in this one and slow that blitz down.

Q. As noted earlier, number one for the 10th straight year, going from number one to number one. My question is, given that number one position, which is not in question, there are still fluctuations, challenges this year, when you look to the long-term, to what extent do you think you can further grow that audience? If so, how do you do that as far as certain demographics or audience groups, parts of the country? How do you think about the long-term audience growth?

PETE BEVACQUA: I’ll hop in and turn it over to Fred for his ideas.

Again, I think it starts with the power of NFL programming and the power of the sport. I mean, there’s a passion for people to watch their NFL teams play great games. The fact that you were able to tune in to NBC primetime on Sundays is just a fantastic experience.

I think what we found over the course of this last nine months, if you go back over the time period, I think back to March where I was at THE PLAYERS Championship, part of our PGA TOUR partnership, over the course of 36 hours, sports came to an absolute standstill when we think about the cancellation of the PGA TOUR events, the National Hockey League, the NBA. I think that time period was a real reminder just about how strong the passion level for sports is in this country, how people miss sports so desperately.

I think as Fred said accurately, this fall and summer with sports coming back, sports being played, at times they’re not normally being played, you think about the U.S. Open in golf that we had, which is historically played on Father’s Day weekend, all of a sudden we were doing it in September. I remember our Thursday night NFL opener, I think it was the first time in the history of sports where you had the NFL, PGA TOUR golf, Major League Baseball, the NHL, the NBA all played on the same day. There was kind of this mass swarm of live sports coming back.

But what’s so powerful in sports again is the passion and how people want to watch sports as they’re happening. They want to watch sports as it’s live. We think the NFL will continue to be a dominant property. We know that the effort that we put into the partnership, granted I’m biased, with the best people in the business like Fred, Al, Cris, Michele, our full team out front and behind the scenes, you couple the power of that team with the power of the property, and we just think it’s an absolute recipe for continued success.

Fred, from your perspective, I don’t know if you have anything to add.

FRED GAUDELLI: I would just say from day one, the magic of Sunday Night Football has been the schedule. I think the first promotional line was the best team, the brightest stars, the best games. For 15 years that’s pretty much what it’s been.

Then when something we thought was going to be great fell apart because of injury or for whatever reason, it was the first time we had flexible schedule go ahead where you could get out of a game that didn’t turn out to be as good as you thought it was going to be back in the spring, get into a more meaningful game.

To me the growth of Sunday Night Football is going to hinge on what it’s hinged on for the previous 15 years: getting the games that people want to see, with the players that people want to see, and the matchups that people want to see.

Q. With everything that’s gone on through this year, do you think Ron Rivera should be in the Coach of the Year situation?

MIKE TIRICO: Absolutely. Just personally with him, what he’s had to deal with and overcome, obviously everything with the team. You’re still looking at a team that’s had four quarterbacks during the year, the breakout stars not as abundant as other teams. Yet his steadiness and leadership…

I got to do the first playoff game. I had a chance to do play-by-play for was Ron Rivera against Bruce Arians. It was on a foggy day in Charlotte against a Carolina team that was 7-9. A lot of these same conversations were had about that team at that point. It speaks to Ron’s steadiness over the years, what he’s been able to do to get this team to the postseason.

It is 7-8-1, the Carolina team, not 7-9.

Absolutely he deserves to be in that conversation for what he’s done this year, not just the personal story, but the team on this field and amidst the tumult in the organization.

Q. Al and Cris, something you said earlier, it could be the dawn of a new era in Cleveland with the Browns. As you look at this franchise, what makes it potentially different this time that they finally had success and sustain it down the line?

AL MICHAELS: You’re always talking about a coach and quarterback combination. When you look at it right now, I know Stefanski has only had one year, but he’s done a heck of a job obviously. Baker Mayfield, after maybe last year, wasn’t a great year for him, but I think Tony summed it up perfectly, maybe the numbers aren’t fantastic, but when you watch him play, you understand it.

When you have a coach and a quarterback situation like that, which appears to be highly promising for the future, great offensive line, Cris talked about that, a great running back in Chubb, another running back in Hunt, Myles Garrett on the other side, all these guys. They’ve got a lot of stars as well. Landry, you put him in that mix. A lot of players who are well-known now not only around the league, but for the viewing public.

I think that’s why when you look at this team, clearly this is a team very much ascending.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: Yeah, one of Al’s favorite subjects, this is a team that’s based on analytics, as well. They spent a ton of money gathering a group of really smart people, I mean, really smart people. I know a bunch of these guys and ladies.

I think they’re all in. They’ve attacked this from every front. They’ve got a great stadium now. The fan base is amazing. Analytics are great to keep Al happy (laughter). Hopefully, I know they’re thinking they’ve got their quarterback and coach now. A lot of things going in the right direction.

TONY DUNGY: I’m going to go away from the analytics, tell you why they’re going to be good. I talked to Kevin Stefanski a few times. He’s changed the attitude and the culture. Nothing to do with analytics. They chart on offense the number of times they knock a defensive player off his feet. They keep track of that. They’re doing it at a very high rate. The leader in that category is Jarvis Landry.

When you get everybody on the team buying into that’s going to be our philosophy, we’re going to be tougher and more physical than the other team, that’s going to go a long way.

When you put those great players, exciting guys together with that mentality that Kevin has taken there, I think that’s why they’re going to be good for a long, long time.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: That’s analytics, though, those cut blocks (laughter).

TONY DUNGY: Very analytical, yes (laughter).

Q. Fred, you guys always have a massive show every week. Are we going to see anything new in terms of production elements, added cameras for this weekend’s games we haven’t seen before?

FRED GAUDELLI: I don’t think so. We’re at Super Bowl levels for every Sunday, practically. We feel really good about our complement of equipment. Just going to go in there and try to cover the game as well as we always do, with the pizazz that is Sunday Night Football.

Q. Some of the stuff that’s been really cool this season that you’re most excited about, putting the 4K camera has been really cool, some of the virtual graphics. Anything that sticks out in your mind that you’ve been super excited about this year?

FRED GAUDELLI: I think that 4K camera has a lot more potential, something that I really plan to spend a lot more time in the off-season working with SkyCam and Sony to figure out how we can get more out of it, stabilize it more while still being able to use it live in a regular type of replay. That was one of the things I’m most excited about for the offseason, getting to work on that.

Then you mentioned the virtual graphics. Again, I think there’s more to gain in that particular area, as well. Definitely will be a focus for the offseason.

Q. Fred, you just mentioned pizazz, Super Bowl level production for the games on Sunday night. Will there be some different elements for what we might see on NBC versus Peacock versus Telemundo?

FRED GAUDELLI: Peacock is taking I believe the entire NBC feed. I’m sure they’ll have some different commercial integration. Maybe Pete can answer that better than I can. The promotional content will be probably very much tailored to Peacock. Telemundo I would probably say the exact same thing for.

All the special elements in this game will be about the two teams in the game, the star players, the history of the teams, their season histories. That’s where all the special elements will get added for this week.

Q. Pete, the different commercial integrations for the various telecasts. Peacock has a lighter ad load than the NBC network for sure. Telemundo reaches a different audience. Speak a little bit about that.

PETE BEVACQUA: I think Fred kind of nailed it. Obviously the game will be the same both on Peacock and Telemundo, in a different language on Telemundo. The game on Peacock will be simulcast. It will be good for us. We’re looking forward to seeing how it comes across on Peacock, obviously also very excited about Telemundo.

In our conversations with the NFL, I think it’s a goal of theirs to reach as broad and as diverse an audience as possible. With our Telemundo station and the audience that it obviously captures, we think it’s a great move for us and a great move for the NFL.

It should be a great, interesting and successful Sunday.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. We look forward to our two primetime games this weekend.

TIRICO, COLLINSWORTH, DUNGY, EARNHARDT JR., LOWE & OLCZYK PREVIEW NBC SPORTS’ “BIG EVENT WEEKEND”

November 6, 2020 By admin

“Wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t an NFC Championship preview.” – Mike Tirico on Saints-Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football

“Arguably the best player in the league.” – Cris Collinsworth on Saints RB Alvin Kamara

“We obviously wish we could see Trevor Lawrence, but D.J. Uiagalelei will put on a great performance.” – Tony Dungy on Clemson-Notre Dame

“When you have Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp…the two best managers in football right now anywhere on the globe, it is must-watch.” – Rebecca Lowe on Manchester City-Liverpool

“This is a pretty wild racetrack…You won’t want to miss it.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the NASCAR Cup Series Championship

“It should be one heck of a weekend, lots of drama, horses from all over the world.” – Eddie Olczyk on the Breeders’ Cup Classic

STAMFORD, Conn. – Nov. 6, 2020 – Ahead of a huge weekend of high-profile sporting events across NBC Sports platforms this weekend, on-air commentators and analysts, joined by NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua, previewed the action in a special multi-sport media conference call yesterday.

Yesterday’s call consisted of Bevacqua, Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Tony Dungy, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Rebecca Lowe, and Eddie Olczyk. NBC Sports’ “Big Event Weekend” schedule is as follows:

- Breeders’ Cup Classic, Sat. Nov. 7 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC
- #1 Clemson at #4 Notre Dame, Sat. Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC
- Manchester City v. Liverpool, Sun. Nov. 8 at 11:30 a.m. ET on Peacock Premium
- NASCAR Cup Series Championship, Sun. Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC
- Tom Brady & Buccaneers Host Drew Brees & Saints, Sun. Nov. 8 at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC

Following are highlights of yesterday’s conference call and click here for a full transcript:

On “Big Event Weekend” across NBC Sports

Bevacqua: “You think about the passion level of sports around the country over the course of this pandemic, how they really have served maybe more than ever as just a great form of escapism to bring some joy into people’s lives around the country and that’s really what motivates us and makes this, what we do each and every day, so uplifting…We’re grateful that live sports are back, maybe more furiously and feverishly than ever. I think it’s been a great moment for NBC Sports and should be a wonderful weekend.”

Tirico: “To have all these champions in sports; Notre Dame, Clemson, Brady and Brees, and the last couple of championships of the Premier League and the championship on the line with NASCAR and a couple of drivers who have won the Cup title, and…the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Bob Baffert and the other horses involved, what a great championship weekend this is.”

