BRONCOS HOST ARCHRIVAL RAIDERS AS 'NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL' VISITS DENVER

NBC's Madden: "This is one of the great AFC rivalries and the Bronco fans always go wild when the Raiders come to town."

NEW YORK � October 11, 2006 � "NBC Sunday Night Football" travels to Denver for a matchup between fierce AFC rivals the Broncos (3-1) and the Oakland Raiders (0-4), Sunday at 8:15 p.m. ET, presented in high definition. NBC's coverage kicks off at 7 p.m. ET with the "Football Night in America" studio show, a complete recap of the top stories in the NFL, complete with highlights, analysis and reports from around the league.

Al Michaels (play-by-play), John Madden (analyst) and Andrea Kremer (sideline reporter) will call all the action. Bob Costas (host) and Cris Collinsworth (co-host), analysts Sterling Sharpe and Jerome "The Bus" Bettis, and reporter Peter King of Sports Illustrated, comprise the "Football Night in America" studio team.

"This is one of the great AFC rivalries and the Bronco fans always go wild when the Raiders come to town," said Madden.

The Broncos enter the game tied for first place in the AFC West with a 3-1 record and have allowed the fewest points in the NFL through four games, just 34. The Raiders are looking for their first victory of the season. Second year player Andrew Walter will start at QB with Aaron Brooks still injured and will try to get the team and star WR Randy Moss untracked.

"They have a good combination of speed; good speed at linebacker, good speed in the secondary," said Madden of the Broncos defense. "Champ Bailey may be the best corner in football and John Lynch is like a fourth linebacker for you. They are playing very well on defense."

THE RIVALRY

The Broncos-Raiders rivalry dates back to 1960, the first year of existence for the American Football League. The Raiders hold a 53-36-2 advantage. The rivalry, always heated, has had some memorable flashpoints. In 1977, the Broncos ended years of Oakland dominance by defeating the Raiders 30-7. After recovering a fumble near the end of the game, Broncos LB Tom Jackson, began screaming at Madden, the Raiders head coach at the time, "It's over," referring to both the game and the Raiders stranglehold on the rivalry.

In the late 1980s, the Raiders hired then Broncos offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan as their head coach. After just one season plus four games, Raiders owner Al Davis fired Shanahan and the Broncos re-hired him as QB coach 13 days later, infuriating Davis, who then refused to pay Shanahan the remaining money on his contract. Shanahan later became head coach of the Broncos and is now in his 12th season at the helm.

In 1999, Broncos fans pelted the Raiders with snowballs during a victory on Monday night, prompting the Raiders OL Lincoln Kennedy to throw a punch at the fans. In 1995, needing a victory over the Broncos on the last day of the season to earn a playoff berth, the Raiders blew an 11-point lead and lost 31-28. In 1984, Gary Kubiak, making an emergency start as Broncos quarterback, led Denver to a memorable overtime victory.

Raiders head coach Art Shell dominated the Broncos in his first stint as the head coach of the Silver and Black, with a 10-1 regular season mark versus Denver and a 1-0 postseason record. The Broncos under Mike Shanahan are 17-5 against the Raiders.

"NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" PACING 9% AHEAD OF 2005 MNF

Through six games, "NBC Sunday Night Football" is averaging 18 million viewers, up nine percent from ABC's "MNF" average through six games in 2005, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research.

"FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA" STUDIO

The "Football Night in America" studio, just down the hall from the famed Studio 8H, home of "Saturday Night Live," was built in the former studio home of first the Philco Television Playhouse (1948-1955) and later for game shows Concentration (1958-1973) and Jeopardy (1964-1975), and talk shows Donahue (1984-1996) and The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996-2002), and shares the "SNL" control room for the football season. The "Football Night" set was designed and built by Jeremy Conway, the former set designer for "Sex in the City." Two 103" high definition Panasonic plasma screen televisions � roughly the size of a queen-size mattress � are two of the set innovations.

"NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL"

"NBC Sunday Night Football," the premier primetime game of the week, will be preceded by the "Football Night in America" studio show, which kicks off NBC's regular season coverage each Sunday at 7 p.m. The unprecedented six-year NFL deal includes innovative flexible scheduling and continues through the 2011 season with Super Bowls in 2009 and 2012. NBC has assembled the most honored broadcast team ever: Joining Al Michaels, the commentator called "TV's best play-by-play announcer" by the Associated Press, and John Madden, the most honored NFL broadcaster of all time with 15 Emmy Awards, are Bob Costas, the most honored studio host of all time with 19 Emmy Awards, who will host NBC's "Football Night in America" studio show alongside co-host Cris Collinsworth, the most honored studio analyst in history with six Emmy Awards; and analysts Sterling Sharpe, a five-time Pro Bowler and Jerome Bettis, one of the most popular players in recent NFL history. "NBC Sunday Night Football" coverage also includes sideline and feature reporter Andrea Kremer, whom the Los Angeles Times has called "the best TV interviewer in the business of covering the NFL." Peter King, who covers the NFL for Sports Illustrated and is considered one of the country's foremost NFL reporters, serves as a reporter for the "Football Night in America" studio show.

NBC'S REMAINING 2006 NFL SCHEDULE
(Sunday coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET with "Football Night in America" studio show)
Sunday, Oct. 15 � Oakland at Denver
Sunday, Oct. 29 � Dallas at Carolina
Sunday, Nov. 5 � Indianapolis at New England
Flexible Scheduling Weeks 10-15
Monday, Dec. 25 (Christmas Day) � Philadelphia at Dallas
Flexible Scheduling Week 17