ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown Notes and Quotes: Week 7 ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown host Chris Berman and analysts Cris Carter, Mike Ditka, Tom Jackson, and Keyshawn Johnson previewed the NFL’s week 7 games with Suzy Kolber, analysts Merril Hoge and Bill Parcells, and NFL Insiders Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen. Some excerpts:
On Donovan McNabb’s future…
Parcells: “You know once you been kind of a high-rankin’ chief, hard to go back and be in the Indian tribe.”
On Tim Tebow…
Ditka: “If you can do a little good, it’s better than doin’ a lot bad.”
Carter: “This is the worst team that he’s played on since little league.”
Hoge: “Tim Tebow is a Clydesdale. He is the best Clydesdale you will ever get in the history of Clydesdale. But he is now being entered in the Kentucky Derby.”
On the Raiders’ trade for Carson Palmer – did Oakland give up too much?
Jackson: “I’m going to borrow a line from The Godfather: They made the Bengals an offer that they couldn’t refuse.”
Ditka: “There’s no guarantee about number one picks. I want to give you an example. There was a brilliant coach at one time who traded a whole draft for a guy named Ricky Williams.”
Berman: “At 4-2, Palmer was the best option for a team that was winning.”
More on Carson Palmer…
Hoge: “He’s a great complement, as long as you have one thing in place, which the Raiders do – you can pound the rock.”
On the New York Jets – have they turned the corner?
Carter: “They are not a Super Bowl team… The Jets are nowhere right now.”
Johnson: “I don’t think they even have an identity.”
Ditka: “If you can’t run the football and stop the run, you are not a good football team.”
Berman: “Their defense is not authoritative right now.”
On weighing intangibles vs. talent…
Carter: “In the National Football League, guys, it’s not about intangibles… we get paid to win.”
On NFL coaches shaking hands…
Ditka: “If you’re better than me, beat me. But I don’t have to pat you on the back about it.”
On the NFL playing a regular-season game in London…
Ditka: “Football is an American sport. Soccer’s a world sport… If there’s ever a franchise in London, it won’t be in my lifetime.”
Jackson: “Coach, we had an hour flight every year to Kansas City and I didn’t want to take it.”
On the Falcons and the Lions…
Ditka: “Now everybody says, ‘Oh, what’s the matter with the Lions?’ Look at the film, you’ll figure it out. They cannot stop the run.”
Johnson: “I think the Detroit Lions are startin’ to level off and I think the Atlanta Falcons realize that they have to run the football to be successful.”
Remembering Kent Hull…
Berman: “Kent was a gentle giant, he was humble, he was unassuming, he was tough. And most important, he was a great teammate and friend.”
