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American Morning

Road to Super Bowl

Aired January 13, 2003 - 07:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Just four NFL teams left on the road to the Super Bowl: the Oakland Raiders, the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Philadelphia Eagles, and throw in the Tennessee Titans, who are still kicking field goals today.
But, oh, those Pittsburgh Steelers, tough for them and their fans to get this controversial overtime loss Saturday in Tennessee, and Bill Cowher let the whole world know what he thought about it.

Josh Elliott was at the game. He covers the NFL for "Sports Illustrated." He is our guest here this morning to talk about the weekend action.

Good morning to you.

JOSH ELLIOTT, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning.

HEMMER: A crazy, crazy day Saturday in Tennessee. Before we get to that, though, the Raiders. Are they the best team in the AFC right now?

ELLIOTT: Clearly. I think, you know, things got a little chippy (ph) there last week between the Jets and the Raiders. The media was delivering quotes back and forth. But yesterday, you know, Rich Gannon showed why he's the NFL MVP. They've got a lot of offensive weapons, and defensively, they shut down Chad Pennington, who (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the wunderkinds (ph).

HEMMER: And they're playing at home again this weekend, too, which should do wonders in terms of mental preparation and getting ready for the Titans to come in.

Quickly to the NFC. I've got to think this is a great match-up. You know, the Philadelphia Eagles at home to the Tampa Bay Bucs, what do you like?

ELLIOTT: Well, I think in the end, you have to go with experience. The Eagles have eliminated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the last two years in Philadelphia in the playoffs. So, I think what you have here is a confident team playing at home. Those are the two best defenses in the NFL. I think ultimately, you know, having home field advantage carries the day, their last game at Veteran's Stadium. I think we're going to see...

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: It's going to be cold in Philly, though, huh? ELLIOTT: Yes, it probably will be, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don't exactly like that.

HEMMER: Yes, I heard you're slating (ph) Oakland and Philly for the Super Bowl. We'll get to that in a moment.

Let's get back to Saturday for a second here. You were at this game. I think Joe Nedney is still lining up and kicking field goals. I want to show some of the videotape from the game, but I also want to show Bill Cowher racing down the field essentially, confronting the officials. This is after the whistle was blown. What was his gripe?

ELLIOTT: His gripe here is that they didn't get a time out. He likes to wait until the very last second to ice (ph) a kicker. However, the play before he'd gotten into kind of a questionable roughing the kicker penalty, so I think he was already upset, and then he doesn't get a time out. There were many questionable calls in that game, and he was simply upset, I think, that, you know, things hadn't gone his way all night long.

HEMMER: Two more perspectives on this. Listen to Bill Cowher, what he said after the game to reporters about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL COWHER, STEELERS HEAD COACH: For a game to be decided on that call is ludicrous. And if you need to have to explain to an official of what's reviewable and what's not, that's wrong. Fine me if you want, and that's the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Stone-cold after the game. Joe Nedney is the kicker. He got three chances to finally put it through. He was quoted as saying, "He got a pretty good hit on me, but I think when I'm done playing ball, I might try acting."

ELLIOTT: Yes.

HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) claims here?

ELLIOTT: That's salting of the wound, I think. What you really saw, again, was Bill Cowher, who had had to ask earlier in the game if a play could be reviewed, so that just sort of set the stage. The referees sort of lost control of this game to have it end like that. I mean, it was -- I think it was a good call on the roughing the kicker. However, when Joe then takes the podium, that's...

HEMMER: Yes, but, Josh, you've got fireworks shooting off before the game is over. They screwed this thing up in the very end, and it's the second weekend in a row. I'm wondering if officiating right now is becoming the story in the post-season playoffs.

ELLIOTT: See, unfortunately, it is, and for two weeks, we've had some very exciting finishes. I think free agency has made very team about as good as every other team, and so that's going to lead to these great finishes. However, referee teams in the playoffs are essentially all-star crews. They haven't worked together before, and you see that a lot. You don't get the communication between the referees that you should. And I think it's really unfortunate that, you know, that's the way it's going to be.

HEMMER: Well, hopefully, we can eliminate them this Sunday. Nice to see you, Josh.

ELLIOTT: Thank you.

HEMMER: Here on record with Oakland and Philly.

ELLIOTT: Yes.

HEMMER: And just be a contrarian, I'll take Oakland and Tampa Bay.

