“I know they can. They have the best football player on the planet in Patrick Mahomes playing quarterback for them, they have the best head coach in the NFL in Andy Reid, and there’s continuity. They know what the mission is.” – Jason Garrett on Chiefs aiming to win unprecedented three consecutive Super Bowls
“I was on the Patriots. Three times we went to the Super Bowl, no three-peat. This Kansas City Chiefs team: are they good? Yes. Can they three-peat? Absolutely not.” – Devin McCourty
“Lamar Jackson has a determined look in his eye and a chip on his shoulder the size of a mountain.” – Garrett on Ravens QB Lamar Jackson
“There’s no smarter quarterback in the NFL. There’s no tougher quarterback in the NFL. There’s no more competitive quarterback, and there’s no quarterback who plays better in the big moments.” – Garrett on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes
STAMFORD, Conn. – Sept. 5, 2024 – NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2024 NFL season began tonight with a special on-site edition of Football Night in America on NBC and Peacock, leading into coverage of the NFL Kickoff Game, as the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
Tonight’s special on-site edition of Football Night in America from Kansas City and São Paolo, Brazil, featured host Maria Taylor, former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty, former NFL quarterback Chris Simms, NFL insider Mike Florio, and fantasy sports industry pioneer Matthew Berry in Kansas City, with Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy, two-time Super Bowl champion Rodney Harrison, and co-host Jac Collinsworth in São Paolo.
Pre-game coverage also included the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII banner raising, Maria Taylor’s interview with Saturday Night Live cast member and Chiefs superfan Heidi Gardner, and excerpts from Chris Simms’ interview with Patrick Mahomes.
Mike Tirico (play-by-play), Cris Collinsworth (analyst), Melissa Stark (sideline reporter) and Terry McAulay (rules analyst) are calling tonight’s 2024 NFL Kickoff Game.
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Following are highlights from tonight’s special NFL Kickoff edition of Football Night in America on NBC and Peacock:
ON CHIEFS
Garrett on Chiefs aiming to become first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls: “I know they can. They have the best football player on the planet in Patrick Mahomes playing quarterback for them, they have the best head coach in the NFL in Andy Reid, there’s continuity, all of their coordinators are back. They play great defense, great special teams. The most important thing is alignment in their organization, from ownership to practice squad players. They know what the mission is, and Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid make sure they do what they do every day to accomplish it.”
McCourty on why the Chiefs won’t three-peat: “There’s a reason there’s never been a three-peat…I was on the Patriots. Three times we went to the Super Bowl, no three-peat. This Kansas City Chiefs team: are they good? Yes. Can they three-peat? Absolutely not.”
Garrett responding to McCourty: “I disagree with you. I was with the Cowboys in the ‘90s. We won in ’92, we won in ’93, but then [head coach] Jimmy Johnson left and Barry Switzer came in. There was a transition. There’s no transition here. They have continuity…They’ve won three different ways, but they have the same guys.”
Simms: “They relish the big lights and people telling them they can’t do it…[Tom] Brady has seven Super Bowl rings. Mahomes might never catch that, but if he wins three in a row, he can go, ‘Well, you never did that.’”
Harrison: “I’m taking the field…I agree with Devin, there’s no way they’re three-peating.”
Dungy on the difficulties of winning three consecutive Super Bowls: “All the things are there for (the Chiefs) to have a tremendous year, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to win it. I came to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the middle of that four in six years [Super Bowl run from 1974-79]. The best team we had didn’t win it. The ’76 team that was trying to go three in a row…Terry Bradshaw gets hurt…He comes back, we’re going to the playoffs and playing great and then Franco (Harris) and Rocky (Bleier) get hurt…things have to go perfect, and three years in a row, things don’t always go perfect.”
Simms on the similarities between Mahomes and Michael Jordan: “There is a (Michael) Jordan-esque aura around Patrick Mahomes…The team believes they have a Michael Jordan-type leader on their team and that they can accomplish anything…We are watching an all-time great.”
