HOF broadcaster Bob Costas said “sports is coming at people, if they want to access it, from so many different directions.” GETTY IMAGES HOF broadcaster Bob Costas said “sports is coming at people, if they want to access it, from so many different directions,” as tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Netflix get into live sports. Costas, appearing today on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said, “Information and enjoyment in one way or another are coming at people from so many different directions that even network television, which is still at the center of it, but it doesn’t own it, it doesn’t have the complete primacy that it once had.” Costas said that sports being so accessible today “does diminish it to some extent,” as “much of it is, for at least some portion of the audience, transactional now.” Costas touched on gambling and how the growth of sports betting means fans have a “different relationship to how that game plays out than if you’re just rooting for your team.” Costas said when he called games on MLB Network or Turner, he “refused to read the gambling promos.” Costas: “There’s an insidious aspect to it that I didn’t want to be part of.”
Other highlights from Costas’ interview:
- On the intersection of politics and sports: “Anyone who says that politics has no place in sports has to be abysmally unaware of the history here. Because until fairly recently in our nation’s history sports and some aspects of entertainment have been the only avenues … that were broadly accessible to people of color or where someone like Billie Jean King could make a larger statement about women’s rights, not just within sports.”
- On if he misses broadcasting: “I don’t miss what I used to do. I think I can still be effective and still enjoy it in an emeritus role. … I’ve had more than enough times at bat, and many years ago I passed the baton. And I’m generally satisfied and gratified with what my career has been” (“Meet the Press,” NBC, 7/6).
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