As I watch “Football Night in America,” which is a Sunday evening tradition for me, I found that as I tried to look at the show critically it made me think. I started paying attention to all of the little things that probably would have normally gone right over my head.
Let's start with the show format. I think it is a strategy for success. They begin the show at an anchor desk in 30 rock NYC hosted by Dan Patrick, and co-hosted with football greats Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy. They have iconic sportscaster, Bob Costas on remote with former Pittsburgh Steeler, WR Hines Ward, as they are on location at wherever the Sunday Night Football game is taking place.
Costas and Ward will do a short preview of the game that will eventually be called by legendary play-by-play man, Al Michaels, and in my opinion the underwriting color man, Chris Collinsworth.
Normally Costas will throw it to Collinsworth at their makeshift set at the stadium, and we will get his initial thoughts for the upcoming game. Following Collinsworth's statements, Bob Costas will throw it back to New York and Dan Patrick and company will dive into all of the highlights from the early afternoon kickoffs.
I think it is an interesting decision by NBC to have Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy as the co-hosts on the program. Actually I think it is a very smart decision because the network knows that these two men will often disagree, which would lead to very entertaining TV.
Harrison was a strong safety in the NFL who made his career with the San Diego Chargers, and won two Vince Lombardi Trophies with the New England Patriots. He is now an outspoken critic of many NFL teams including the Indianapolis Colts. His partner, Tony Dungy, won a Super Bowl with those same Colts and coached against Harrison for years as AFC foes when the Colts would take on the Chargers and Patriots.
They often will feud on the show with many hot-button debates. However tonight on the show they tended to agree, which is a rarity. They debated if Peyton Manning is done when it came to his absolutely abysmal performance against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Harrison's predictably said that Manning's career is over and that he doesn't have the arm strength anymore to consistently play well in the NFL on a week-to-week basis. The surprise came when Dungy said that Manning, who he coached for years in Indianapolis is done. He just no longer thinks Manning has anything left in the tank.
Patrick then cut to Sports Illustrated journalist, Peter King that touched on injury issues through the NFL on Sunday. All in all, Football Night in America is an Emmy-winning top notch pregame show.
