Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas has been back in the national spotlight recently, calling the Guardians-Yankees ALDS series on TBS -- to somewhat mixed reviews.
Costas has called seemingly every event under the sun during his long and decorated career, but one sport he doesn't see himself involved with again in the future is football.
The former longtime NBC Sports announcer explained during his Tuesday appearance on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland why a return to the NFL is unlikely following his controversial 2017 departure from the peacock network's "Sunday Night Football" studio show.
"I always in truth had ambivalent feelings about football going back to the 1990s," Costas told hosts Ken Carman and Anthony Lima. "I actually asked out of it at NBC, and Dick Ebersol, my friend and patron, was good about that, and he let me step away from it in the 90s. But then when we got 'Sunday Night Football back,' it was such a big deal to Dick, and because of my close personal relationship with him, he said 'We're going to bring John Madden and Al Michaels over, we need you to be the host.' I said, 'OK I get it, I'm loyal to NBC, and I'm loyal to you, I'll do it.'
"But after doing it for a while, the balance began to shift, and it did not shift toward being antagonistic toward the NFL, but it shifted to where I had an ambivalent feeling. I had almost as many misgivings as I had positive feelings. So I think if I ever address NFL stuff, it's better to be in the role of a commentator than as a play-by-play or a host, so that's long in my rearview mirror."
In fact, Costas may be giving a more generous interpretation of his feelings toward football than what has been previously reported.
In 2017, at a symposium at the University of Maryland, Costas addressed the epidemic of concussions in football, noting that “the reality is that this game destroys people’s brains." He added that the concussion issue represented "cracks in the foundation" of the sport.
That year marked the end of Costas' run both on "Sunday Night Football" and with NBC Sports, and he later admitted that the remarks played a role in his departure.
On Tuesday, however, Costas was more diplomatic regarding the gridiron.
"I'm not antagonistic toward the NFL, but if you're the host or the play-by-play person in a situation, you have to essentially be comfortable with it. I've never been a hype guy, I've never been a carnival barker guy, and I've always been willing to criticize or call attention to issues -- in proper proportion at the proper time -- and to acknowledge some of the elephants in the room. But if you don't basically embrace it, if most of the audience is more interested in it and cares more about it than you do, then you have reached a point where you should stop doing it.
"So, can I still watch a football game? I don't follow it avidly, I'm not looking at the schedule on Monday and seeing who's playing on Sunday. But can I still get engaged in a game, turn on the set and it's late in the fourth quarter and understand what's going on -- sure I can. But am I the guy to bring people into the tent every Sunday night, as I may have been at one point?"
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