On the Breeders’ Cup Classic (Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC)

Tirico: “The Breeders’ Cup is so great every year, brings the best horses in the world together to wrap up the season…And Keeneland is just a special place to host the Breeders’ Cup.”

Olczyk: “It is all about Bob Baffert…He has three horses that will be, I would say, probably two of the top-3 favorites coming into the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It should be one heck of a weekend, lots of drama, horses from all over the world.”

On No. 1 Clemson at No. 4 Notre Dame (Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC)

Tirico: “Notre Dame’s built up all year for this game. They have even spoken about it the last couple of weeks, which is atypical for coaches, but Brian Kelly’s embraced that, looking ahead and what the players talk about, that elephant in the room, that’s the matchup with No. 1 Clemson.”

Dungy on Clemson QB D.J. Uiagalelei: “We watched him in his first start be 18 points down and bring his team back. Talking to all the Clemson players yesterday and coaches, they said there was no fear, no worry on the sideline. He was the most relaxed guy in the stadium, and he played lights out…We obviously wish we could see Trevor Lawrence, but D.J. Uiagalelei will put on a great performance.”

On Manchester City v. Liverpool (Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET on Peacock Premium)

Lowe: “When these two get together, when you have Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, arguably, probably not even arguably, the two best managers in football right now anywhere on the globe, it is must-watch.”

Lowe on surprises this Premier League season: “We know it’s a soap opera, we know it’s always been a soap opera and every single week we get served up amazing story lines…The surprises are coming from the way the goals are being scored, who is scoring them and how many are being scored, which has led to such crazy results at times. But we’re all here for it.”

On NASCAR Cup Series Championship (Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBC)

Earnhardt Jr. on the final four drivers: “I don’t think anybody in terms of speed or performance throughout the year has a clear edge. I tend to look at the mentality of that driver, his attitude, how he’s handled stressful situations like this, high pressure situations like this in the past, and the guy that stands out to me when you go that route is Joey Logano.”

Earnhardt Jr. on racing in Phoenix: “This is a pretty wild racetrack…If we have late restarts in this race, which I expect we will, it’s going to be pretty dramatic. You won’t want to miss it.”

On the Buccaneers vs. Saints Sunday Night Football match-up (Sunday at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC)

Tirico: “Wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t an NFC Championship preview with the way these two teams are.”

Collinsworth: “This thing now is really starting to take shape around what Tom Brady likes to do, what his feel is for this offense. But you go, you know, on the other side of the ball…what Alvin Kamara has been this season. Arguably the best player in the league. I think he’s the best running back in football right now.”

Dungy on Antonio Brown: “Tom Brady and the Bucs are thinking playoffs, they’re not thinking this week. They would love to win this game and get that one up on New Orleans, but this is for January when you’re playing those big games and it’s tight and you need that one play to win it, is this a guy who can add that one play at the right time?”

Tirico on Brady: “Most scrutinized position in all of sports, greatest champion at that position, did it in one place for so long, still at a high level and going to do it somewhere else. It’s taking Bruce Springsteen away from the E Street Band and moving him to Maroon 5, like all of a sudden Maroon 5 is like, oh, my God, are you serious?… And no disrespect to Maroon 5 fans, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to knock them like that. (Laughing.)”

Collinsworth: “Maroon 5?”

Tirico: “I know. I don’t know why I picked that (laughing.)”

— NBC SPORTS —

TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS BIG EVENT WEEKEND MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL

November 5, 2020 By admin

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Pete Bevacqua

Mike Tirico

Cris Collinsworth

Tony Dungy

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Rebecca Lowe

Eddie Olczyk

THE MODERATOR: Greetings, everyone and welcome to NBC Sports’ big event weekend media conference call. This is a special weekend for NBC Sports with numerous high profile events across both days.

Saturday we have the Breeders’ Cup Classic beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on NBC. Saturday night, No. 1 Clemson at No. 4 Notre Dame. It’s the first time the No. 1 team in the country has been to Notre Dame Stadium in 15 years. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. Eastern on NBC.

On Sunday morning it’s the last two Premier League champions facing off, Manchester City and Liverpool. Coverage is exclusively streaming on Peacock Premium at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.

On Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Eastern on NBC, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion will be crowned, one of four drivers.

And the big event weekend concludes with Sunday Night Football, the NFL’s top two all-time passers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, Buccaneers hosting Saints. It begins with Football Night in America at 7 p.m.

And to talk about this weekend is a truly impressive roster of NBC Sports hosts and analysts. We have Mike Tirico, who handles play-by-play for Notre Dame football and is our host for Football Night in America; Cris Collinsworth, our Sunday Night Football analyst; Tony Dungy, our analyst for both Notre Dame football and Football Night in America; Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR analyst; Rebecca Lowe, host of our Premier League coverage; and Eddie Olczyk, our Pucks and Ponies analyst who this week will be handicapping the Breeders’ Cup.

We’ll also be joined by NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua. A quick reminder that a transcript of this call will be available in a few hours on nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com or you can contact one of us in the NBC Sports Group communications department.

But let’s begin the call now with opening remarks from NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua.

PETE BEVACQUA: Thanks, I appreciate the introduction. I want to also thank everybody for being on the call today. Certainly going through an interesting, unique, and challenging time in our country’s history when you think about the pandemic. Obviously, with our election on Tuesday night and still kind of going into yesterday and today and maybe somewhat of the foreseeable future. We know you’re very busy, but just wanted to thank you for taking the time to be with us.

And thankfully we have sports. You think about the passion level of sports around the country over the course of this pandemic, how they really have served maybe more than ever as just a great form of escapism to bring some joy into people’s lives around the country and that’s really what motivates us and makes this, what we do each and every day, so up lifting. And I’ve been so really remarkably pleased with the effort of our team across the board during these really, really challenging times. When you think about the great work of Sam Flood, Molly Solomon, Fred Gaudelli, Rob Hyland, how we have kept the team united, how we’ve brought live sports back to the viewing public, and I think in such a remarkable way, and doing all of that while never losing site of the fact that we have to keep our people safe. We’re going into these sporting events certainly in a different atmosphere than anyone has ever expected or certainly has ever been trained to. And it’s really been a remarkable few months.

And this weekend is a perfect example. You think about what we have in store for us with the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, we have this unbelievable matchup on Saturday night, which is obviously near and dear to my heart, with Clemson coming into Notre Dame. And you think back to these historic matchups when the No. 1 team in the country came and visited Notre Dame; you think of Miami in ’88, the great Charlie Ward FSU team in ’93; you think of the Bush Push game of 15 years or so ago when USC came into Notre Dame. And I think this has the ability to be another one of these great iconic Notre Dame football games.

And then we mentioned the Premier League, which has been so unbelievably successful for us, when you think about Manchester City and Liverpool, we’re going to have that on Peacock. And we have been so unbelievably pleased with the success of Peacock. We have seen firsthand the power of sports on Peacock and the impact the Premier League has had on the success of Peacock.

And then last but certainly not least, when you talk about an unbelievable sports weekend, we have this great matchup between Drew Brees and Tom Brady and New Orleans at Tampa in Tampa, which is a home game for Cris Collinsworth. So I know he’s excited about that.

But we’re grateful that live sports are back, maybe more furiously and feverishly than ever. I think it’s been a great moment for NBC Sports and should be a wonderful weekend. And again, wanted to thank all of you for being here with us and wanted to turn it over to a colleague and a dear friend, Mike Tirico. So Mike, take it away.

MIKE TIRICO: Hi, everyone. I’m in South Bend, Indiana. Just got here, getting set for the game. I haven’t been here for a three-day lead up for a game in quite some time.

But in any case, thank you, Pete. Let me pass the ball around to my friends and coworkers who most of whom I get to work with or see on a regular basis, so it’s a nice party-line way to catch up with everyone.

I’ll start with Tony Dungy as we get set for this game on Saturday with Clemson and Notre Dame. Tony, we have had a couple of weeks to get a look at Clemson, and then last week without Trevor Lawrence, who many think is the No. 1 player to be ready for the NFL draft next year, they are very fortunate to have an incredibly talented back up, DJ Uiagalelei, who is a true freshmen in his second start, first on the road. Do you think he can come into South Bend and beat the Irish?

TONY DUNGY: Well, he certainly can. If they don’t, it certainly won’t be his fault. We watched him in his first start be 18 points down and bring his team back. Talking to all the Clemson players yesterday and coaches, they said there was no fear, no worry on the sideline. He was the most relaxed guy in the stadium, and he played lights out. Only nine incomplete passes the whole day and just played great.

So it’s going to be a fantastic game. We obviously wish we could see Trevor Lawrence, but DJ Uiagalelei will put on a great performance. He’ll be ready to go. And he’s got a big challenge with that Notre Dame defense, but it should be very, very exciting.

MIKE TIRICO: Yeah, Notre Dame’s built up all year for this game. They have even spoken about it the last couple of weeks, which is atypical for coaches, but Brian Kelly’s embraced that, looking ahead and what the players talk about, that elephant in the room, that’s the matchup with No. 1 Clemson. And Pete hit it perfectly earlier. This is such a rare treat to have No. 1 at a stadium that’s been around for 91 years and has all the history that Notre Dame has. So we’re looking forward to that Saturday night.

And then Sunday night, it’s going to be a tremendous matchup with the two quarterbacks who have thrown for the most touchdown passes and the most yards in the history of the National Football League, Tom Brady and Drew Brees with Tampa and New Orleans. And Cris, obviously, there’s a lot beyond those guys, and their wide receiving corps are adjusting and getting right, finally, but here we are at the midway point of the season. What do you think of this as a measuring stick of these two teams as they play the second time around?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: New Orleans got after them pretty good the first time. But that team that they played, Tom Brady’s team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is not the Tom Brady team their going to see coming back in. It’s remarkable to see now how many more plays that resemble or directly copy the New England Patriots that are in this offense at this time. I mean, this thing now is really starting to take shape around what Tom Brady likes to do, what his feel is for this offense. But you go, you know, on the other side of the ball, and certainly what Drew Brees has been able to put together with this win streak, what Alvin Kamara has been this season. Arguably the best player in the league. I think he’s the best running back in football right now.

