SUPER BOWL XLIII PREVIEW WITH NBC’S MICHAELS, MADDEN EBERSOL AND GAUDELLI
“It’s not to get to the Super Bowl; it’s to win the Super Bowl, and I think both teams understand that.” – NBC’s Madden
PREGAME CONFERENCE CALL TODAY AT 1PM, ET
NEW YORK – Jan. 28, 2009 – NBC Sports’ coverage of the Super Bowl begins at Noon ET, Sunday, Feb. 1. Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa will mark the 16th broadcast by NBC, equaling CBS for the most Super Bowls broadcast by any network and its first since 1998, Super Bowl XXXII. In that Super Bowl played in San Diego, John Elway finally broke through for his first Super Bowl championship, as the Denver Broncos defeated Brett Favre and the defending champion Green Bay Packers, 31-24.
NBC Sports conducted a media conference call yesterday with John Madden (game analyst), Al Michaels (play-by-play) Dick Ebersol (Chairman, NBC Universal Sports and Olympics) and Fred Gaudelli (game producer) to preview the matchup for Super Bowl XLIII.
MICHAELS ON THE EXCITEMENT OF THE SUPER BOWL: “Now that we’re on site it’s a different feeling then when you’re sitting at home prior to coming down here. There is great anticipation about this game, and there’s mystery. I think it’s going to be really exciting. It’s building and you can feel it and I’m delighted to be working my third Super Bowl with John and we just want one thing – Double Overtime.”
MADDEN ON HANDLING PRESSURE OF SUPER BOWL WEEK: “I’m impressed how both these teams are handling media day. It’s the first test they’ll have to face down here. There are two important things you have to remember about the Super Bowl. When you win your championship game, it’s not the end. You haven’t done anything yet. It’s not to get to the Super Bowl; it’s to win the Super Bowl, and I think both teams understand that. The other thing is, don’t take these things as distractions. Just enjoy it. You’re going to look back on your life and say, ‘that was the best time of my life.’ If it’s going to be a highlight, act like it and enjoy it. These teams are handling it that way, and the teams that enjoy this usually win.”
GAUDELLI ON THE SUPER BOWL: “There is no greater opportunity in sports than to put the Super Bowl on your network for hundreds of millions of people. There are just some tremendous stories in this game, and interesting matchups on both sides of the ball. We wish the game was tomorrow because we are ready to go.”
EBERSOL ON NBC RETURNING TO DO A SUPER BOWL: “This is the first Super Bowl NBC has had in 11 years. In the five years that preceded our last Super Bowl in San Diego in 1998, we had four Super Bowls in six seasons, the greatest bounty that anyone had ever had. It teaches you humility in this business when you hit a home run like that and you think it’s going to stay forever but it goes away. So my joy is high in having another Super Bowl and most importantly going into the Super Bowl with Al, and John and Freddy and Drew Esocoff, the best team to do football, I believe, in my lifetime.”
ON AL AND JOHN CALLING ANOTHER SUPER BOWL TOGETHER:
MICHAELS: “I’d like to be back in three, six, nine, 12, 15 years. You can’t do enough of these. This is the essence of why any of us get into this business, and God-willing everyone stays healthy there is more to come.”
MADDEN: “It doesn’t get any better than this, these are always the biggest years you do when you end up with a Super Bowl. This has been a very special year working with Al. This is our third one, and a fourth sounds pretty good.”
MICHAELS ON HIS GAME PREPARATION: “John and I like to follow the saying ‘let the game come to you.’ We’re going to go into this game with about eight million things to talk about, but we’re not going to start by talking about them, we’ll let the game develop, see where the stories are, and then get into them.”
EBERSOL ON THE DIFFERENCE OF TELEVISING A SUPER BOWL TODAY: “For starters, I expect this Super Bowl experience, which so far has been perfect, will continue that way. This is the first time that we have been involved doing regular season football as a playoff caliber production every week with the size and scope of what goes into a Sunday Night game. It’s the closest thing to a big playoff game or a Super Bowl. I feel like we do it every week at a high level. I think that we are better prepared for it and the experience that John and Al bring certifies that.”
EBERSOL ON THE EFFECT THE ECONOMY HAD ON THE SUPER BOWL:
“We had one incredible lucky break against what has been a very slipping economy. Our sales department sold more Super Bowl inventory before the beginning of September than anyone had in history. On September 5, they announced they were 85% sold. I’m not going to tell you it hasn’t been a tough slog to this point since then, but as we sit here this afternoon they’re down to the last four spots left in the game and they have not crashed price in any way shape or form. A dozen of those spots in the game were priced and accepted at $3 million and all the other spots are in the high $2 millions, so we’re pretty happy with that situation.”
