Bob Costas wishes things had ended more amicably with NBC, and hinted that a reunion could be in order.
“I didn’t need a parade, but it would’ve been nice if I could’ve ended on a grace note,” Costas said on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger.” “I didn’t need a full-blown hour as a tribute to my career, as some people receive. I would’ve been fine if they had just had me do some sort of programming and then at the end, for two minutes, say goodbye.”
Costas, who has done work for CNN and HBO since leaving NBC in 2019, was pulled off the Super Bowl LII telecast after saying, “This game destroys people’s brains,” three months before the game in reference to concussions.
“I didn’t care [about hosting the Super Bowl],” Costas said. “I cared more about where I would go for dinner that night. But naturally that’s the way the idiots framed it. … I didn’t give a f–king damn.”
He did say he regretted an interview with ESPN in which he said “everyone walks on eggshells about the NFL,” though he added everything in the interview was true.
Costas also added he felt “somebody had to acknowledge the elephant in the room” regarding host countries such as China and Russia when the Olympics visited there.
With Costas’ duties no longer including baseball or the NBA, and mainly comprising the NFL — about which he felt ambivalent — and the Olympics, he ultimately was OK with leaving.
“The only thing I wish about leaving NBC is that it ended on a more gracious note, and maybe we’ll circle back and make that right at some point, make it completely right.”
Asked if he thinks that will happen, Costas said, “I hope so, and I think there’s a chance that it will.”