And they have done it all. Emmanuel Sanders has been out. He’s been on the COVID list. Michael Thomas basically has been a non-factor during the course of this season. But you begin to see that both of these teams are starting to get right. Both of these teams are starting to get that offense geared in exactly the way that they want it, and their guys back healthy. Neither of the receiving units have really been close to being a hundred percent. And as we come screaming down the stretch here in the National Football League, these are two teams that are going to be right there sitting at the top and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if one of them ends up in the Super Bowl.

MIKE TIRICO: And wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t an NFC Championship preview with the way these two teams are. And one of them, whoever doesn’t win the division, is going to slide down to a five seed and their road becomes very difficult. So these head-to-heads, especially if it’s a sweep for New Orleans, would be really, really huge to look at. So that’s Sunday night.

Then the other type of football, the Premier League, Pete mentioned earlier how they have continued to go through the difficulties that England has been dealing with COVID-19 as well. Liverpool and Manchester City — and every Sunday when I get to the studio for football night, I always love to pop into Studio 3 and talk five minutes of Premier League with Rebecca and the Robbies or Tim Howard, who has been a great addition to our team this year — and my love of soccer is only heightened when I get a chance to talk about it.

Rebecca, this match with Liverpool and City really brings two teams that had a remarkable 2018-2019 season that Man City won on their great run, and then Liverpool had the extraordinary year last year.

But as we hit their meeting this year, first time in a fixture, it’s a little bit different because Liverpool has still delivered, yet City hasn’t been what we have come accustomed to the last year or so.

REBECCA LOWE: You’re absolutely right. Pep Guardiola doesn’t normally stay at clubs longer than three years and he’s been a lot longer than that at Manchester City and he’s in the final year of his contract and he just feels like a different manager and therefore, when you look at the Premier League table, Manchester City, this great powerhouse of English football are sitting in 10th position going into this game. Now it is at home. It is against Liverpool, who over the years they have developed this huge rivalry just based on success. I mean, if you rewind the clock 10 years or even further, this has never been a rivalry. But this is all purely based on recent modern day success.

Liverpool, as you say, they have kept going. They haven’t had it all their own way. They have lost what most people see as the best defender in world football, Virgil van Dijk, to a knee ligament injury, out for probably the rest of the season. They have some problems in their back line because of that plus other injuries. So they’re having to bring in some youngsters, some young kids who have never played in the Premier League before, which that’s hard enough going into a Bournemouth or a Bryson or a Bermy, but to go into the Champions back line at the age of 19, like somebody like Rhys Williams, who may well play this weekend, is a huge amount to ask.

So Liverpool are not perfect. They do have a new striker up front that they got in the summer Diogo Jota, for around 45 million dollars, who has very much hit the ground running with goal after goal, hat trick after hat trick. He’ll probably play against Manchester City.

And as I say, it is at Manchester City, so although there are no fans, there is still a slight mental home advantage, but it’s only slight. So as difficult as this always is to call, Manchester City at home should still feel like their favorites, but the form and the table, Mike, as you say, tells you otherwise. But when these two get together, when you have Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, arguably, probably not even arguably, the two best managers in football right now anywhere on the globe, it is must-watch television.

MIKE TIRICO: And it feels like the rest of the Premier League is rooting for City to win at home because Liverpool seems always difficult to beat. So if they have a couple of losses on their card in the first eight matches, that would change the feel of the whole season. I am super excited for that on Peacock.

And Sunday, the NASCAR season comes to an end, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is on the line, as you know.

Junior man, when I saw the season play out and it was at Indy, you thought there was no way Kevin Harvick wouldn’t be part of the final four with nine wins, right? But he’s not. The final four is Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, a couple guys who won the Cup Series title, and then Chase Elliott. His youth, his excitement winning last week, his popularity just like his dad when he drove has a lot of folks thinking Chase Elliott has a chance. What are you looking for as we get down to the Final Four in Phoenix this weekend?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I think that Chase Elliott’s definitely not — I wouldn’t call him a dark horse — we have just never seen Chase in this situation to win a championship, but yet here he is and he’s coming off of a win at Martinsville. That was kind of a dominant win. So he’s going to have a real good shot at winning his first championship on Sunday and that Elliott name has a ton of history in our sport, so there will be a lot of folks I think pulling for Chase.

But honestly, the four drivers, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, I don’t think anybody in terms of speed or performance throughout the year has a clear edge. I tend to look at the mentality of that driver, his attitude, how he’s handled stressful situations like this, high pressure situations like this in the past, and the guy that stands out to me when you go that route is Joey Logano. He does everything he needs to do to win and he doesn’t apologize for it. And he can get aggressive, physical on the racetrack, and he doesn’t seem to crumble under pressure. I think that I have to kind of put him as the favorite for me, just slightly over Chase Elliott. I know Denny Hamlin has had an amazing season, but his performance in the playoffs has been just a little bit off. He’s not concerned, but it’s hard for me in my position not to be concerned about that. And Brad Keselowski, his whole motto this playoffs is, Why not us? I hear you. I hear you, Brad. But the speed for that team just seems to be a little bit below Joey Logano, his teammate.

But it will be interesting — it’s the first time that we’re going to go to Phoenix to crown our champion. We have traditionally done this at Homestead in Florida. This is a pretty wild racetrack, the restarts, they get four, five, six-wide down in turn one and two on these restarts. If we have late restarts in this race, which I expect we will, it’s going to be pretty dramatic. You won’t want to miss it.

MIKE TIRICO: NASCAR used to be it all comes down to Florida. Now it all comes down to Arizona, and maybe that applies elsewhere this week. Edzo, my man, I know you got some bets to make because you got racing going, two days worth at Keeneland. The Breeders’ Cup is so great every year, brings the best horses in the world together to wrap up the season, and to have it in the space in our country where the horse industry, really all the horses almost get their start in Keeneland, amazing breeding area for horses from that beautiful farm country. And Keeneland is just a special place to host the Breeders’ Cup and it’s headlined on Saturday afternoon by the Classic, Eddie. So I know the whole card is good, but just give us a little focus on what you’re looking for with the variety of horses we have who are pointing to the Classic, which could well decide Horse of the Year this year.

EDDIE OLCZYK: Great to be with everybody and we’re going to miss you here Mike, but we’re going to man the ship down here in Lexington. Yeah, it’s incredible. I mean, our relationship with horse racing, and particularly the Breeders’ Cup, is second to none. We have a lot of personnel on site and just looking forward to incredible racing. 14 Breeders’ Cup races, 31 million dollars on the line. As you mentioned, Mike, all headed to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, 6 million on the line. And a little tie in with Sunday Night Football. The late Tom Benson and his wife Gayle are into horse racing very much. They have Tom’s d’Etat, the No. 4 horse in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It might be a daily double when it comes to pigskins and horses for the New Orleans Saints and winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic. So keep an eye on Tom’s d’Etat owned by the Benson family. It is all about Bob Baffert, as you know, Mike, with having three horses in this race out of the 10. He has the No. 8 horse, Improbable; the No. 9 horse, Authentic, who won this year’s Kentucky Derby ran on the first Saturday of September; and he also has Maximum Security changed to his barn, who crossed the line first in last year’s Kentucky Derby and was disqualified, and rightfully so, to 17th. He is now in his barn.

So he has three horses that will be, I would say, probably two of the top-3 favorites coming into the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It should be a one heck of a weekend, lots of drama, horses from all over the world. And considering we are living in a worldwide pandemic, to have these horses come in, being quarantined, their handlers being here, I think it speaks volumes to what people think about this great game and this great sport, and just truly proud to be a part of it this weekend. And we got a betting show coming up on NBCSN here in about an hour and a half. We have coverage tomorrow on Future Stars Friday at 2 o’clock. We’ll have five Breeders’ Cup races, and then we’ll be on both networks, NBCSN at noon on Saturday and then switch over to the big network at 2 Eastern and be the appetizer for Clemson and Notre Dame on Saturday night.

MIKE TIRICO: We’ll be in the booth in South Bend early watching. I’m glad you mentioned that too because I think for all of us, and I obviously haven’t been to England and the Premier League, but you’ve seen what happened there, but in all these other sports just the sacrifice, obviously our crew, our team, we are so appreciative of that, but also the athletes, the coaches, the people who run all of these sports in general, to have, as you say, during a worldwide pandemic, all these championship events still going on and to have them all fall on one weekend, I think it’s a great opportunity to step back as a lot of us are doing, from 30,000 feet, and taking stock of what we have and what we are appreciative of in our country and our lives.

To have all these champions in sports; Notre Dame, Clemson, Brady and Brees, and the last couple of championships of the Premier League and the championship on the line with NASCAR and a couple of drivers who have won the Cup title, and as we’ve said, the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Bob Baffert and the other horses involved, what a great championship weekend this is.

Pete, understanding that you have a lot of people at NBC that you would be coordinating this with, but from your understanding, how will NBC navigate having these high profile sporting events with the prospect of significant breaking political news happening during one of these events?

PETE BEVACQUA: We have talked about that pretty consistently kind of in the lead-up to the election, obviously through Tuesday and then thinking about this weekend and what may or may not happen this weekend. I was actually on a big back-and-forth over the course of last night into this morning with Sam Flood and Fred Gaudelli talking about what changes we may need to make during halftime of Sunday Night Football. Obviously major breaking national news is always of critical importance and we will break in accordingly. The good news and the added benefit we have and maybe a bit of what’s advantageous to us compared to some others who are invested in sports as much as we are is we have MSNBC and CNBC and now we have a 24-hour news portal through Peacock that’s available to, as you heard maybe in our earnings call, over 22 million people, so we’re well covered in that regard. We’ll balance it. A lot of it, we have a lot of experience in terms of people handling those decisions, we’ll break away as needed, we’ll try to minimize any interruptions of these great sporting events, but it’s always just a bit of a balancing act and that very well may occur at some point over the course of this weekend. So timely question for sure.

