And I completely am one of the most sensitive in that area as far as the NFL is concerned.

There's no question that the striving, the stuff that you got out of [sports]. The depending on someone right beside you. Sitting here and calling on yourself when you're tired or getting through something painful, watching your teammates do the same. Everybody feels good when you first walk out there.

I have never had a problem dealing in areas of ambiguity. I can make a decision and not have it all lined up just right.

Only 7 percent of NFL fans have ever been inside an NFL stadium. Seven... have ever been inside. So the NFL is certainly about the Colosseum of Rome. It can't be a studio game.

Other sports culminate at different times of the year, but the NFL is in the fourth quarter - that's where the money is.

I promise you that during my life, I was more concerned about not letting people down, about doing my part, than I was ever into what it did for me. That is one of the great things about sports, and frankly, football really does instill that.

I could hire every producer in Hollywood - 2,000 producers, let's say - and they couldn't come up with all the soap operas, in season and out of season, that NFL programming gives television.