Sports
NBC Serves a Main Course of Football This Holiday Week
Stamford, CT
Bears-Packers on Thanksgiving night at 8 p.m. ET on NBC; first thanksgiving game in Green Bay in 92 years. Packers to retire Brett Favre’s No. 4 jersey at halftime. Sunday’s coverage of undefeated Patriots vs. Broncos begins with Football Night In America at 7 p.m. ET on NBC. (Photo: AP Images)
Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Jay Cutler, Brock Osweiler, and the return of Brett Favre to Lambeau Field, highlight two NFL games on NBC this holiday week. On Thanksgiving night, one of football’s most storied rivalries resumes when Rodgers and the first-place Green Bay Packers (7-3) host Cutler and the Chicago Bears (4-6) at Lambeau Field at 8 p.m. ET. The holiday matchup is the 191st regular-season meeting between the Bears and Packers — the most played series in NFL history – and marks the first Thanksgiving Day game in Green Bay in 92 years.
At halftime, the Packers will retire Brett Favre’s No. 4 jersey, and his name will be revealed on the facade in the Lambeau Field Ring of Honor. Favre was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Thursday marks the first time the Packers have played a home game on Thanksgiving since Nov. 29, 1923, when Green Bay defeated the Hammond Pros, 19-0. In addition, 2015 is the 10th consecutive season featuring a Bears-Packers primetime matchup, tied with Giants-Cowboys for the league’s longest active and all-time streaks.
NFL coverage continues on NBC this Sunday, November 29, when Tom Brady and the first-place New England Patriots (10-0, AFC East) visit Brock Osweiler and the first-place Denver Broncos (8-2, AFC West) on Sunday Night Football. Coverage begins with Football Night In America at 7 p.m. ET on NBC.
The perfect Patriots beat the Bills 20-13 last night, with Brady, who leads the league in passing yards, completing 20 of 39 passes for 277 yards. The Patriots have now recorded at least 10 regular-season wins for the 13th consecutive year, the second-most in NFL history (San Francisco 49ers, 16 seasons, 1983-1998). Denver’s Osweiler made his debut this past Sunday against the Chicago Bears, subbing for an injured Peyton Manning. Osweiler completed 20 of 27 passes for 250 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in the Broncos’ 17-15 victory over Chicago.
Calling Bears-Packers and Patriots-Broncos are seven-time Emmy Award-winner Al Michaels (play-by-play), in his record 30th season as the voice of the NFL’s premier primetime package; 16-time Emmy Award-winner Cris Collinsworth, who has won the Emmy for Outstanding Event Analyst in each of his six seasons in the Sunday Night Football booth; and two-time Emmy Award-winning sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.
NBC’s coverage of Sunday Night Football is led by Emmy Award-winning producer Fred Gaudelli and Emmy Award-winning director Drew Esocoff.
Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports, is hosted by 26-time Emmy Award-winner Bob Costas, who will report from Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisc., on Thanksgiving Night. Costas will report from Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Sunday, and will be joined by Collinsworth, Tafoya, and two-time Super Bowl winner Hines Ward.
Dan Patrick co-hosts Football Night from NBC Sports Group’s International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., joined by Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy, and two-time Super Bowl winner Rodney Harrison. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk on NBCSN and NBCSports.com and NFL Insider Peter King will join Patrick, Dungy and Harrison in the studio on Sunday. In addition, Carolyn Manno will report from CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Wash., on the Steelers-Seahawks games on Sunday.