The Football Diner Big Interview:
Woody Paige
interviewed by Michael E Lawrence
October 30th 2010
 
Woody Paige is best known as the madcap, all-time winningest member of ESPN’s daily sports roundtable Around the Horn and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee. The Denver Post columnist spent some time with the Diner to talk television, head coaching hot seats, and all things Wembley.
 
Football Diner: Woody you’re a star on both sides of the pond as part of ESPN’s Around the Horn - what’s it like making the show?
 
Woody Paige: It’s great fun, great fun, and people seem to enjoy it because we’re having such a fun time doing it. One of the most interesting aspects of it - since I’ve been over here the last three or four days - is that I’ve realised it’s in a more primetime slot in Britain than it is in the United States, so it has a big following. I’ve met a lot of nice people here and I get so many emails and texts from people in Great Britain. I always say in the show that I want to talk more about cricket and soccer and rugby, but British people write me saying: “No, no we already have presenters here talking about those sports, we want you to keep talking about American sports!”
 
Football Diner: Can you explain the scoring system to us? Is it objective?
 
Woody Paige: I haven’t figured it out yet and I’ve been doing it for eight years. Even now I will look at some of the scoring and I’ll think: “I don’t know what that means!” But then I barely understand me, so I certainly have no chance of understanding that. But I think Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption and those kinds of shows treat sports, for the most part, the way sports should be treated - with less than total seriousness.
 
Football Diner: Looking ahead to Sunday, what do you foresee happening with these two downtrodden teams competing?
 
Woody Paige: Well I think that the National Football League is trying to grow its product - particularly it has been in Britain for the last few seasons - and I think that these two teams coming over here will probably set things back about twenty years! We thought originally that we’d have a couple of at least reasonable teams coming here, but the way their seasons have gone we’ve ended up with two of the worst in the league.
 

Football Diner: Is there any way this game could become a launch pad for one of these teams?
 
Woody Paige: Uh... no! If you see a rocket go up from a launch pad it goes up and up, but these two teams are going the other way, they’re simply not very good. Saying that, when you have two teams of equal mediocrity you often end up with a pretty good game because they’re on the same level, but it’s not as if this is going to be a preview for if London gets a Super Bowl one day - these teams just aren’t of that standard.
 
Football Diner: If and when these teams do lose their way completely this season, how do their coaches keep them motivated and playing hard?
 
Woody Paige: That’s really the question about Josh McDaniels right now after last week’s total blowout. There’s a sense that he’s lost the faith of the fans and he’s a young head coach who really hasn’t had a lot of success yet. He’s losing a lot of support in Denver and now the question is how do you keep from losing the players too? If they go into the bye next week on the back of three consecutive defeats then it’s going to be difficult to really have the players continue to give commitment and enthusiasm, and when that happens they then start to play for themselves rather than the team. It’s a difficult situation but McDaniels will have his job for a while, whereas Mike Singletary is already in trouble. I would think in another week or two - if he continues to have a team that plays so poorly - he’ll be dismissed.
 
Football Diner: Would you care to venture a scoreline for Sunday’s game?
 
Woody Paige: You know what, I don’t know whether this is a phrase you guys have here but I could not pick my mother out of a police lineup so... I’ll pass!
 
Football Diner: Keep up the great work on our television screens...
 
Woody Paige: We will - we talk all the time on Around the Horn about how much support we get from everyone in Great Britain - and we really appreciate it.