He was even too political for NBC!? Good at sports!
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bob-costas-announces-nbc-career-001304654.html
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bob-costas-announces-nbc-career-001304654.html
Old Bob Costa done at NBC
- Thread starter osu68
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Costas also told The Post he will continue to do work for MLB Network and is considering pursuing a long-form interview show.
Hmm, I wonder what subject he could do a 10-segment interview?
Hmm, I wonder what subject he could do a 10-segment interview?
It would be great if NBC sent Chris Collinsworth with him.
I like Collinsworth. He is one of my favorite color analysts.
I read lots of the comments in response to Costas leaving and wow, one after another it's, good riddance, tired of hearing about politics when I tune in for sports, etc. I mean, not just now and then but like 90% of the couple hundred comments I skimmed through.
Costas' "politics" at NBC consisted of him pointing out twice in December 2012 (one of those times being immediately after Sandy Hook - which was kind of a big deal) that America had a "gun culture." He wasn't calling for "gun control", he just said that America had a "gun culture."
On that last one - he is right. OF COURSE America has a "gun culture." That's beyond debate. For better or worse, Americans love their guns.
Going back to sports broadcasting itself - NBC has Mike ("I live in Ann Arbor, I must always point that out, but nobody better point out that I was a stalker back in my youth or else I will get angrily self-righteous") Tirico. Tirico is an absolute bum who talks down to his viewers, and I despise him. But he will fill Costas' old role.
Costas can live out the twilight of his career calling baseball, mostly on MLBN. I think he enjoys that role.
For the younger crowd, Costas was the best in the business in the 80's and 90's. Really came to define the in studio host that could also go out and do play by play. I think Costas even had a late, late night show on NBC that was after Johnny Carson and Letterman for a short while in the 80's.
Totally agree. I got tired of their sappy up close and personal stuff. I really don't care about anyone's sob story while I am watching sports. It has been way overdone and I am toast on it.
The first time I became more than slightly familiar with Costas was on an episode of Late Night With David Letterman back in the 80s, back when that show was unique and creative, which it wasn't for about it's last 15 years on the air, just as late night shows in general aren't nowadays.
It was a regular Late Night show except they had a correspondent stationed at the maternity ward in two local hospitals and they had a contest was to see which one of them would be the first to have a baby born during the show. Every now and then Dave would check in with the guy at each hospital to see if anything was happening.
One of the guys was Vince McMahon, now wrestling superstar guy but was young wresting guy back then. I knew who McMahon was and liked him (forgive me, I've changed since then). The other guy was Bob Costas, who I was only vaguely familiar with as a young sports guy on NBC.
Costas was great on the show and won me over. And as I recall, the hospital that Costas was at had a baby first and won the contest and Costas had some great lines in his reporting of it.
Back in his day Costas was really good but I think time just passes and things just change.
ETA: I'll be damn, I found some of it on Youtube, but only the Vince McMahon part. I guess McMahon's hospital ended up winning. The first baby got the title of The Official Late Night Baby. Letterman's show was good back in the day. Even silly stuff like this is fun to watch. he had a good, wry, smart ass, deprecating sense of humor.
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Many here forget or didn’t know that Bob Costas did a commentary after Nebraska beat Miami in the orange bowl in 94’ and was adamant that there was no debate who was the true national champion and that it was Nebraska and no one else. This was the night before psu played Oregon in the rose. Will never forget or forgive him for that ridiculous commentary
Costas was one of the few giants in the msm that was careful not to rush to judgement wrt Paterno. He was (in his time) one of the best, and I actually missed his presence during the Winter Olympics last year.
As a kid I used to enjoy listening to Costas coast to coast on the radio at night. I wasn’t allowed to watch tv on a school night but I could listen to this. Sunday nights I think?
It felt weird for me not having Costas in studio for the Olympics last year. He was there every Olympics I could remember, and it somehow made it feel like there was something missing, and not just pink eye.
I think Bob should've left the politics at the door, but I always really enjoyed his play-by-play or commentary, and I hope he lands somewhere we still see him.
I think Bob should've left the politics at the door, but I always really enjoyed his play-by-play or commentary, and I hope he lands somewhere we still see him.
Beat me to it Zone. Costas shilled UN all night long. He Cost US big time. Won't miss him a bit. He can strike out on his own now.
I believe he had some cosmetic surgery, for the Olympics, that went bad. He tried to say it was a case of "pink eye".
Damn, the Wayback Machine knows no bounds. Do you remember that too or did you just look it up?
I watched that whole episode (just now I mean, and probably back in the 80s too, certainly enough to remember McMahon and Costas and the baby contest). Letterman was really good in the 80s. (And plus the crowd didn't constantly WHOOP and scream like they do in late night nowadays.) It turns out Costas had a pretty small part but it was good, especially his line at the end, which also cracked Letterman up.
Now and then I go on Youtube and search for "Leno on Letterman show" or something similar and watch Leno appearances on Letterman in the 80s. It was really good. From the last 25 years you'd never guess that Leno was once a sharp and edgy comedian. And he and Letterman had good rapport during his guest spots too, which were frequent in the 80s. Those were the days. Time marches on.
I looked it up. I may have still been in diapers at the time I'm afraid (at the time it aired, not when I looked it up, I'm not Jim Boeheim). My favorite late night host was and always will be Conan O'Brien, being a child of the 90s. I imagine he was to us similar to what Letterman was to your generation. Though Conan, like Letterman, is now really no different than any other late night host. I guess inevitably they all end up conforming.
I always liked Leno well enough, but it was awful what he did to Conan with the Tonight Show.
I liked Conan in the 90s. I think there might be something about not being the top dog that makes you more appealing (to me at least) because you're more likely to take chances. Off the top of my head, some of the bits by Conan I liked were, embryonic rockabilly polkadotted fighter pilots and "INAPPROPRIATE" and the staring contests with Andy. I'm sure there are more bits that aren't occurring to me right now.
I think part of the reasons that late night shows today suffer by comparison and are so much less adventurous is the proliferation of alternative outlets for entertainment. Back then, shows like Letterman were the gatekeepers for mass exposure and as a result it was very interesting and exciting when they showed something far from different from the norm. Nowadays though you can see a thousand things far from the norm just by going on the Internet and thus late night shows have more of an incentive to only put on big names that will go over well.
It sounds silly now but things like on that Letterman show where there was a contest to see who had the first baby born was completely novel back then. Nowadays almost nothing is completely novel and so when you see old video of something that wouldn't be novel today you tend to underestimate its impact.
Same, it reminds me of watching the Olympics with my Grandfather. All great memories. I could care less about the background stories, but I know that whenever I hear his voice, I think of great memories, 10 years old, summer of 1996.
And also of the VHS tape I watched over and over again, of the 86 national title, and living vicariously through Costas telling the nation over and over again that we were number 1... especially liked looking back during the "dark years" 00-04. I watched that, the rose bowl season highlight video, and "Field of Dreams" the history of Beaver Stadium ALL the time.
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