Deadspin: Bob Costas

How I Finally Made Peace With Bob Costas, TV Journalism's Most Authentic Shill

Robert Lipsyte — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:49:00 EST

I met Bob Costas in 1993, when I interviewed him for a TV sports documentary. I was enormously impressed. He could have filled all six hours and probably should have. It was fun. The insecurity that drove him—he kept asking if he looked all right, if he sounded too sentimental—was endearing. More »

Bob Costas Gasbags About Showboating

Emma Carmichael — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:35:00 EST

We're doing a season-long NFL roundtable with our friends at Slate. Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries. More »

How Armen Keteyian Got His "Exclusive" "Interview" With Mike McQueary, And How CBS Screwed It Up

Barry Petchesky — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:40:00 EST

For the viewer, Monday and Tuesday evenings played out much the same. With little advance notice, a major news network promises an exclusive with a major figure in the Penn State scandal who has remained largely silent. With a quick press release and some social media goosing, the network hypes the appearance as best it can. It was only the actual broadcast and fallout that differed. NBC was praised effusively; CBS utterly destroyed. More »

Jon Stewart On The Costas-Sandusky Interview: "The Only Time You Repeat A Question Is When You're Guilty!"

Emma Carmichael — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:30:30 EST

The train wreck of an interview gets the Daily Show treatment: "By the way, in case you're wondering, 'Where the hell is Sandusky's lawyer while he's saying all this?' He's sitting right next to Bob Costas!" [Watch on Quickish] More »

Bob Costas Found Out He Was Interviewing Jerry Sandusky Just 15 Minutes Before They Spoke

Emma Carmichael — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:05:50 EST

Like many of you, we've been wondering how in the world Bob Costas managed to snag an exclusive phone interview with accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky for NBC's Rock Center last night. It seemed to be a safe enough presumption that NBC might have paid for the rights to the 15-20 minute talk—more clips will air on Versus's SportsTalk tonight—but it turns out there were "no conditions" for the interview. More »

The iPhone's Siri Answered Bob Costas's Questions Better Than Accused Child Rapist Jerry Sandusky Did

Tommy Craggs — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:27:01 EST

Last night, Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach accused of raping boys, gave his first interview on the matter to Bob Costas. It didn't go so well. (Video is above, in case you missed it.) Deadspin correspondent Ben wanted to see if the iPhone's personal-assistant application, Siri, fared any better. What follows is a transcript of the conversation. More »

"I Enjoy Young People": Sandusky Thinks It Over, Tells Bob Costas He's Not Sexually Attracted To Young Boys

Emma Carmichael — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:39:00 EST

Bob Costas somehow managed to secure a phone interview with Jerry Sandusky on NBC's new newsmagazine show, Rock Center this evening, and he did as good a job one could have done under such bizarre circumstances. He also, it should be noted, managed to include the phrase "slap-slap-slapping" on national television. More »

Jerry Sandusky To Give First Interview Tonight

Barry Petchesky — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:17:53 EST

The reclusive Sandusky joins Bob Costas by phone tonight on Rock Center, NBC's new newsmagazine show. From the release sent out by NBC, Sandusky declares himself innocent of the charges against him. More »

My Lunches With Costas: A Series Of Frank Encounters With The Journalist And Shill (UPDATE)

Robert Lipsyte — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:18:54 EDT

The following is adapted from Lipsyte's new memoir, An Accidental Sportswriter, now available on Amazon. More »

Rejoice: Recently Cancelled Glenn Beck Joins Forces With MLB's Media Arm

Jack Dickey — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:15:00 EDT

Glenn Beck and Fox News recently announced that his show there was ending. Aw, said few. Beck plans on launching his own multiplatform media network after Fox, and word came today that the good folks at MLB Advanced Media would stream the video. More »

Bob Costas Will Blurb Anything

Tommy Craggs — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:43:58 EDT

An incomplete collection of book blurbs by prolific blurber Bob Costas: More »

1989's Back Again, In A 3D Super Bowl Halftime Show That Blew Bob Costas's Mind

Emma Carmichael — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST

Popdust has unearthed video of the 1989 Super Bowl halftime show, which was, in Bob Costas's words, "the first ever network broadcast in 3D." It was also a total shtick-show featuring "Elvis Presto," dancing ladies, and "the world's largest card trick." More »

Bob Costas Has His Am I Normal? Moment

Tommy Craggs — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:00:19 EST

Am I Normal? Moment" alt="Click here to read Bob Costas Has His Am I Normal? Moment" src="http://cache.deadspin.com/assets/images/11/2012/01/small_4663b1d45a964a0a09247dccf1439815.jpg"/>

Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and internets to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »

Deadspin Classic: Of Jimmy Olson, Spittle And The Dying Of The Light

Deadspin 2008 — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:10:00 EDT

Originally published April 30, 2008 More »

Bob Costas Feeds The Strasburg Hype Machine

Dashiell Bennett — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:00:07 EDT

Stephen Strasburg was pretty amazing in his major league debut last night, but that didn't stop baseball's self-appointed dream weaver from pumping up the superhero rhetoric even further—while simultaneously blaming others for their flights of fancy. More »

NBC To West Coast Hockey Fans: "Kiss Our Moose!"

