SportsLine Interview Transcript: November 11, 1996 SportsLine: Do you have a prediction for us on the Holyfield/Tyson fight? Joe: Well Tyson is just awesome. I think everyone would like to see the underdog win. (Everyone) that doesn’t have a personal tie to Tyson or a financial interest, but Holyfield is a fine champion. And you like to see an underdog come through now and then, but Tyson looks too strong to me, I can’t see him losing. SportsLine: Do you give Dallas a chance on the road? Joe: I give them a chance certainly. They are still a team with a lot of talent and when they put it together they are awful tough. But San Francisco is a fine team too. Dallas does have some problems, because Philadelphia played so well and Dallas already having 4 losses, and they are already thinking, if we lose one or two more games, we may not even be a wild card, so this is serious business. But they have been trying to win every week. SportsLine: Do you think the Jets will get another win this week against the Patriots? Joe: I wish that could happen, but I’m not pulling against Bill Parcel because he is one of my favorite people. But, I just think New England is playing very well right now and unless they have a lapse, they had a very big win against the Dolphins, unless they have a lapse, or letdown -- an emotional letdown -- which is possible when you go against a team that has not played well. And they are also decimated with injuries. I’m talking about the Jets, they have had a lot of injuries, I think New England would really have to hurt themselves real badly with turnovers and poor plays for them to lose that game. SportsLine: You don’t think their bye week has helped the Jets to get ready for this? Joe: Well I know it’s helped them physically and emotionally too, because the end of the bye week having come off their first win. I just know that the injuries that they have had has really thinned their team. They started out with injuries and then they played poorly as they go along with them and they got some more injuries, so they are not a team that is loaded with all their weapons at any stretch. SportsLine: Is there a team that might in the second half, start to win some games and take the league by surprise? Joe: The schedule makes the difference. Some of the teams have tougher schedules going down the road. I tell you Houston's schedule looks like if they start picking up just a little bit, they are going to make the playoffs. And I think that’s pretty interesting because that would be some new blood getting in there. Of course Washington came back to earth last week back in Buffalo, but Washington and Philadelphia along with Minnesota. You see, Minnesota has lost 4 out of the last 5 games or so and you have to figure that they need to start winning to be able to make a wild card because Green Bay is playing so well. It’s still up for grabs and because of the injury factor and the plays you lose. I tell you Philadelphia... Ty Detmer has amazed me. I didn’t think Ty Detmer would be able to withstand the punishment that position takes, because of his physique. My man is stronger and more durable than I gave him credit for and he is a smart quarterback. SportsLine: Isn’t it amazing that John Elway can still do what he did when he was rookie? Joe: Yes. Well Elway is a special man no doubt, but athletes, in general, because of training programs and information over the last 20 years are stronger whenever they get to their mid to late 30s that they used to be. They have kept a better schedule. You are talking about John Elway who is, let me prefix this thing by saying a future Hall of Famer, and I don’t think there is any doubt in that. He has been remarkable. I have often said that Marino is amazing to me because -- in his thirteenth year -- he still hasn’t lost anything that you can recognize as far as velocity from his passes. Well Elway is very similar to that. He still maintains a strong throwing arm and is probably more accurate than he has ever been. SportsLine: Is a guy like Jim Kelly a hall of Famer? Joe: Well I don’t think that winning a Super Bowl is a prime requisite for making it into the Hall of Fame. Kelly has had some great years and I tell you, I would take Jim right along with anybody that I know that’s ever been elected into the Hall of Fame. I think he could make my Hall of Fame team without any doubt. Playing a quarterback position, you have to have teammates around, otherwise you end up like Archie Manning of the New Orleans Saints, who never had a decent team and just took a beating. If he had a good team it probably would have been another story. Kelly’s credentials alone his longevity and the number of wins that he has participated in and his toughness, I think certainly he merits strong consideration down the road. He’s not finished yet. He started slowly this year and I think he is coming into his own and we are going to see a sharper Kelly down the stretch. The people that vote on those things have their ways of doing it, but when he is an ex-football player, I promise you, you’d have Kelly right in there. SportsLine: Do you think Boomer Easiason might have made the Hall of Fame or he never really had a chance to begin with? Joe: Well I think if he had more successful years or been more injury free. Boomer has had a bad streak of luck with injuries in the last several years and the teams that he played for weren’t very good. He played for five different head coaches in four years. Boomer, without a tough hand to deal with, his athleticism and his savvy and his ability to pass certainly qualify him as one of the best, but the teams change and he hasn’t had a lot of success because of that. SportsLine: What does that have to be like for a guy like Boomer, to play for those good Cincinnati teams early on in his career and to have gone the latter portion of his career playing on such bad teams? And really being the goat often times with the Jets for the last couple of years. And now with Arizona losing his starting job, what must that be like for him? Joe: Well, you know, Boomer, I’m sure is going to have to leave it to his basic competitive desires and his peer pressure too. You know you are working with a bunch of guys that evaluate your behavior everyday at work, not just on Sundays, but during the week, throughout the practices and then throughout the performances. So even when you are mathematically out of the hunt, you are still trying to do your best, better than you've ever done it, because of that natural feeling, that natural desire to excel as well as the peer pressure. The guys that you work with everyday, you don’t want to let them down and they do evaluate every thing you do. So I know his effort is still there but the teams that he is playing with are certainly not top quality. Arizona is going into Washington this week and Arizona is down to a hurt quarterback right now. Boomer is the only quarterback they have, except Arizona just signed someone recently to put on the squad and you know that is a tough position to be put in.

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