Pete, with sports returning over the past four or five months what has been your impression of the ratings so far? Are they about where you thought they would be for all sports or slightly down due to the pandemic and just trying to get your views on NFL at mid season with how the Sunday Night Football ratings have performed?

PETE BEVACQUA: It’s all relatively speaking. Sports have continued to perform so really unbelievably well and you think about the power of the NFL and Sunday Night Football. And where we have been the No. 1 show in primetime television for nine years in a row and hopefully we’ll hit the decade mark, we have every expectation that we will this year. I think when you think about sports, you go back to the pandemic and I think back to when I was at the Players Championship in March, left there on a Wednesday and by Friday, the entire sports world had come to a grinding halt and we, like everyone else, were scrambling to put up meaningful content and to search our archives to see what could be of interest and we had the great cooperation of the leagues in doing so. But then when live sports came back, really led by NASCAR and the PGA TOUR, we did what we do best, which is bring live sports to the viewing public at a time when people maybe needed live sports as much or more than ever.

But then when everything started to come back, I think there was a bit of a sense where there were some live sports and so many live sports occurring during times when people weren’t used to it. So we saw that very firsthand knowledge and firsthand experience with the U.S. Open. The U.S. Open being contested always on Father’s Day now to move that into September, people weren’t used to having U.S. Open golf in September and now it was going up against college football and the NFL.

You had the NHL playoffs occurring at a time when they usually didn’t. And the NBA and Major League Baseball. And then with the advent of the college football season, which was stop and go and obviously with two of the Power 5 conferences waiting to start play.

So it’s been a difficult time, I think, for the industry to navigate, but certainly for the viewer to navigate, I think it’s been confusing. I think we’re starting to see a return to normalcy. I think the election was kind of a pivotal moment. We have seen the skyrocketing of cable news ratings. Now that the election is nearing an end I think people will go back to kind of normal consumption patterns. So we think we have weathered the storm, of course it’s been difficult at times, but we feel like we’re coming through this in a good place. We really believe with the NFL schedule, particularly with us having the flex schedule, should be unbelievably strong as we enter into the second half of the season. We think the game we have Sunday night that Cris talked about is going to be so powerful. So we feel good about where we are and now where we’re heading into what I believe will be the busiest two years in the history of NBC Sports. When you think about all of our property partners, Tokyo the summer games in 2021, followed so soon thereafter by Beijing in February and, oh by the way, what do we have right in between those is a Super Bowl in L.A.

So it’s an exciting time, ratings have been challenged at times, but the power of sports and the overall sports performance during this time period continues to be relatively strong.

I have a question for Tony and Cris about the game on Sunday night. Obviously it’s going to be the debut for Antonio Brown with Tom Brady. And Tom Brady seems to have put a lot of energy into his relationship with Antonio Brown last year and this year, inviting him to stay with him and really going to the mat for Antonio Brown. I’m just curious, why do you think Tom Brady is investing so much into Antonio Brown?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: I’ll take the first shot at this one. He needs him. There’s no question as you look at this offense, the one missing element, if you think back to all the great New England teams, they always had the Danny Amendola’s, the Julian Edelman’s, that slot receiver who could just get open quickly one-on-one. So you really couldn’t blitz Tom Brady because of those one-on-one assignments in the middle of the field.

Now the Bucs have been trying a little bit of everybody in that slot position. They have had their main receivers — Chris Godwin can do a lot of stuff in there, Mike Evans now has become a little bit of the slot player, which I just wasn’t used to seeing him playing there, and you know what, he’s really good. He’s added almost a tight end kind of element inside there.

But when you get right down to it, if the Bucs are going to win a World Championship, which is what this is all about, right? You don’t bring Tom Brady to town unless you’re thinking Super Bowl. Antonio Brown in that slot, if he is what he used to be, which, who knows, but if he is what he used to be or anything remotely close to it, he could well be that missing piece. He could be the piece that puts them over the top in this offense and honestly, I can’t wait to watch it.

TONY DUNGY: I believe you’re right Cris, I think Tom Brady and the Bucs are thinking playoffs, they’re not thinking this week. They would love to win this game and get that one up on New Orleans, but this is for January when you’re playing those big games and it’s tight and you need that one play to win it, is this a guy who can add that one play at the right time? They’re going to have about eight weeks to get the timing down. We saw Tom and Gronk, we saw Tom and Mike Evans early on in the season kind of misfiring. There will be some misfires with Brown. I thought he was breaking this way, I thought he was going to come out at this angle. But they want that timing to be there in the playoffs.

I know you mentioned Manchester City being in 10th place in your open, but what has surprised you most so far of this season?

REBECCA LOWE: Well, quite a few things. Down to, I think, a lack of fans, it’s really taking the Premier League into a different direction. I think what surprised me most is the affect of no fans on both end of the field. So I have spoken a lot to Tim Howard about this and he assures me that when you’re a defender or a goalkeeper, as he was, the support in the stadium gets on your back and puts you under pressure in a more positive way than if you’re a striker.

So, if you’re a defender, you’re kept on your toes, you’re kept focused by the crowds, so maybe you can see field goals, maybe you’re on your game more.

If you’re a striker and there’s no crowd, if you miss three chances, you’re not getting the crowd on your back. Now you used to have abuse hauled at you if you’re a striker and you missed three in a row. Now you’re not getting that, which means that the confidence level of the strikers are staying high because nobody can bring them down and then they score on the fourth chance, which perhaps beforehand, that never happened. Which is why I think we’re getting so many goals. So I’m kind of surprised at that as a big picture sort of answer to your question, but other than that, I’ve also been surprised at the slow start that so many clubs are making who normally are atop by now. The Manchester City’s, the Manchester United’s, even Arsenal at times, Liverpool themselves they lost 7-2 against Aston Villa. So there are stories in this season’s Premier League — we know it’s a soap opera, we know it’s always been a soap opera and every single week we get served up amazing story lines. This season, with all the added things going on in and around the league, it’s just ratcheted up another notch. And the surprises are coming from the way the goals are being scored, who is scoring them and how many are being scored, which has led to such crazy results at times. But we’re all here for it.

Obviously with the challenge for the pandemic having going from no events, and then events with no fans, now we have some fans. From a production side how hard has it been to integrate the fan back into the show and is it any more difficult now than it was when you guys started the NASCAR up this season, with probably your first events with fans and how — if you want to just kind of take me through how to integrate those shots back in and everything else.

MIKE TIRICO: Before you get going on the NASCAR things, since I’ve been at a bunch of these I’ll jump in on the fan deal, because I’ve seen different parts of it. When I was at Indy for the NASCAR weekend along with IndyCar, there were no fans there. We have done shows from the studio like the Kentucky Derby with no fans. We have done a Saints game with Cris with about 500 people in the Superdome and Tony and have I experienced 10,500 fans at Notre Dame stadium.

So I think each one is different and unique and obviously the fan factor is missing, just from the ambience, from the juice in the building, the excitement. I’ve had more players, more athletes and more sports tell me we have to bring our own energy, we have to bring our own enthusiasm, because the crowd isn’t there. I don’t know if, other than Rebecca’s point about the goals in the Premier League, I don’t know if it’s affecting the performance of the athletes on the field nearly as much, but I do think the environment has impacted going into those games and getting started.

And the last point I’ll make, from a television standpoint, crossing over a bunch of these sports, I think it’s just all unique to the events. When there’s been a crowd at a college football game we have shown them. We have shown the 10,000 at Notre Dame, we have shown the band, the band being there actually added to the ambience, more than any of the other sports, made that missing group of fans seem a bit smaller than it otherwise would be.

I think it’s something we’re going to see for awhile, I think we have all adjusted to it from a production standpoint and I think when the fans do come back, I think you’ll see them celebrated and appreciated even more within parts of the broadcast. So that’s just from the overall perspective, but I know Junior’s been to a bunch of races where there have been fans in the stands at NASCAR and just curious what you’ve seen on that.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, we have had races where there were none and races where there were a select few fans. I think the drivers absolutely prefer having someone in the grandstands to celebrate what they’re seeing and even if it’s just a very small crowd of people to have some kind of reaction. It is the strangest thing for these drivers — and this has all come from drivers telling us this — they work for three and a half hours to win that race and they get out of the car to nothing. It is the strangest feeling for them to climb out of the car right there on the flag stand or the finish line, to get the checkered flag and wave it to nobody.

So while that was obviously all a necessity and we worked through that, when they did get the opportunity to get fans back on the track, no matter how small the number, just any kind of energy off of that crowd is really, really appreciated by the drivers.

Like Mike said, I think it’s really put into perspective just what the fans bring to the event. NASCAR’s always been very appreciative of the fans, but I don’t think beyond this, we could ever take them for granted because it’s completely obvious to all of us what they bring to the event with energy and passion and I believe it does affect the performance or it does affect the vibe and the energy and how the race is played out. And what the drivers are going to do, the decisions they’re going to make and the risks they’re willing to take.

When you have that crowd and those people, you can see them, coming off the corner, when you take the lead, and fans are on their feet cheering that moment, in that race, when that’s missing, it certainly has to affect the drivers quite a bit.

Tom Brady has been an incredible bright spot as far as TV ratings this year. As Pete said, some TV ratings have been down, but Brady’s Bucs have really performed great in terms of TV numbers. Why do you think that Tom and the Bucs are such a compelling TV story this year?

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: I think you know it’s coming to an end, you know. I think, you know, when I watch him play right now, that’s not what pops through my head. Like some people at the end of their career you go, oh, boy, okay, let’s, this may well be the last time I see this guy play.

We had a conversation last night and I, if you just took it off of the tape that I’ve watched in the last three or four weeks here, you would think he legitimately could go to 44, 45, 46 years old. If he chooses to retire at this point, it will not be based on what you see on tape from Tom Brady. And yet in your brain you’re going, here’s a guy that’s won six Super Bowls and he’s in his 40s, is this the last time I’m going to see him play? But I also think there’s that little bit of a thing and we all knew it was going to come — was it Belichick or was it Brady? Right? And you knew it was going to be a part of the discussion. No matter which way this thing went.

