I had to miss the NBC teleconference to announce Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy, both recently retired from the game, as two new talents joining the Sunday night crew that will shift Cris Collinsworth from the studio to the booth to fill the large shoes of John Madden.

I am sorry I did. It began with a prank from Harrison, who said:

"Today is a very exciting day for me. Contrary to what you guys have reported, I just got off the phone with Coach Belichick and I'm very excited about getting acclimated with my teammates and getting back out on the field. Knee feels great. He told me that I don't really have to report until September 1. So I'm very excited about that."

And when the "announcement" was met with silence by the media members on the call, Harrison followed with a quick: "I'm just pulling your leg."

I have a feeling he is going to do a lot of talking this year, but little of it will be of the leg-pulling variety. Harrison never has pulled punches as a player -- so why would he has an announcer? Describing what his style will be, he said: "There are certain guys who you definitely respect their opinions, but other guys were afraid to come out and tell the hard-core truth. As an analyst, it's your job to be fair but honest. Sometimes you have to be brutally honest with guys you played with, guys who are your friends. You can’t shy away from certain questions.

"If there is a question in Week Eight, Week 10, when the Patriots play the Colts, if Tom Brady is not performing and everyone is questioning if his knee is bothering him, I'm going to have to mention that. I'm not going to be afraid to do that.

"When I played, I didn't have many friends. I'm sure I'm not going to make many friends now."

Starting with his opening conference ...

When asked about Peyton Manning's recent comments over the miscommunication that followed the retirements of Colts coaches Howard Mudd (offensive line) and Tom Moore (offensive coordinator), Harrison followed Dungy's comments with the following:

"This is something I've discussed with Coach Dungy and I think it gives Tom Brady the edge over Peyton Manning in terms of leadership. If this went on in New England, it wouldn't come out publicly. [Brady] wouldn't make a big fuss over it. So many guys are looking up to [Manning] that once they sense panic, they could panic. You have to control your emotions and not allow these things to get outside the walls."

Dungy attempted to reel things back in and perhaps protect his former QB by saying, "I'm not sure I would agree it was panic."

But Harrison came back with a quick follow-up: "As a player, it's your job to play football. This is OTAs. It's not even minicamp yet. There is no sense of panicking. These things can be worked out. He's been running the same offense for 11 years, it's not like it's new to him. That disappointed me, for him to publicly come out and say things. I thought it was a sense of panic."

I doubt NBC is panicking at this point. In fact, what a great debut for Harrison. He immediately showed how much of a lightning rod he can be without having a Warren Sapp-like or Deion Sanders-esque flair for the ridiculous. In fact, I compare Harrison at this point more to a guy like Shannon Sharpe, who indeed enjoys histrionics in his boadcast comments but also has a knack for making tough but fair criticisms.

Your thoughts?