ELLIOTT: Oh, Bill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired January 13, 2003 - 07:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Just four NFL teams left on the road to the Super Bowl: the Oakland Raiders, the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Philadelphia Eagles, and throw in the Tennessee Titans, who are still kicking field goals today.
But, oh, those Pittsburgh Steelers, tough for them and their fans to get this controversial overtime loss Saturday in Tennessee, and Bill Cowher let the whole world know what he thought about it.

Josh Elliott was at the game. He covers the NFL for "Sports Illustrated." He is our guest here this morning to talk about the weekend action.

Good morning to you.

JOSH ELLIOTT, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning.

HEMMER: A crazy, crazy day Saturday in Tennessee. Before we get to that, though, the Raiders. Are they the best team in the AFC right now?

ELLIOTT: Clearly. I think, you know, things got a little chippy (ph) there last week between the Jets and the Raiders. The media was delivering quotes back and forth. But yesterday, you know, Rich Gannon showed why he's the NFL MVP. They've got a lot of offensive weapons, and defensively, they shut down Chad Pennington, who (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the wunderkinds (ph).

HEMMER: And they're playing at home again this weekend, too, which should do wonders in terms of mental preparation and getting ready for the Titans to come in.

Quickly to the NFC. I've got to think this is a great match-up. You know, the Philadelphia Eagles at home to the Tampa Bay Bucs, what do you like?

ELLIOTT: Well, I think in the end, you have to go with experience. The Eagles have eliminated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the last two years in Philadelphia in the playoffs. So, I think what you have here is a confident team playing at home. Those are the two best defenses in the NFL. I think ultimately, you know, having home field advantage carries the day, their last game at Veteran's Stadium. I think we're going to see...

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: It's going to be cold in Philly, though, huh? ELLIOTT: Yes, it probably will be, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don't exactly like that.

HEMMER: Yes, I heard you're slating (ph) Oakland and Philly for the Super Bowl. We'll get to that in a moment.

Let's get back to Saturday for a second here. You were at this game. I think Joe Nedney is still lining up and kicking field goals. I want to show some of the videotape from the game, but I also want to show Bill Cowher racing down the field essentially, confronting the officials. This is after the whistle was blown. What was his gripe?

ELLIOTT: His gripe here is that they didn't get a time out. He likes to wait until the very last second to ice (ph) a kicker. However, the play before he'd gotten into kind of a questionable roughing the kicker penalty, so I think he was already upset, and then he doesn't get a time out. There were many questionable calls in that game, and he was simply upset, I think, that, you know, things hadn't gone his way all night long.

HEMMER: Two more perspectives on this. Listen to Bill Cowher, what he said after the game to reporters about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL COWHER, STEELERS HEAD COACH: For a game to be decided on that call is ludicrous. And if you need to have to explain to an official of what's reviewable and what's not, that's wrong. Fine me if you want, and that's the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Stone-cold after the game. Joe Nedney is the kicker. He got three chances to finally put it through. He was quoted as saying, "He got a pretty good hit on me, but I think when I'm done playing ball, I might try acting."

ELLIOTT: Yes.

HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) claims here?

ELLIOTT: That's salting of the wound, I think. What you really saw, again, was Bill Cowher, who had had to ask earlier in the game if a play could be reviewed, so that just sort of set the stage. The referees sort of lost control of this game to have it end like that. I mean, it was -- I think it was a good call on the roughing the kicker. However, when Joe then takes the podium, that's...

HEMMER: Yes, but, Josh, you've got fireworks shooting off before the game is over. They screwed this thing up in the very end, and it's the second weekend in a row. I'm wondering if officiating right now is becoming the story in the post-season playoffs.

ELLIOTT: See, unfortunately, it is, and for two weeks, we've had some very exciting finishes. I think free agency has made very team about as good as every other team, and so that's going to lead to these great finishes. However, referee teams in the playoffs are essentially all-star crews. They haven't worked together before, and you see that a lot. You don't get the communication between the referees that you should. And I think it's really unfortunate that, you know, that's the way it's going to be.

HEMMER: Well, hopefully, we can eliminate them this Sunday. Nice to see you, Josh.

ELLIOTT: Thank you.

HEMMER: Here on record with Oakland and Philly.

ELLIOTT: Yes.

HEMMER: And just be a contrarian, I'll take Oakland and Tampa Bay.

ELLIOTT: Oh, Bill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.