And to see Tom Brady go down there, lose opening day against the Saints, and just sort of the slow progression of what this offense is beginning to look like under Tom Brady, it’s starting to look a heck of a lot more like what he was doing in New England and now I think the excitement of what could be — like they asked me to pick top-5 and all that sort of stuff, but it’s not where they are today — but when you see the progression of what this team is doing and what it could be, at the end of the season and throw Antonio Brown into the mix, it’s pretty darn interesting at that point.

MIKE TIRICO: I’ll just make it simple here. Most scrutinized position in all of sports, greatest champion at that position, did it in one place for so long, still at a high level and going to do it somewhere else. It’s taking Bruce Springsteen away from the E Street Band and moving him to Maroon 5, like all of a sudden Maroon 5 is like, oh, my God, are you serious? You know, it’s just that you’re taking greatness and you’re moving it somewhere else and you want to see, is it him, was it where he was, and I want to see if he can go win another one somewhere else.

So the fact that everybody’s familiar with him, the fact that the opponents have kind of lined up pretty well given their schedule this year, everybody wants to go, oh, oh, it’s Brady playing against Rogers, yeah, I want to see that. Oh, it’s Brady going to play against the Raiders, which should have been a Sunday night game, now it’s Brady against the Giants, it’s Brees the second time, every time he plays — and by the way, in a couple weeks there’s a Mahomes game — there’s just something magical about him and you can’t say that about many athletes in any sport, especially the fact that he’s doing it here at the back end of his career, with something to prove, and that pick 199, sixth round chip still on his shoulder. I think that’s why it’s must see TV every time he gets on the field.

And no disrespect to Maroon 5 fans, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to knock them like that. (Laughing.)

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: Maroon 5?

MIKE TIRICO: I know. I don’t know why I picked that (laughing.)

NFL big picture, you look at the race this year — Saints, Bucs, Seahawks, Steelers, Chiefs, Ravens — they have all made a trade or signed a guy to help shore things up. Are you guys noticing maybe more teams kind of trying to keep up with the Jones’ near the trade deadline and make some of these splashy moves that these franchises maybe aren’t all that known for?

TONY DUNGY: Well I personally don’t think it’s keeping up with the Jones’, I think what you’re seeing is there aren’t complete teams. Everybody’s got holes. And everybody’s gone through seven, eight weeks and saying, I really want to make a playoff run, Tampa, I need another big play receiver. I need a pass rusher in Seattle. I need this, I need that. And it’s wide open.

So it’s not like, hey, we’re sitting here and we can’t catch some of these other teams, but I think teams realize what they need and they’re going out to get it to try to make this run. So that’s the one thing I’ve noticed, that every team you look at, no matter how well they’re playing you say, boy, there’s some holes here. They would be great except for this. And I think those teams are trying to fix that coming down the stretch.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: I think you have a couple of things to talk about. One is you have older quarterbacks — Brady, Brees, Roethlisberger won’t appreciate me putting him in that category — but those kind of guys, and you realize that that window’s a little bit short, right? You don’t know how many more swings at the plate you get with that high-quality player at that position.

And then you also have, which we have never really had before, the other side of that spectrum, which are these young players on those rookie contracts lake a Lamar Jackson, where they don’t take up very much cap and you can afford to take a couple of big swings for a defensive player or make a trade or take on some salary that maybe you wouldn’t have been willing to do otherwise.

But I’ll say this, if you’re from Pittsburgh, that was two of the most impressive physical performances back-to-back that I’ve seen from what they did. Watching them in Tennessee, I was like these two teams — Tennessee and Pittsburgh — no way they’re coming back a week later and being able to play to that level. They were trying to kill each other out there.

And it ended up being true of Tennessee, they got beat in Cincinnati. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, went to Baltimore, a game every bit as physical, we know the rivalry, we know the intensity of that thing, and to go in there and pull off that one as well? To me that jumped Pittsburgh to another level in my mind. And I still don’t think that their offense is close to where they’re going to be at the end of this thing, I just don’t.

MIKE TIRICO: And I’ll just chime in quick that I think people are quicker to hit the reset button in the NFL. They’re quicker to cut losses, teams are also trying to add, as you say, once they see they’re in a window where they’re going to have a chance, I think they’re willing to add pieces. It’s almost, it’s not where baseball used to be at the trade deadline, but it’s much more of that mentality than ever. The fascinating part of that is with the salary cap that will go down next year, how is that impacting some of these decisions? And there’s not a lot of tolerance to sit there in the middle ground. If you’re not building around a young quarterback and a new head coach, chances are you’re selling off assets to be in position to draft in the top 10 to get one of those elite quarterbacks or young quarterbacks and start a rebuild quickly. Because we’re seeing Arizona, in a couple of years, has turned themselves into a 5-2 team with a chance to go 6-2 here against Miami this week. So I think that the reset button has come quicker for teams because the chance to get it turned around seems to be quicker than it was five or 10 years ago. So I think that’s part of the willingness on the backend where, I have assets, I don’t think I’m a playoff team, let me sell off this asset to see if I can get to the top of the draft line a little bit sooner.

CRIS COLLINSWORTH: And those quarterback assets in college football coming up in this year’s draft are pretty amazing.

MIKE TIRICO: Exactly.

TRANSCRIPT – FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA 2020 SEASON PREVIEW CONFERENCE CALL

September 8, 2020 By admin

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Mike Tirico

Tony Dungy

Rodney Harrison

Chris Simms

Sam Flood

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Football Night in America conference call to preview the upcoming NFL season. Joining us today is our Football Night in America host Mike Tirico and analysts Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Chris Simms, as well as our executive producer Sam Flood. In addition to Football Night, you may have heard, Tony will be joining Mike this year in the booth for Notre Dame football for the first time. NBC Sports’ Notre Dame season, 30th season of broadcasting Notre Dame football begins on Saturday, so feel free to ask questions about the Fighting Irish, as well.

Football Night is entering its 15th season and has been the most watched studio show in sports since its inception. NBC Sports kicks off the NFL season on Thursday night with the Super Bowl champion Chiefs hosting the Texans, and then on Sunday night, Week One, we are opening the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles as the Rams host the Cowboys. Coverage begins both nights at 7:00 p.m. eastern on NBC.

SAM FLOOD: Thank you all for joining. Excited to have the season going. It’s exciting to see that football is coming back and all the efforts that have been made by the NFL to get this season to happen. It is a new season. There are new systems and new opportunities to tell the stories of what’s going on, and what a great group on the air to do that with Mike, Tony, Rodney, Chris, Mike Florio doing the inside information, and also Liam McHugh and Jac Collinsworth.

A quick overview of how the talent is going to work this week. As you heard last week, Mike Tirico is going to call a few games this year, the first one being Week Three. So on Week Three, Liam McHugh will leave his normal duties as the host at the remote and come into the studio and join Tony, Rodney and Chris, and Jac Collinsworth will be the on-site remote host.

Jac is also going to be doing features and telling stories for us and will be in the studio Week One, but we have a team that can go tell the stories of what’s going on.

Tony comes in to Connecticut tomorrow. Rodney is going to be working from Georgia. He’ll be our Georgia bureau of NBC Sports, while Chris and Tony will be in the studio with Mike, and Mike Florio will be our West Virginia NBC Sports location, so we’ve got some broadening new areas we’re going to be coming out of with our talent as we continue to work on ways to social distance and follow what is most comfortable for everyone as we go into this new world and the new era of broadcasting.

We’re going in different people’s houses and today there’s a group in Rodney’s house setting up a studio camera setup for him which will put him into the show in real time, no different than the great Doc Emrick, who is calling the Stanley Cup Playoffs from his home somewhere outside Detroit, Michigan. We have structures in place to make sure everyone is ready to do their jobs with all the assets needed to be the show of record, and that’s what Football Night in America is.

We start the conversation every week on what happened on Sunday and most importantly why things happened and the implications for the week ahead. With that, I go to our quarterback, Mr. Tirico.

MIKE TIRICO: Thanks, Sam. Hi, everyone. I’ll be brief so you can get to all the guys with your football questions. This is such an exciting time. I’m sitting here right now just putting together the game chart for the Notre Dame game this week and balancing that with going back and forth preparing for the NFL season. I didn’t think that we’d get to a football season, but here we are, with so many questions.

Obviously the off-field stories of COVID-19, social justice, race relations in America have been a significant part of everyone’s lives here this year, and the NFL usually mirrors what’s going on in society, so that will have an impact, and we’ll cover it, but parallel to that, I’m really intrigued to watch the football. We have not seen any of these teams do anything but maybe a little blip out of their scrimmages, so Brady as a Buccaneer, Mike McCarthy as a head coach in new place, Cam Newton with the Patriots, the new stadiums in Vegas and Los Angeles, Kansas City coming back as a resounding popular story as a champion in the NFL, how good Baltimore was last year.

There were so many really good stories on the field that I just feel like we haven’t talked about much, and I think that first Sunday is going to be just an avalanche of story lines and the unexpected.

I’m fascinated to see how the first month of the season plays out. Thrilled to be year three in the studio with the guys, and I can’t believe it’s year five already as part of the NBC NFL team, the best team in the business. It’s a privilege for me. It’s something I don’t take lightly and I’m thrilled to continue working with the guys. Look forward to your questions, and I’ll throw it over to Tony.

TONY DUNGY: Thank you, Mike. I am in total agreement. These story lines are fantastic, and any other year we would have — we would be all over this already. But this is so unique, and I have to think back to 1982 when I was watching, a strike year where you really didn’t know coming to that first game what was going to happen, what teams were going to be like, who was making the adjustments. We’re going to see a lot of that beginning Thursday night and then again Sunday night.

I’m excited for the first month, as well, and just delighted to be broadcasting this and happy that we are back to some football. Should be fun. Looking forward to it. With that, I’ll turn it over to Rodney.

RODNEY HARRISON: Hello, everyone. Along with Tony Dungy, this is our 12th year at NBC doing this show, and this has really been the strangest year that I’ve ever experienced really in football. We talk about so many different story lines. I’m excited because I didn’t think football would actually happen this year. I just said there’s no way with COVID and everyone getting sick and people were dying, there’s no way we’re going to have football, and just the due diligence of the NFL, the players and their discipline has just been tremendous.

