NBC plans plenty of Super Bowl pregame festivities

Photo by Eric Gay, AP2012

eric gay/associated press Michael Hoyson readies for Sunday's Super Bowl matchup between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Tony Dungy won two Super Bowls, one as a player and one as a coach, and Rodney Harrison won two as a player. Now that they're studio analysts for NBC, you might think preparing for today's game would be much easier.

You might be wrong, too.

"The preparation for me is exactly the same," Dungy said this week from Indianapolis. "I was saying that yesterday as far as screening plays, looking for just the right play to show (New England quarterback) Tom Brady, what makes him great, looking for exactly the right angle to show the New York Giants defense and how they're going to rush the passer.

"We spent a lot of time and that to me is the fun part of it. I feel like we are going to be prepared when we go out there and we are going to have a great performance because we're putting the time in."

Still sounds a lot like a coach, doesn't he?

In some ways, Dungy is "coaching" both teams, looking deep into their strategy, breaking down video. But he's not doing it to beat either team, he's doing it in order to teach viewers all he can about what makes the Giants and Patriots tick.

Dungy and Harrison's experience — along with their ability to communicate — make them much better choices in many ways for taking fans behind the scenes.

"You get a chance to take it from a different perspective," Harrison said. "We both played in Super Bowls and now we can talk about different elements. We can take you on the field, we can take you to talk about one-on-one matchups.

"We can do one-on-one features on (Patriots defensive tackle) Vince Wilfork and I get a chance to really go inside (Patriots coach Bill) Belichick and for the world to be able to see a different side of Bill that normally he wouldn't do with other reporters. He'll sit down and open up a little bit more for me because I've been around the man for six years and I've known him for a long time.

"I think that's what makes it really special. Yes, the preparation is one and the same, but I think we get a chance to go a little deeper and really share our Super Bowl experiences."

KEEPING ON TRACK

With a six-hour pregame show starting at noon, there can be a tendency to throw everything including the kitchen sink into it. There's talk about football, sure, but there's also entertainment and pageantry, both inside and outside the stadium.

Maintaining focus is important for the pregame show, trying to keep the attention of both serious and casual viewers.

"The first Super Bowl pregame I ever did was Bears and Patriots in January of 1986, and that was a two-hour pregame and we thought it was very long," said host Bob Costas. "Now it's expanded to six hours. By definition, there's some excess, no matter how you do it. There has to be a little bit of tongue in cheek, a little bit of winking at the audience. Some of this stuff is not everybody's cup of tea.

"The entire six hours will not all be, from my perspective, a 10-out-of-10 scale on what I would be interested in, but some of it may be to someone else. That's the way it goes down and you try to do as professional a job as you can."

NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus acknowledges there's much more to the pregame show — and to the Super Bowl, for that matter — than football.

"I think what you'll see from us is a respect for the game and for football," he said. "We also have obligations and opportunities for our company to use that as entertainment value."

THE RUNDOWN

The pregame show will be headed up by Costas and Dan Patrick, with Dungy, Harrison, Peter King and Mike Florio serving as analysts. Two participants from last year's Super Bowl — Aaron Rodgers and Hines Ward — will be guest analysts.

Lenny Kravitz and the Fray will perform and there will be an interview with halftime performer Madonna. In what is becoming a Super Bowl tradition, President Barack Obama will be interviewed by Matt Lauer of the "Today" show.

Other conversations will include:

n Costas interviewing Brady.n Patrick interviewing Giants quarterback Eli Manning.n Dungy interviewing Giants coach Tom Coughlin and wide receiver Victor Cruz.n Harrison interviewing Belichick and Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.n Al Michaels interviewing Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

Among the features NBC has planned:n Costas will talk with former Giants receiver David Tyree, who made his famous "helmet catch" in the Super Bowl four years ago, and with Harrison, who as a Patriots safety, tried to cover him.n Highlights will be shown of Costas' interview this week with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.n Visits to the hometowns of five players — Manning and Jason Pierre-Paul of the Giants and Brady, Hernandez and Wes Welker of the Patriots — to talk with people who made early impacts on the players' lives.n A look at Giants linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka, who grew up in Indianapolis, but whose roots are in Uganda, where his grandfather was the country's first prime minister.

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