McCourty: “Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson...they’re trying not to turn into (John) Stockton and (Karl) Malone, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing. They don’t want to hear about Michael Jordan! They want their own Super Bowl.”
Garrett on Mahomes’ greatness: “There’s a misperception about Patrick Mahomes, that he’s a seat-of-the-pants guy that’s just winging it out there. There’s no smarter quarterback in the NFL. There’s no tougher quarterback in the NFL. There’s no more competitive quarterback, and there’s no quarterback who plays better in the big moments. You can’t play great in the big moments and be a seat-of-the-pants guy...he’s a generational talent.”
McCourty on his experience playing against Mahomes during his career: “It was the ‘Mahomes Rules’ that week. You had to always know that every play is still alive. It could be five seconds, 10 seconds, and he could scramble around and launch a ball all the way across the field or he could run.”
Harrison on Chiefs DT Chris Jones: “I think he’s the most dominant defensive player the last couple of years in all of football…The bigger the moments, he gets better.”
ON RAVENS
Garrett on Ravens QB Lamar Jackson: “Lamar Jackson has a determined look in his eye and a chip on his shoulder the size of a mountain. Last year, [he wins] MVP, number one seed, home-field advantage and they fall flat on their face to the Chiefs. He’s going to have that taste in his mouth for the rest of his life, but he’s trying to do something about it.”
McCourty on Jackson’s mentality: “He only talks about winning a Super Bowl. He likes the MVP, but he’s pushing his teammates to have a vision and a goal to win a Super Bowl.”
Garrett on the pressure on Jackson: “Ultimately, that’s what’s going to be the evaluation of him this year. Can he take the next step and win the Super Bowl?”
Simms on if Jackson and newly-acquired RB Derrick Henry can mesh in the backfield: “It should work. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that…Last year, they weren’t dedicated to the run. They wanted to showcase Lamar and the passing game and the new receivers, and I’m hoping they stay with the run more this year.”
Dungy on Henry’s impact on the Ravens’ offense: “He brings a different mentality. Only 16 runs in the AFC Championship Game. If you are Baltimore, you can’t do that, and Derrick Henry won’t allow you to do that...against Kansas City, you want to keep Patrick Mahomes off the field and you want to have those long drives to keep the clock running.”
Garrett on Henry: “This is the absolute perfect addition to their team. In addition to the three new offensive linemen, Derrick Henry hasn’t run the ball that much from the gun…but once they get going, they’re going to be hard to beat.”
NEW KICKOFF RULES
Simms: “It’s an ongoing science experiment. Any coach you talk to is like, ‘Well, the first few weeks we want to see it on film a little bit.’ I do think it could be an advantage for the lesser teams in the game right now, try to steal a play if you got nothing to lose, and I think that’s what coaches in the NFL are worried about.”
Garrett: “You want to make this an aggressive play. The one dynamic to keep an eye on is all the special teams coaches want to be aggressive and all the head coaches want to kick it out.”
HEIDI GARDNER INTERVIEW
Saturday Night Live star Heidi Gardner to Maria Taylor on her Chiefs fandom: “My mom used to take me down to Houston’s Restaurant, where the Chiefs would go after their home games. She would give me a stack of cocktail napkins and a pen, and I would go through the bar as a little five-year-old girl and get autographs from Derrick Thomas, Neil Smith, and Dale Carter. It was amazing.”
Taylor: “Do you still have them?”
Gardner: “Yes.”
Taylor: “Of course you do.”
PACKERS-EAGLES IN BRAZIL
Harrison on the Packers: “Offensively, they have a lot of momentum going into this season. They signed Josh Jacobs, another year in the system for those wide receivers, and we know Jordan Love is going to continue to get better.”
Dungy on the Eagles: “Jac, you said Philly ‘fell off,’ but that’s an understatement: they crashed. [Head coach] Nick Sirianni did something that you don’t often see from a playoff coach, he changed both coordinators. I was with him last week and he feels great about this team.”
--FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA--