Coach and Mike talked about all the different story lines. Kansas City, can they repeat? I was on the last team that repeated in 2003 and 2004, how difficult it is, very difficult to try to repeat. My former teammate Tom Brady, he’s out in Tampa, he left the Patriots, so I’m excited to see what he brings along with Rob Gronkowski.

Look at the Dallas Cowboys who play on Sunday night. I think they have a roster that is a Super Bowl roster. I think their defense, at least a front seven, one of the top five in all of football. We’ll see, we haven’t had a chance to really gauge or see anyone in the preseason, but I’m just really, really excited about this season, and I’ll hand it over to Chris Simms.

CHRIS SIMMS: Man, 12 years, wow. Gosh, Rodney, you are the man. Patriots, Chargers, 12 years on NBC. That’s what I’m working to be right there one day.

I echo the sentiments of what everybody said. There’s so many interesting story lines this year, and I don’t know how the rest of the guys feel, but I’ve never felt so clueless going into a 2020 football season, and I think that’s where it’s really interesting.

Yeah, the story lines are awesome and Big Ben and Cam and Brady and is this the last hurrah for Drew Brees and can Lamar Jackson win a playoff game, does this become the jump-off point for the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty? There are so many things I’m excited to see about the start of the football season. What is the quality of play going to look like?

I’ll say this: The one thing that jumps out to me the more and more I get into this and start to feel like I’ve got to start picking playoff teams and make a Super Bowl prediction and all that, I kind of lean towards the proven commodities this year more than ever, with no off-season and just the weird, of course, pandemic and the world we’re in right now, yeah, I tend to lean on teams that were good last year, or at least didn’t have a whole lot of change on their roster. We’ll see if that proves right, but that’s kind of where I’m going as compared to maybe some of these teams that have new coaching staffs, new quarterback in Brady. I’m very interested to see how that works out in Tampa Bay.

But I think those are my overall thoughts going into the year, and I’m just like the rest of the guys, extremely excited that we’re going to be playing football, talking about it, and I’m pumped for that.

I’ve got a question for Rodney, then maybe a quick question for Tony and Chris. For Rodney, I’m curious about the Patriots’ defense. They’ve lost five starters from last year, a lot of young new faces on the defense. What are you expecting from that unit this year?

RODNEY HARRISON: I’m expecting them to really be led by their secondary. That’s the strength of — if you look at (Dont’a) Hightower to me was really the biggest loss because this is a guy that’s making the calls in the huddle, all the different things that he does and what he brings, I think that’s the biggest loss for them.

But they’re going to have to depend and lean on their secondary. They’re going to have to find a way of stopping the run. They have to be able to do a better job of stopping the run, especially when they play against running teams like the Baltimore Ravens.

We don’t know what they’re going to look like on the offensive side of the ball. Cam Newton is a great story, but as I look at the Patriots, they don’t have many weapons. Who are you afraid of? Julian Edelman is doing to do a lot — N’Keal Harry. They drafted him last year. I think there’s a lot of question marks.

For Tony and Chris, with Cam Newton in New England, what are your expectations for what the offense will look like and just overall thoughts on how the Patriots will do with Cam Newton running the show this year?

TONY DUNGY: I’m looking forward to seeing the offense because Bill Belichick does the best job of anybody in football of tailoring his attack and his defense to what his players can do, so he’s going to do some things with Cam that we haven’t seen him do with Tom Brady. He won with a number of different quarterbacks going back to Matt Cassel and (Jimmy) Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett and the offense looked a little different. So he’ll play to Cam’s strengths, and I’m anxious to see what that’s going to be.

CHRIS SIMMS: I’m the same here. I think I lean towards what Coach Dungy said. This is the builder of one of the greatest schemes we’ve ever seen in Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, understanding how to change a schemed approach on a weekly basis. You know, again, I’ll say this: Cam Newton, I know it’s been a long time since we’ve seen him play and certainly since we’ve seen him play healthy. But he’s only 10 years into the NFL career. He’s in his early 30s. Before he tore his labrum two seasons ago when they were 6-2 up in Pittsburgh, he was in the conversation only behind Mahomes as a possible MVP candidate, and I really think in a lot of ways the way I look at New England right now, and Rodney brings up the concerns on defense and I understand them and of course the weaponry at receiver is still an unproven commodity there as far as New England is concerned. I just feel like nobody is better at finding diamonds in the rough, and of course also I think just formulating game plans on a weekly basis that give them a chance to win football games, and I really think Cam Newton is going to have a good year, and I think in a lot of ways this team is built for Cam Newton’s style of football than let’s say Tom Brady’s style of football; let’s spread it out and I’ll find the Wes Welkers and Edelmans and do all that. I think you’re going to see more of an aggressive running attack and play action pass attack with Cam Newton at the helm this year.

I’ve got an NFL and then a Notre Dame question. First for Tony and Chris, with the NFL piping in crowd noise, and we don’t know the level and how loud it’ll be yet, just as a coach and quarterback, how much of a concern do you have about other teams and also opponents on film being able to pick up audible and signal calls and possibly having to frequently change out more than usual this season?

TONY DUNGY: I don’t think you have to do it any more than usual. A lot of teams have done that and taken the TV feed and tried to get little tips here and there on what people are doing. Some stadiums that don’t have big crowds or raucous crowds, you can hear everything called anyway. So I don’t think it’ll really change things too much. As a matter of fact, the crowd noise that they pipe in may make it noisier in some places. I don’t think that’ll really be a factor.

CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, I think a lot of the concerns I would have had if there was no noise at all, and you could actually just hear the communication going on. Whether that’s the quarterback instead of signaling a signal just yelling, hey, slant route or whatever their code word was for a slant route, to where that could become an issue, to where the sound could be so clear there. But I think realistically with — it sounds like it’s going to be around 70 decibels — If I’m a quarterback of a football team, I’m just telling my coach like a normal away game even before the pandemic, let’s just, crowd noise, let’s throw the speakers on, loud music, fake crowd noise, whatever it is, and let’s learn to deal with it, and I think of course guys are going to adjust to this pretty quick. But I don’t think it’s going to pose a lot of problems, either.

RODNEY HARRISON: Let me jump in from a defensive perspective, too, it doesn’t just apply to the offensive players. It also applies to the defenders because back there they’re making all the checks and adjustments, as well, and they’re paranoid whether the offense or quarterback can hear all their checks and adjustments. They’re going to have to make adjustments as far as hand signals, not communicating verbally a lot because the quarterback might try to steal their signals.

TONY DUNGY: Rodney, you’ve played in Indianapolis and our crowd was very quiet when we had the ball. You could hear everything out there. You could hear Peyton talk and we could hear you guys. I don’t think it’s going to be much different.

RODNEY HARRISON: And still couldn’t figure out what the heck you guys were doing.

For Sam and Mike, with Notre Dame this season having an All-ACC schedule, do you think during the pandemic and everything, this is maybe a good test case of whether Notre Dame joins the ACC full-time and how it can work, especially with you guys maybe doing the home games and all of that?

MIKE TIRICO: Just from a football standpoint, and I’m also an alum of an ACC school and still heavily involved at Syracuse, so I at least have a passion for what’s going on in conference and keep up to date with all that.

From a Notre Dame perspective they have played four, five games per year against ACC opponents and that’s a contract that’s in place for the next decade and a half going forward. I have learned in now my fifth year of covering Notre Dame football for NBC, Notre Dame really loves the independence in football because it gives them the opportunity to play Stanford and USC, and if you look at the schedule, those games are played in opposite years, so Notre Dame is always on the West Coast, which helps their national recruiting, which helps their alumni base get to see them in person out there.

In addition, college football tradition, whether it’s Michigan, a series down the line with Ohio State, schools from the SEC, we’ve seen Notre Dame play that national schedule. I think it would have to be a drastic change in philosophy to see Notre Dame want to become part of a conference and away from this independence because they do love the history, they do love the tradition, and it’s one of the very few schools that can pull this off.

I think all of college athletics is going to undergo a significant reexamination, but everyone I’ve spoken to on the Notre Dame side, this is a one-year thing and they really enjoy having the ability to keep that national schedule and their independence.

SAM FLOOD: Mike nailed it, and most importantly, we’re just thrilled that there’s going to be a Notre Dame season for us to cover, and I know Mike and Tony and Jac Collinsworth, who will be out in South Bend this Saturday, are thrilled to be able to cover a college football game. So that’s what we’re focused on, but I think Mike gave very good perspective.

Chris, to my fellow University of Texas alumnus, to what degree do Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson represent the current state of the art for playing quarterback and to what degree is that an apt way to begin the season? And for the defensive minds on the panel, how do you stop them?

CHRIS SIMMS: Well, I mean, they’re the cream of the crop. Come on, you know this. Patrick Mahomes, there’s no doubt he’s the best player in football from my opinion. I would think the other guys would echo those same sentiments, and I think he’s going to be up there towards the top of football here for a long, long time. I’ve never seen anybody come into the NFL and take the league by storm like Patrick Mahomes has.

And honestly, Deshaun Watson is not far behind and kind of been lost in the shuffle because of what Mahomes has done, but Deshaun Watson, extremely talented. Easily both of these guys are top-5 quarterbacks, could maybe be the future as far as a Brady-Manning type rivalry, but the biggest thing to me more than anything in this is the modern-day quarterback. Yeah, they can beat you with great decisions and surgical passing, but they also, hey, everything is covered. Oh, no big deal, I’ll make an unbelievable throw, or oh, everybody is covered and I have a little pressure in the pocket, no big deal, I’ll buy some extra time back here in the pocket and extend the play and then I’ll make something happen or I’ll just scramble and run because I can do that, as well. I’m interested to hear what Coach and Rodney have to say about it because they’re so rare, they’re so talented, they’re so fun to watch, and I am so happy that we are kicking off the season with these two great, great players, and then in a lot of ways, I’ll say this, too, I think this Texans offense will no longer just be about Watson to DeAndre Hopkins, I think it’s going more by committee, which can make them a more dangerous offense, give Watson more options, and I’m excited for that aspect as far as our Thursday night game is concerned.

