It’s been a rough year for the NFL. Ratings were down, stadiums half-empty, players kneeling, Roger Goodell somehow keeping his job. But take heart, fans! The football gods have decided that you've suffered enough. NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show will go on without Katie Couric Bob Costas.
And the cause isn’t the Soviet Pink-Eye this time. Costas told Sports Business Daily that “The decision was mutually agreeable, and not only do I not have a problem with it, I am actually happy about it.”
Happy about it? A guy that deeply in love with the sound of his own voice is happy not to have TV's biggest platform from which to sound important?
Well, it turns out Costas lacks fire in the belly for the gridiron. “I have long had ambivalent feelings about football, so at this point, it’s better to leave the hosting to those who are more enthusiastic about it.”
Sensible. Lots of people are ambivalent about the NFL these days. But most of them don’t go around around telling anybody who’ll listen that “this game destroys people’s brains.” But, as noted above, Costas loves to hear himself talk -- mostly in liberal platitudes.
So rejoice! Enjoy the big game. Bob Costas won’t be around to excuse the kneeling players and moan that is that “sports and patriotism and the flag have been conflated to such an extent that people can't separate out any nuance.” He won’t be scolding the Redskins about their team name, or talking down to Americans about their “gun culture,”.or the “backlash” when the media tried to force a “gay Jackie Robinson” of the NFL. Hell, Insufferable Bob won’t even be there to sniff at all that’s wrong with the game you’re trying to watch.
Win-Win.
