Governor Christie shared his Super Bowl predictions and love of the Dallas Cowboys during an interview on the NFL Network.
With New Jersey hosting the Super Bowl in just a few months, Governor Christie appeared on the NFL Network this morning and made the case for renaming the Jets and Giants.
“They practice in New Jersey, they play in New Jersey, most of their players live in New Jersey,” he said of the New York teams that play in the Meadowlands. “There’s nothing left from New York about the Giants or the Jets except for the name. It’s kind of odd that they’re called what they’re called. But as long as everybody understands that they’re New Jersey’s teams and the Super Bowl is in New Jersey and not New York, I’m fine.”
Christie said he also isn’t concerned about weather predictions of snow during the Super Bowl.
“I think it will be great,” he said. “If you’re going to have a cold weather Super Bowl lets have some snow. I thin it will be fine.”
He isn’t predicting that the Jets or Giants will get to play in that game. Christie said he sees the 49ers and Texans making it to the Super Bowl this season.
The NFL Network’s Melissa Stark also interviewed Christie about his recent defense of Jets Coach Rex Ryan and his love of the Dallas Cowboys, including his plans to attend the team’s home game this weekend as a guest of former star quarterback Roger Staubach.
Christie, a Republican seeking a second term in November, got into a public spat with the Daily News after calling reporter Manish Mehta an “idiot” and a “dope” while guest co-hosting the “Boomer and Carton” show on WFAN radio last week. The paper fired back running the front page headline “Who you calling an idiot, fatso!” along with a picture of the governor.
Christie was responding to Mehta’s repeated questioning of Jets Coach Rex Ryan at a post-game press conference about his decision to play Mark Sanchez as quarterback in the fourth quarter of an exhibition game against the Giants. Sanchez sustained a shoulder injury and will not play this week.
“I think it’s really tough to defend putting Mark in the game there at that point in time, I didn’t defend that,” Christie said on the NFL Network this morning. “I was defending his interaction with the reporter and I took some shots at the reporter as well.”
The governor had defended his criticism of Mehta and did so again Friday moring.
“That’s kind of the back and forth that go on between public figures and people in the press and I think most folks shouldn’t be all that shocked by that,” he said.
He also spoke about his friendship with Ryan, who gave the governor advice before he underwent weight loss surgery earlier this year.
“Rex and I have a great relationship. I like that Rex is very direct and I think in that way we’re very similar,” he said. “We’re very direct in our answers and we don’t suffer fools gladly and I think that’s all part of the game.”
And Christie explained for the second time this week why he’s a Dallas Cowboys fan – it dates back to the first time he saw Staubach play in 1971.
“I’m a Cowboys fan I’m proud of it,” he said despite sneers he gets from Giants fans. “You’ve got to be true to the team you’ve been rooting for your whole life.”
Christie’s childhood idol, Staubach, invited him to Sunday’s game in Dallas. Christie will be in Texas raising money for the Republican National Committee. Staubach, who donated $3,800 to Christie’s campaign in December, invited the governor as his guest.
Stark reported that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called Christie last weekend to invite him to attend the game as well, but the governor told him he was already going as a guest of the team’s former quarterback.
“Certainly out in Dallas they’re very happy that a potential presidential candidate is pointing out that he’s a Dallas Cowboys fan,” Stark said. “The other thing he pointed out is that he is not going to change allegiances.”