RODNEY HARRISON: Yeah, it’s a very difficult question how do you stop these guys? I don’t think you go into a game saying, I’m going to stop these guys. I think it’s more about overall philosophy. When I talked to a few defensive coordinators about Patrick Mahomes as well as Deshaun Watson, they all told me the same thing about the patience, being very patient, because it’s frustrating going against those guys. It might be a 3rd down and 15, you see Patrick Mahomes, he might backpedal 10 yards, throw the ball across his body, and all of a sudden Travis Kelce comes up with it and a 1st down. That’s what they do. They demoralize you on those big plays. Yeah, it’s easy to say try to keep Patrick Mahomes in the pocket, but how do you do that?

It’s just very difficult. I think patience is the key, not giving up the big play, and understanding who you’re going against. They have a lot of weapons. They have a lot of speed.

And I agree with Chris; you look at the Houston Texans, they were so predictable in the most critical moments whether it was 3rd down, red zone, goal line, they’re going to DeAndre Hopkins, and now you look at all the guys they have, it’s actually more pressure on the defense to try to defend all these different guys if they’re healthy, Brandin Cooks, Will Fuller, all those guys. It’s very difficult to try to cover those guys compared to saying all our focus should be on DeAndre Hopkins.

I like what the Texans have done. I know a lot of people criticized Bill O’Brien for getting rid of DeAndre Hopkins, but this offense is actually more dangerous without DeAndre Hopkins.

TONY DUNGY: I don’t know if I qualify as the defensive mind, but I do know this: you’d better have pass rush to deal with those guys. If you don’t have great pass rushers that can pressure them, get the ball out of their hands, you’re not going to have a chance. They are athletic. They do more than just stand in the pocket and make great throws. They’re instinctive. They’re both smart guys, and I think they are the future of the NFL.

You look at guys like this and Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson, the athletic quarterback that can make things happen off script gives defenses so many problems.

RODNEY HARRISON: You think about going against a guy like Drew Brees or Tom Brady, you know they’re excellent quarterbacks, they’re accurate, but really going into a game against those guys, you kind of know what to expect. With these other guys, you have to expect the unexpected, whatever that is. It’s very difficult dealing with these guys because they’re so athletic, you have to worry about them being involved in a run game, which definitely becomes another headache, now the defense and the linebackers and the safety have to figure out how they’re going to stop the quarterback, whereas against Drew Brees and Tom Brady you know you don’t have to worry about scrambling.

I agree with Coach, these young guys, how athletic they are and how smart they are, they just pose so many problems on the defense.

Coach Dungy, the Jaguars and the Indianapolis Colts are facing each other this weekend, and the Jaguars as you know have done a pretty significant overhaul to their roster. They sent a lot of veterans packing. The Jaguars obviously are coming off two miserable years. When you see what the Colts have done with, particularly under GM Chris Ballard who’s overcome losing Andrew Luck, he’s overcome having a coaching change where he had to go back and get a second coach, but he’s made incredible use of his draft picks, particularly in his first two years, has Chris Ballard in a way almost set a little bit of a standard for how to build a franchise, even though last year didn’t finish the way he wanted and now he’s coming back with a veteran quarterback? Has Chris Ballard set a standard for GMs in the league?

TONY DUNGY: Well, I think what you have to have to make that happen, you have to have ownership, the GM and the head coach being on the same page. I think it’s a great program and a great fundamental philosophy that they have, and they are building for the future. Nobody there in Indianapolis is going to panic because they didn’t make the playoffs last year. It is building for the future, and playing young guys and developing them, so you have to have a coach that is willing to do that. You have to have an owner that is willing to do that. It’s easy to say that’s going to be the plan until you lose a few games.

But I love what they’ve done, and I think they have set a great foundation and shown people that you can build for the future, win a few games on the way and be okay.

Coach Dungy, I’m not sure if you’ve seen this, but Jerry Jones has now said he will allow his players to potentially kneel or protest during the National Anthem or take similar sort of socially aware measures. The fact that the NFL and the teams like the Cowboys are on board with that, do you think, Coach, there will be an adverse effect on fans and that perhaps maybe we will see a downturn in interest, or do you think that is more overblown and the league is doing the right thing accordingly?

TONY DUNGY: Well, I think you’re going to see it go both ways. You’re going to see some people who say if these players kneel, I’m not going to watch anymore because I just feel very strongly that they shouldn’t. And then you’re going to see people like my young kids who say, oh, I think that’s great and that they have a voice and they’re speaking up for people in their community that don’t have a voice, and I’m going to be more apt to watch. Which way it’s going to go and who’s going to attract more or lose more, I’m not really sure, but I think just like everything in this country, you’re going to see both sides of that.

My hope is that our players won’t be just kneeling and not just protesting, but what are we going to do to come up with solutions and how are we going to move forward, and that’s what I want to see, and that’s what I hope Jerry Jones and the Cowboys and everybody else, I think it takes center stage with solutions as opposed to raising awareness with protesting.

Following up on that last question a little bit, Mike, in your opening you sort of mentioned social justice and sort of these converging story lines this season. How will that be covered? You guys have the special tomorrow night; how much will we hear some of those efforts talked about, and how much a part of that from what you’re doing will we see?

MIKE TIRICO: On Thursday night and Sunday and Football Night in America on a weekly basis, this is not the first time these issues have happened, right, so we have covered them in the past before I was here, and now that I’ve been a part of the show, and it’s one of those situations where we’re very lucky to have Chris and Rodney not too far removed from being in the locker room context throughout the league, and Tony, who so many people in football and in America seek out on a regular basis for wisdom, advice, context and perspective, and we have it right on our set and in our viewing room and we watch games.

It’s so comforting to have as relevant and intelligent a voice as there is in sports on these issues as Tony, who’s lived through this now for the better part of six decades, this has been part of Tony’s life. He can add some common sense without screaming at you. It’s a great, great benefit for us.

We’ll cover it as it’s relevant to the games. The story on Sundays are pretty simple. We get you ready for the game coming up but also try to give you everything that happened of significance in the other NFL games. So if there is a form of protest, something significant that happens, we’ll discuss it, document it. If we need to put it in perspective, so be it, but then we’ll show you the highlights of the game.

We have brilliant viewers. These are complex situations. We can do both. And I think we have in the past. I’m really confident that we’ll be able to do it.

Thursday night’s pregame show we’ll certainly have a little bit more of it because it’s the start of an NFL season coming off an off-season like we’ve never had before. Then once we get to Sunday, obviously the league-wide displays that happen, we’ll document. But we’re also going to show you Brady and what happened with the Bucs and his first game and Cam and the Patriots and all that stuff.

It’ll be the typical blend, and I think as the season goes on, as you have more of a focus probably on the games, we’ll adjust accordingly.

Tony and Chris, you both alluded to sort of the uncertainty of what we’re going to see, especially early in the season. We’ve come to expect some pretty sloppy football in September in the past years, and that was with four preseason games and extended preseason training camps. Do you think that the level of play is going to balance the field a little bit for some of these teams that maybe on paper wouldn’t be able to compete against some of the top-tier teams, and will it allow for more upsets, especially early in the season?

TONY DUNGY: I kind of think it’ll be just the opposite. If I were looking to handicap this, I would say jump on the veteran quarterback and the veteran coach who have been together. I think they’re going to have the advantage in September and early in the season. You look at Kansas City and the Texans, for instance. I think we’ve got a chance to have some real explosive stuff and some good plays because you’ve got quarterbacks, you’ve got veteran players who have been in the system, you’ve got the same coaching staff. I think those are the teams that are going to have the advantage, and they’re going to be tough to beat early.

CHRIS SIMMS: I’m with Coach there all the way, too. That’s why I kind of made that comment to start as far as proven commodities, that’s exactly what I was talking about. Teams that had a lot of change in the off-season, new coaching staffs, accumulated a lot of players, man — I’m interested. I really am. I don’t know where that goes. There’s a lot that goes into being battle tested as a football team, playing as a team, camaraderie in the locker room. I think sometimes we under value that stuff a little bit and just go, hey, look at the names on the paper, they should be awesome. Well, yeah, the names on the paper Cleveland Browns probably should have been 11-5 last year, but the reality is it was their first time together and there was a lot of dysfunction in reality that way.

I’m with Coach there, and I expect teams like the 49ers and the Saints and the Chiefs and the Ravens and even the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks to get off to a good start, because yes, it’s pretty much very close to the team they ended with last year. They know what to expect with each other. They’re not learning a new playbook. And then yes, the quarterback thing is very real, to which Coach alluded.

I would think the offenses for the most part, if you have a good quarterback and a good passing game are going to have a severe advantage over the defenses early on just because live action, oh, wait, they went to this formation, wait, we don’t have our check-in yet because it’s too early in the year and we haven’t had enough reps for it and I think defenses will be a little bit behind, like we saw in the 2011 season with no CBA where they had those three 5,000-yard passers. The passers and catchers did not have issues hitting the ground running when the season started, and I think we’re going to see that again here this year.

Mike, I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to watch some of the college games that have been played already with no fans, one last night. What do you anticipate it being like to call football games without a crowd? Your voice tends to rise when there’s an audience around you, but have you given any thought to how you might handle Notre Dame games and then NFL games with no fans in the stands?

MIKE TIRICO: Sure, I think with the Notre Dame games, since that’s immediately ahead of us on Saturday, it’s going to be reading the room a little bit. Notre Dame will have students in attendance, faculty and staff and parents of players from both teams, with a cap of 20 percent or about 15,000, so there will be some atmosphere there. So I think it’s not that situation like the Navy game last night. I was watching Reese and Kirk call that game and there was no atmosphere there for them to work with.

I’m going to lean back on something that I stumbled on after 9/11 and the first weekend back doing football. I did a game at Michigan and I had no idea going in how to react, be upbeat, be positive or continue the somber tone that was in the country, and on that day, I felt as though — I remember walking into the stadium just thinking, I’ll react the way the people react. If there’s crowd noise and there’s enthusiasm and you can hear that coming through the TV, I’ll match that. If there’s not, you’re a little more subdued, I’m going to try to use that as a guide or a barometer for how we do it.

