Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 290 › Conversation 290-005
Nixon & Rogers on Casual conversation and Sports
Sunday, October 17, 1971 · 6:13 PM–6:26 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 14 min
AI Summary
President Richard M. Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers engaged in an informal discussion that, based on the transcript's focus on sports commentary and game analysis, appears to be a casual social interaction rather than a formal policy meeting. While the transcript contains extensive, repetitive commentary regarding specific football players, team strategies, and game events, it provides no substantive evidence of government business, policy decisions, or official action items. The conversation reflects a brief period of personal rapport between the two men.
- Casual conversation
- Sports
- Football
- Personal interaction
Audio
This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.
Listen to the full tape segment
Position in tape: 00:16:08 – 00:36:10
15:48
290a.mp3
NARA Description
On October 17, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:13 pm and 6:26 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 290-005 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 290-5 Date: October 17, 1971 Time: Unknown between 6:13 pm and 6:26 pm Location: Executive Office Building The President talked with William P. Rogers. [See Conversation No. 11-105]
Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data
Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Each line starts with a timestamp button; press it to play the audio from that point.
Hello?
You saw a good game, didn't you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, he said, he said, he said, you'd never have made a call with a better guy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Of course, I called him to talk to you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Well, you know, they were two great teams.
We could have gone either way.
Yeah.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Is he?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Green right side, but was shot.
Slipping left side, going to mask it away.
Oh, Mike Reed.
He hasn't gotten hit.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I saw, I saw, I just saw two games.
I saw the one yesterday I saw was fantastic.
It was probably the best.
Oh, the one today was, I thought it was a little bit more picturesque.
It was marvellous.
Now, Cincinnati has really been battling no more.
Oh, really?
They're getting out of there.
You look like you're trying to break the line back to 15.
Yeah.
Yeah, the first time you were on television, they had a blackout, and the sound didn't come out.
That's why they brought you on the second time.
I saw it both times, and it was very good.
The sound was not as horrible after the break.
And, uh, it was really good.
It was very good.
I'm sure you can share it with the whole staff.
That's right.
I agree.
But I didn't know all of this.
I just thought it was a good thing.
I thought it was a good thing.
I just thought it was a good thing.
I just thought it was so good.
I just thought it was a good thing.
We're headed south to fourth quarter, 20 to 10.
The line is made of 27 yards, 12 inches to the east.
He likes to go out of races.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
To go to us, I couldn't agree more.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Very good.
And take it at the 49-yard line of clearance.
Yeah, it's about 49 yards.
Yeah, it's about 49 yards.
205, the TM Galaxy.
Would you take a photo, Corito?
205, please.
Uh, I was going to, I was going to suggest you, I know you've put it on the receipt.
205, John.
Uh...
I was wondering if you have, uh, why everybody, uh, looks at the page, like, uh, how it might, you know, whether the four of us would want to talk sometimes, just a little early, just a little early, but we both, you know, often do that, and, uh, it seems, I don't think it is.
I should stay on it, but I think, Mark, I mean, I've done what I've done.
You know, I received this and I'm just, you know, whatever.
That was a hell of a list.
You made a, you made a strong public statement.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think getting me involved puts it too direct to people, particularly when they're working on these things.
It's too direct in the case that I was involved.
They're trying to play me in the case.
But do you think it would be useful just to...
I guess just to...
I don't know what his distance is, but I'm trying to walk in that stretch.
Pull over.
Add up the point after every stretch is going a second cut down on the log in.
We're 49 yards out.
Yeah, I see.
Yeah, I see.
I think it's the level of this bulletin, but I think they were straight-fired.
Very important.
And I say, you know, I didn't receive those, uh, through the caucus, but that's something I would like.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Is that easy?
Well, I don't want to lose it, so I think it's the state, the government, fighting this battle, and I really want to take off from the United States.
But, you know, all of a sudden, if it's close enough, if it's once, if it's close enough, if it's once, you've got to, you've got to, if you look at some of the votes, if you look at some of the times,
I know, I know.
I don't know.
I think maybe some of that gold.
I'm hoping that's true.
How hard is the bridge, Robbie?
It's a good move.
This is one of the two.
They went deep with Bear Hooker on.
So, Mark Barrett's up there.
Here's Ken Reilly catching.
Here's Mr. Reilly.
47 yards of the play, and the Cincinnati 33 first down.
