Notable and quotable ...
"This game is so significant. The Dallas Cowboys are the best team in the NFC. What I've seen out of Green Bay is this growth that I don't know where it's going to end. It seems like every week the Packers get better and better." -– Cris Collinsworth.
"The stars are aligned right. Being on a young team is helping Brett stay young and have fun and mess around like he did as a youngster." –- Steve Mariucci on the Green Bay Packers.
"This will be a preview of the NFC Championship Game. Green Bay and Dallas have set themselves apart with consistent play-making by both quarterbacks and solid defenses." –- Deion Sanders.
Game is only the second in last 37 years matching two teams 10-1 or better (previous: 10-1 San Francisco vs. 10-1 New York Giants; Dec. 3, 1990) this late in the season.
This is 21st regular-season meeting between the clubs –- series tied 10-10.
Green Bay and Dallas have met six times in the playoffs –- victor won Super Bowl four times.
Green Bay and Dallas have combined for 17 NFL championships and eight Super Bowl titles.
This meeting is just one month before the 40th anniversary of the historic "Ice Bowl" 1967 NFL championship game (won by Green Bay 21-17 on Dec. 31, 1967). NFL's Greatest Games: The Ice Bowl airs Thursday, Nov. 29 at 11 a.m. ET on NFL Network.
Both clubs play on second consecutive Thursday (last week: Thanksgiving Day games).
Cowboys have won their last five prime time games.
Quarterbacks Brett Favre of Green Bay and Tony Romo of Dallas rank 1-5 in 2008 Pro Bowl fan voting on NFL.com and Sprint wireless. Packers and Cowboys players account for the top vote-getters at 12 of the 19 positions in the NFC.
NFL Network begins its second year airing the exclusive Thursday and Saturday night football primetime package. Beginning on Thanksgiving night, NFL Network presents eight games in the key stretch of the season as teams jockey for playoff berths and seeding.
NFL Network has assembled an award-winning team to cover its "Run to the Playoffs" slate. The insightful, 2006 Sports Emmy Award double winner Cris Collinsworth returns to provide game analysis. An eight-time Sports Emmy winner, Collinsworth earned 2006 Sports Emmys for his commentary on NFL Network games and for his studio analysis on HBO and NBC. Collinsworth is joined by play-by-play announcer Bryant Gumbel, a 23-time Emmy Award winner who has earned honors for his work in the news and sports fields. He also hosts HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which has garnered an additional 19 Emmys. Previously, he had a 15-year stay as host of NBC's Today show during which he interviewed world leaders and Super Bowl heroes and has covered foreign wars, elections, international summits and Presidential inaugurations. Game producer Mark Loomis returns and is joined by 14-time Emmy Award winner Craig Janoff, NFL Network's new game director.
Rich Eisen hosts NFL Network's * Total Access on Location* two-hour pregame show. Eisen, a 2006 Sports Emmy nominee in the Studio Host category, is joined on the set by Steve Mariucci, a former NFL head coach with the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions who also served as Brett Favre's quarterback coach in Green Bay; Marshall Faulk, who won a Super Bowl XXXIV ring with the Rams, earned 2000 NFL MVP honors and three Offensive Player of the Year awards (1999-2001) and has been selected to seven Pro Bowls; and Deion Sanders, a two-time Super Bowl winner who was 1994 Defensive Player of the Year and an eight-time Pro Bowler who holds the NFL record with 18 career return touchdowns. Coverage also includes reporter Adam Schefter, who spent 15 years covering the Denver Broncos for multiple newspapers, earned a pair of Colorado Sportswriter of the Year honors (2002-03) and served as president of the Pro Football Writers of America (2000-02). Coordinating producer Aaron Owens returns alongside director Jen Love on the pregame, halftime and postgame shows. Eric Weinberger is executive producer of NFL Network.