I think my biggest concern or I guess unknown is a better word is the logistics of calling the game, being socially distant in the booth in terms of spotters, statisticians, things like that. We’ve worked a lot to have a game plan in hand to have all the services and the ancillary things that are essential to getting a good broadcast on the air replicated.

For me that’s more of a trepidation going in than what’s it going to sound like with no fans because we will have some in South Bend on Saturday.

Mike and Rodney said earlier in the call that they didn’t think there was going to be any NFL games this season. How concerned, how worried are you whether or not the NFL can pull this off safely? After all, they’re the only major league that’s going to have fans in the stands. The others are all completely empty.

RODNEY HARRISON: Any time you’re allowing thousands of people with a chance to gather together, there’s a chance of the virus spreading, so I’m not an expert at anything like this. The NFL through training camp they’ve done a wonderful job of trying to social distance the players, keep them safe, test them and do all those different protocols. I have no idea. Am I concerned once the season starts, will they be able to finish? Of course, what happens if the entire Patriots secondary gets wiped out, will the game get canceled, will it get delayed? You just don’t know what’s going to happen. But I am happy for at least the start of the NFL season. Not sure if they’re going to be able to finish.

MIKE TIRICO: Yeah, and just on my end, from a fan perspective, that’s local and regional governments making those decisions and those calls based on their expertise. Far be it for any of us to question what their purview is on these situations, and the situation is different in every part of the country. That’s why some teams will have home fans and some teams won’t for the early start of that. That’s out of our league.

My focus has been what’s happening on the football part of that, and from the football perspective after lengthy conversations with the NFL and seeing what they’ve done procedurally and also significantly and I don’t think it’s gotten enough attention, conversations with the Premier League, the Bundesliga, other leagues where competition has gone on where there’s physical close proximity of the athletes, they have found a comfort zone between the players and the league that they can get the players to the field safely and have a good knowledge as best we can at this point of what their status is regarding COVID-19.

I think the NFL has the longest runway of the major sports in the U.S. to try and figure out a plan, and from what they have shared to this point, I see why they’ve arrived at the decision that they will be able in their mind to get started safely. None of us can sit here and say we know what’s going to happen because none of us thought we’d be in this conversation six months ago. That speculation would just be absurd.

But I think in general they’ve done what they needed to to get the season started, and I applaud them for getting that done.

SAM FLOOD: The league also has protocols in place that creates a DMZ between whatever fans are in these very few stadiums that’ll have very few fans in them. There’s a protocol in place where the fans will be far away from the players, so the mixing of people isn’t going to take place. So it’s very well-thought-through in the rare instances where there will be spectators.

Mike, I know that you’ve only done, I think, just the one game of play-by-play with the Ravens back in 2018 up there in L.A., but I’m sure you watched Lamar play at Louisville and again last year when he became just this superstar MVP. From the perspective of a broadcaster or play-by-play guy, what is it like to just cover someone who plays the position and a position so important, so radically different from other guys at his position, even some of the best guys at that position?

MIKE TIRICO: Chris hit on it earlier. Both he and Patrick Mahomes, they bring a different energy to the quarterback position and just technically from doing play-by-play, you’re much more prepared for a runner, a play to be extended, and it takes you back to Michael Vick and Cam Newton and Russell Wilson and the plays that they’ve made over the years that are those highlight plays, and you know that can happen on every snap. I love watching Lamar play.

It has come at a time when I think NFL football, as these players have come in, has taken more of a semblance of college football in terms of Xs and Os, and Chris and I covering college and pro the last couple years have that conversation; there’s more Saturday football on Sunday afternoon and Sunday night and Monday night than there ever has been, and that’s because these players have a “wow” factor. That’s why we’re seeing Deshaun Watson and Lamar and Patrick come into the league and do these things, and from not just a play-by-play announcer’s perspective but as a football fan, it’s awesome. It’s great. You never know when the next snap might be that play of the year that you’ll be seeing over and over and over, and that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and there’s nothing like entertainment where the unknown spectacular can happen 15 seconds from now.

For Rodney, you all talked about the new quarterbacks, what about the old guys and their abilities to traditionally get it done, and any thoughts on the top receivers?

RODNEY HARRISON: Well, I look at the older quarterbacks and I’ve been around Brady. I know how competitive he is. Drew Brees used to be a teammate of mine out in San Diego. These guys are competitive. They see these new hot young guys come through and they’re getting a lot of attention. These guys have been some of the best quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. They have a lot of pride. So these guys are stepping their game up. You see the way Tom, the energy that he brings, Drew Brees we got a chance to cover him the last two years on Thanksgiving, and just his tremendous work ethic, spend time with him, and just everything that they bring.

So these guys, they pay attention to the young quarterbacks, and they’re like, hey, don’t forget about us, we’re a little older and maybe we can’t run and scramble and do the things that you can do, but we can still get it done.

But as far as the wide receiver debate, I think Julio Jones is the best wide receiver in the National Football League, then you have to go between DeAndre Hopkins and Michael Thomas, but I think those guys are the cream of the crop, just how consistent they’ve been and what they bring every single week.

Rodney, are you guys surprised at how the Cam Newton situation ended in Charlotte, and what do you think about the future of the Panthers post-Cam? Could they use McCaffrey too much, and are Charlotte fans in for a number of 2-14 seasons moving forward?

RODNEY HARRISON: I went through a very similar situation where you’ve been at a place for nine years, and when they have new ownership, they have new coaches, they have whatever it might be, you’re going to get a new philosophy. You’re going to get people in there that say, hey, we don’t want a guy like Cam Newton, we want a change, we want to go in a different direction, and that’s exactly what happened. I wish it would have been a little bit more conversation with Cam. I wish they would have maybe communicated just a little bit better with Cam, but Cam is in a really good situation.

I said this months ago, I said the Patriots are crazy. I was very disappointed in them not pursuing Cam because here you get a guy who’s extremely motivated, a guy that’s hungry, you don’t become MVP of this league and get to the Super Bowl because you’re lazy, because you can’t play. He can play. He’s really good. Yes, he’s very immature at times in media, but I think it’s all for this purpose. He’s getting an opportunity with the best coach in the National Football League, best situation for him, and he has a lot to prove.

It’s not just one of those things Belichick comes out and says he’s working hard, he’s the captain. He has to produce, and he gets his opportunity this Sunday. I’m looking forward to Cam. I think he’s going to have success. Like I said before, I think my only concern is they haven’t put greatness around him. Julian Edelman is fine, but who else? Who else in the wide receiving corps can they count on?

Rodney, I’m just wondering, with this craziness of the off-season and limited off-season, do you think the Patriots and Coach Belichick have an advantage over some teams where they have an established program in place for so long?

RODNEY HARRISON: The system is the system. It’s been there. It’s going to be there. When you have a coach like Tony Dungy, when you have a Bill Belichick, you have stability but still understand they have a lot of new faces and a level of talent, the Kyle Van Noys and Dante Hightowers, those guys are gone. More so than athleticism and physicality, those guys brought leadership, and that’s the challenge when you have young players. Can you find young players that are willing to sacrifice and step up at a young age and become leaders? And that’s what needs to happen. They need more of those young guys. Kyle Dugger, the young safety, he’s going to be expected to come in and play right away and play multiple positions. And that’s his challenge. I had a conversation with him. I asked him how’s camp going, he said, it’s a lot of different things going on, and I said, hey, you’ve got to continue to stay in your playbook, it’s all part of the program.

But yeah, I think they’re going to be challenged a lot in that situation.

The Ravens obviously had a great year last year, but they’re looking to take the final step to the Super Bowl. If you put yourself in John Harbaugh’s shoes, what are you thinking about and what are you telling the team as you try to take that final step?

CHRIS SIMMS: I look at the Baltimore Ravens like this: This is the most talented roster in all of football. There’s really not a weakness to the football team itself when you look at it. I don’t look at any one area and go, oh, my gosh. Oh, they don’t get that better, then they’re not going to be a good football team. There’s nothing like that. They’re unbelievably constructed that way. Lamar Jackson is extremely talented. They’re running an offense that the NFL has never seen before.

So that’s all cool to watch. One of the themes of this year, especially as we get to December, I think is going to be, especially if Baltimore is up there in the rankings, is going to be, oh, Lamar Jackson, can he win a playoff game, he’s 0-2 and all that. We all know more goes into that than just one guy, certainly. I think you can point the finger at a few places.

Hey, two years ago they lose a playoff game, they’re a young football team. They’ve got a rookie quarterback. He didn’t play his best. And the Chargers got to see that offense for a second time around and were ready to go.

This past year, I think between Harbaugh taking his foot off the gas pedal at the end of the year where basically the Ravens didn’t play a meaningful game for three weeks, that hurt them. I think they panicked once they got down to the Tennessee Titans a little bit, and then also I think it showed if there is any flaw to Lamar Jackson’s game, it showed, and that’s kind of what we saw in that other playoff game, where hey, if our game plan designing and our physicality can’t dominate with the run game, okay. If we can’t do that, can Lamar continue to progress, which was an unbelievable jump from year one to year two, and I expect another big jump to year three to where, okay, we’re not dominating the run game, can we trust Lamar to drop back and throw the ball 38 times and make good decisions and be efficient and move the ball that way. To me that’s the last piece of the puzzle.

RODNEY HARRISON: To me that’s the most important point right there because we know they can run the football, we know that he can run the football. But in case that run isn’t working, that’s the question right there. That’s the million-dollar question; can he put a team on his back, throw the ball 30 plus times and have success and win football games.

I think the second part about that is not only can he throw the ball, can he throw the ball down the field and have more completions and have more success. I think that’s a big part of if you’re talking about taking the next step as far as Lamar, being able to throw the ball to the wide receivers and not just focus on the tight ends or the backs out of the backfield. Throwing the ball, spreading it around and throwing it outside the numbers, making sure that he can — those sideline catches, giving the wide receiver the opportunity to catch the ball on the sideline down the field.

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