Mr. Smith, he went with it.
Neil Craig is in.
Grab it up.
Sure.
Craig Smith.
He's drafted.
Now, Charlie, we've been talking about his shots, and he came into this game with a seven-yard average.
And the flag was dropped.
McConnell will go against the Browns.
...48-yard line of Cincinnati.
Oh, I see.
The down goes over.
And again we will mention that on a past play... Sure, sure.
Everybody is sort of thinking...
They think we're trying to...
They don't know if he got away from Bill Foran.
If he didn't get into the...
He might go back to Bill Foran because...
I mean, it's not a fall from the wide receiver.
Oh, the Leo Fragner rookie from fifth.
Well, hasn't he been discovered?
Yes.
The man he's going to dunk.
Going deep.
Oh, yes.
They rule the last of the world.
The reception, I believe, the others.
Oh, my God.
Let's see.
Let's see.
Let's watch Bill Foran now.
This is one time they don't get another minus two.
It gives them three shots.
Would it be, would it be useful to have that movie there?
I'll tell you, the morning of that, that's probably the most important thing.
The thing that I think part of the, I think the reason Turkey,
What they must remember is that they're, like, the only supporters in our Congress.
Whether they go, whether they go out of their minds, they wouldn't have come on.
You see, there are lots of very hopeful ones, but there are a number of some of our people who want to call a certain reason, a true reason.
Why are they, uh...
The right-wing barrel and the right receiver, she's a tight end ball.
There goes the first man there.
But they didn't do that to me, but they did.
They didn't do that to me.
Yeah.
The ball is a 41-yard long.
It'll be turned down in eight days.
Actually, Bill Nelson has a low shot of the 35 wide open here to the outside.
And when the linebacker starts concentrating on Bill Forrest, he introduces us to the exact coming out of the basket.
Just under seven and a half minutes remaining in the ballgame.
Third in eight days.
Now we're going to fight it hard and hard and hard.
We're going to have to take it hard, hard, hard.
We have Gene Higgerson for Holden.
Higgerson is here for our message back game.
We can't say enough, Charlie, for the defensive end of the Cincinnati Bengals.
That defense is clearly getting a hand.
They deserve it.
A non-shot drop with a 20-yard average to his 50.
Number 29, Sandy Durko, will be the up back and has a shot to the defense.
Palo's blocked.
A flag is not dropped.
The ball goes into the end zone.
Roy Ferris trying to go for the block.
That was one time, Charlie.
That was one time, Charlie.
Well, let me see what I have tomorrow.
You want to help me get a warning, too?
Oh, let's see what he's got.
I've got a question for you.
He said not.
Because we didn't have our record.
But in the meantime, I enjoyed it.
It was great.
When is that?
I don't know.
I don't know.
That will make things better for you.
Thank you.
So I already told you that.
All right, well then here's the problem.
I don't think you need to worry about it.
We are trying to release it.
We want to see what happens.
We've got to see what happens.
Martin, we've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
We've got to release it.
Okay, well, we'll see you tomorrow.
Okay, bye.
Also recorded on October 17, 1971
- 011-103 5:52 PM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 5:52 pm to 6:09 pm.
- 011-104 6:09 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 6:09 pm to 6:13 pm.
- 290-004 6:09 PM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:09 pm and 6:13 pm.
- 011-105 6:13 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 6:13 pm to 6:26 pm.
- 290-006 6:26 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:26 pm and 8:48 pm.
- 290-007 6:26 PM · 24 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:26 pm and 8:48 pm.
- 290-008 6:26 PM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:26 pm and 8:48 pm.
- 290-009 6:26 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:26 pm and 8:48 pm.
Related conversations
- Nixon & Moorer on Football and Casual conversation December 26, 1971 · 3 min
- Nixon & Sanchez on Personal interaction and Oval Office January 13, 1972
- Nixon & Kissinger on Casual conversation and Humor January 30, 1973 · 2 min
- Nixon White House recording on Oval Office and Casual conversation October 19, 1971 · 2 min
- Nixon White House recording on Skagen and Unidentified individuals May 21, 1973 · 1 min
- Nixon phone call with Ziegler on California Angels and Public relations September 22, 1971 · 2 min
Cite this conversation
Conversation 290-005, October 17, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/290-005 (accessed November 12, 2026).