“I won’t sit and tickle you and try to tell you it’s the same for the pregame side, because historically that is sold in the last couple of months before the game and we had a tough time, but we’re selling quite a bit this week. It won’t be a record-setter, but I think the game, in terms of gross dollars in because of the high price of so much of the inventory that’s already been sold, will set a record.”
MICHAELS ON FINDING NEW ANGLES: “What we might try to do here is find a little different twist. Everybody is going to know the stories but maybe we can find a little different angle that very few people know about or have heard about or come in a side door when we address that. I’m not talking about ignoring these stories. I’m talking about trying to illuminate them in a different manner than you might work just a regular season game.”
EBERSOL ON THE EXPANSION OF THE PREGAME SHOW: “I’m still looking for people right now as we get to this point in the conversation. We were catching up with ourselves today, and we have not announced all of them but at this moment between the pre-show and the game we have twenty-one people and I want twenty-two so we can fill two complete teams. John and Coach Holmgren and Coach Dungy will all have to play; they won’t be able to be on the sidelines. One of the things that’s a challenge when you do a whole afternoon, as we’re about to do with our pregame, is to be interesting all the way through. What Sam Flood and Michael Weisman have laid out for Sunday afternoon is indeed incredibly interesting, and they have some very interesting fellows to talk us through this stuff. To have Mike Holmgren and Tony (Dungy) fresh out of the game, one three years removed from the Super Bowl and the other two years removed, they have a lot they can help enlighten the audience about how the Super Bowl is different from other games in terms of the way the guys prepare. Mike Holmgren is unbelievably excited about doing this. I guess he has never really put this out there but has harbored for a long time this desire to try the television thing. This is his grand experiment and he’s going to have a good time doing it.”
GAUDELLI ON CONTROVERSIAL PLAYS: “The great thing about this game is Mike Pereira is in the stadium; he’s a phone call away. We have communication from our announce booth directly to him as well. Under no circumstances will any play go unexplained on television by Al and John on Sunday. In terms of looks, obviously on a regular Sunday night game we have a good deal of equipment. We’ve amplified that for this game. We have a really solid plan for how the game gets covered and to make sure that controversial plays – was he touched, was his foot in or out of bounds – the additional cameras are placed so we would have defining looks at plays like that.”
EBERSOL ON THE PRESSURE TO DELIVER RATINGS: “I don’t know if this is a secret or not but if it is I’m going to put it out there. The Super Bowl is the last remaining event in all of American television that does not guarantee a rating. I think the largest reason for that is that it’s been more than two decades that the Super Bowl rating has varied more than three rating points between a forty and a forty-three. Al reminded me of that fact as I was exhibiting some concern. This was before the conference championship games were being played, and I won’t go into detail but things were looking a little shaky, and he recalled that immediately from memory. I went and looked at it and it is unbelievable. I did know the fact, though, that the Super Bowl rating has never been guaranteed. I’m very comfortable with the fact that this game will be a 40 rating or somewhat above that.”
PREGAME CONFERENCE CALL TOODAY (WEDNESDAY) 1 PM ET: NBC Sports will conduct a media conference call today (Wednesday) at 1 p.m. ET with the “Football Night in America” team of Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber.
NBC’s Super Bowl XLIII Technical By The Numbers
450 More than 450 people will be part of the NBC production, technical, administrative and support crews
93 Microphones (including 12 on-field parabolic microphones)
52 High Definition Cameras (2 SD Cameras for Game Clock and Play Clock)
50 Miles of Camera and Microphone cable
45 Vehicles (control trucks, mobile units, office trailers, Horse Trailer)
24 Digital Video Replay Sources
22 Hard Cameras (including 2 Super Slo-Mo’s and three “X-Mo’s)
20 Hand-held Cameras (including two SteadyCams)
10 NEP Supershooter Trailers in the TV Compound
8 Digital Post-Production Facility (5 Avid Suites, 3 Final Cut Pro Suites)
5 Robotic Cameras (including two fixed on the Field Goal posts)
2 RF Hand-held cameras
1 “Cable-Cam” camera suspended above the playing field
1 Hard Camera for scenic views of Tampa Bay
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