THURSDAY/SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

» SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: "...FOUR STARS -- Cris Collinsworth, NFL Network -- Surprise, here's a wideout who understands line play, and defense, and just about everything else. He sees things on the first look, he's not afraid to challenge the beloved idols."

» NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: "NFL Network has assembled a booth (Gumbel/Collinsworth) with sizzle - and with more intrigue than any new team going into the 2006 season, including NBC's John Madden and Al Michaels and the much-hyped ESPN "Monday Night Football" trio of Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser."

» BUSINESS WEEK: "Besides the Eisen, Gumbel, and Collinsworth hires, the NFL Network has been on a tear recruiting top talent. Its CEO is Steve Bornstein, the former head of ESPN. Former ABC Sports chief Howard Katz is its chief operating officer. In early April, the network announced it hired veteran ABC producer Mark Loomis and Emmy-award NBC director John Gonzalez to coordinate its coverage of live games."

» COURIER POST (NJ): "NFL Network couldn't have picked two better announcers to handle its telecasts than Gumbel and Collinsworth. Two of the more candid and credible men in the business."

» LOS ANGELES TIMES: "NFL Network, with the ability to offer live games, will become a major player in the competitive sports television business."

» CHICAGO SUN TIMES: "The lives of those who crave viewing televised NFL games this season is about to become livelier. Thanks to replays of contests on NFL Network."

» NEWSDAY: "The addition of games raises NFL Network's profile dramatically."

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AMERICA'S GAME: THE SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS

» BOSTON GLOBE: "Masterpiece of NFL theater... Series is an all-time winner... May be their greatest work..."

» CHICAGO TRIBUNE: "Wildly entertaining."

» ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: "America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions might be the best thing Steve Sabol and NFL Films have done, and that's saying something. It's like Michael Jordan improving hang time, or Wayne Gretzky becoming a faster skater."

» WASHINGTON TIMES: "Brutally honest and original commentary."

» SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: "The Most Promising Thing about the NFL Network: Its access to NFL Films. Exhibit A is America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions, a series of one-hour documentaries on the 40 Super Bowl winners featuring unsurpassed behind-the-scenes footage, those terrific slo-mo highlights and low-key narration that lets the pictures do the talking."

» PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: "Unique and Fascinating... Best sports documentary series ever."

» SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER: "...NFL Films has outdone itself on this project. America's Game is the best work they have ever done. It's worthy of making the jump from TV to theaters."

» DALLAS MORNING NEWS: "NFL Films has won 92 Emmys for its work. But the best is yet to come... (America's Game was) a massive undertaking."

» ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: "Will have you choking back man-tears"

» TOPEKA CAPITAL JOURNAL: "A must-see."

» NEW YORK POST: "Intriguing."

» ESPN.COM PAGE 2: "Absolutely tremendous... Loved it."

» CONTRA COSTA TIMES: "Super Viewing... Very well done, as you would expect from NFL Films."

» HOUSTON CHRONICLE: "America's Game is a significant addition to NFL mythology."

» BALTIMORE SUN: "Tip your cowboy hat to NFL Films. With them involved, it comes as no surprise how high the quality is."

» DALLAS MORNING NEWS: "...Extraordinary..."

» TAMPA TRIBUNE: "Like the game it has promoted so well for so long, NFL Films keeps attracting new fans."

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SUPER BOWL COVERAGE

» LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS: "Of the three Super Bowl XL pregame shows, the NFL Network came out smelling best. It was the NFL Network's more low-key, kind of C-SPAN approach that lent itself to longer-produced features, creating a far less polluted, less star-struck presentation."

» NEWSDAY: "NFL Network is ubiquitous (at the Super Bowl). From wide-screens TV's showing the channel to the set on which host Rich Eisen shoots the breeze with players... this is nice for hardcore football addicts."

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NFL DRAFT COVERAGE

» NEW YORK TIMES: (ON 2006 DRAFT COVERAGE) "What the NFL Network showed, in a side-by-side analysis of how it and ESPN covered the first 10 picks, is that less can be more... but ESPN could not outshine the surprisingly nimble NFL Network."

» NEW YORK TIMES: ""Remember this name: Mike Mayock. On Saturday, faced with better-known and certainly higher-paid analysts at ESPN during the National Football League draft, Mayock, the NFL Network's draft guru, lapped them all."

» SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: "(Looking forward to more of) NFL Network draft expert Mike Mayock. Mayock was Nostradamus at last year's draft, nailing the biggest shocker of the first round, the Bills' selection of Donte Whitner with the eighth overall pick. He's earned the respect of plenty of hardcore football bloggers, as well as mainstream critics

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GENERAL

» DAYTON DAILY NEWS: "NFL Network fills the void hoops and base hits can't... NFL Films has helped the network find its groove. In the space of a week I can watch anything from Football Follies to Super Bowl retrospectives.

» ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: "TV stars. Retro rappers. And, oh yes, football. NFL Network is hooking sports junkies and nonfanatics alike with its hottest show."

» DALLAS MORNING NEWS: "If NFL Network were a stock, it would be rated as a 'strong buy.'"

» USA TODAY: "If you are a fan of the NFL and don't have the NFL Network, you need to call your cable operator and demand it."

» CHICAGO TRIBUNE: "I recently had a chance to watch the channel on an extended basis, "NFL Total Access," the network's nightly report on the league, quickly got my attention. Hosted by the entertaining Rich Eisen, the show features a ton of interviews and analysis. I think I've found my new addiction."

» WASHINGTON TIMES: "What NFL Network does best, however is get inside the game. Thank the cinematic and technological geniuses at NFL Films for that. No sideline conversation or in-huddle exhortation seems off-limits. Wireless microphones are as much a part of players' and coaches' equipment as shoulder pads and headsets."

» THE SPORTS NETWORK: "NFL Network has quickly taken ESPN's place as the number one on-air destination for coverage of America's best-loved league."

» CABLE FAX DAILY: "Our jaded nature was disabled temporarily as we previewed NFL Network's "Sounds of the Game", the most innovative sports programming in recent memory."

» ST. PETERSBURG TIMES: "The network is good for candid conversation."

» USA TODAY: "Access to players and coaches is unprecedented. NFL Network comes through with audio and video unseen and unheard in other mediums."

» DETROIT FREE PRESS: "It's (NFL Total Access) like a pigskin Woodstock on the NFL Network, all football all the time."

» BUFFALO NEWS: "Among Bills players, the NFL Network rates highly. Bills tight end Mark Campbell estimates that 85 percent to 90 percent of the players without kids are regular viewers."

» CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER: "Yes, ESPN's Sunday night highlights show, "NFL Prime Time," gets all the hype - thanks, in part, to its longtime duo of Chris Berman (host) and native Clevelander Tom Jackson (analyst). But it's the NFL Network that airs the better Sunday night highlights program. Its show, "Point After," gives viewers extensive action from each contest as well as postgame comments - without Berman's annoying sound effects and self-indulgent antics."