Dashiell Bennett — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:45:03 EST

Ready for some fresh NBC outrage? Just wait until tomorrow, when Oregon discovers that the broadcast for USA Hockey's quarterfinal doesn't start until three hours after the actual game does. I understand hockey really comes to life on the radio. More »

NBC Outrage Update: Dick Ebersol Agrees With You! (Eight Years Ago)

Dashiell Bennett — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:45:19 EST

New York Times readers are begging the New York Times to stop posting Olympics results on their front page, because they just want to get news about Pakistan without having their TV evening ruined by sports spoilers. Too bad! More »

Last Night's Winner: Bob Costas

Dashiell Bennett — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:15:38 EST

In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like the MLB Network and Bob Costas, whose mutual love affair finally paid off with their big exclusive Mark McGwire confessional. More »

Statistical Proof Of Baseball's Strangest Season Ever

Barry Petchesky — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:30:00 EDT

Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and the blogosphere to bring you everything you need to know to start your day. More »

Alex Rodriguez, Kate Hudson Have Cozy Lover's Dinner With Bob Costas And Wife

A.J. Daulerio — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:30:53 EDT

Possible conversation topics: Goldie Hawn's radiant skin, Selena Roberts' lesbianism, 'Whatever happened to the kid in "Almost Famous"?', Ken Burns: toupee or not toupee, depreciation of Manhattan real estate market, Clete Boyer, "BASEketball." [NYP] More »

Bob Costas Goes The Dynamite

Ben Cohen — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:00:00 EDT

What inspired Bob Costas to do his best Brian Collins, I'm still not sure, but the bigger headscratcher is how Al Roker has turned into the face of this year's U.S. Open. [via Fark] More »

Bob Costas Joins MLB Network, But "Costas Now" Is Gone Forever

A.J. Daulerio — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:15:44 EST

After months of haggling, the upstart MLB Network (which is pretty excellent by the way) has finally inked him to a full-time deal, Darren Rovell reports. More »

Costas Out: There Should Be Better Gay Athlete Stories

A.J. Daulerio — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:30:02 EDT

Bob Costas, pocket-sized television sports reporter and popular feud instigator, gave a long, detailed interview to AfterElton.com as to why NBC neglected to make a bigger story out Australian diver Matthew Mitcham's gold medal victory, since he was the only openly gay man at the Games. NBC had already written a letter of apology to the site for "omitting" Mitcham's story, but Costas went further, answering writer James Hillis' questions as best he could. More »

Queen Quedith Earth Harrison Is Beijing Bound

Rick Chandler — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:45:25 EDT

Meet one of the youngest members of the U.S. Olympic track and field team; Virginia Tech's Queen Quedith Earth Harrison. In addition to being a talented runner and having a name that sings, the 19-year-old has another thing going for her: A large rooting section. Harrison has 22 brothers and sisters, and their names get even more interesting. More »

Of Jimmy Olson, Spittle And The Dying Of The Light

Leitch — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:39:00 EDT

Here's the important thing to remember about Buzz Bissinger, and whatever the heck happened on "Costas Now" about two hours ago: Buzz is not alone. Sure, he might be metaphorically alone, raining spittle on the imaginary demons that clearly haunt him. But if you don't think that almost every single person — with obvious, clear exceptions — who was on all those panels last night didn't come up to him afterwards and give him a fist pound and a "yeah, we really struck back tonight!" well, you weren't there. This really is what many of them think. Though most are a little calmer about it. More »

Costas Now Airs Tonight, 10 P.M. Eastern. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Leitch — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:15:00 EDT

All right, as you might have heard, we'll be appearing live on Costas Now tonight on HBO, at 10 p.m. ET. Theoretically, this will be a roundtable discussion between ourselves, Costas, the outstanding writer (if not necessariliy sabermetrically inclined) Buzz Bissinger and Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards. But we have a sneaking suspicion that we are going to be there as The Spokesperson For The Internet. More »

Bob Costas Ain't Lyin', Y'all Are Losers

rob iracane — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:30:50 EDT

To keep the comments as fresh and outstanding as they've been up to this point, we've commissioned Commenting Guru Rob Iracane, co-editor of Walk Off Walk, to write a bi-weekly Comment Ombudsman column. It runs every other week. This is that week. More »

Bob Costas Addresses Last Week's Comments

Leitch — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:23:15 EDT

Last night, while preparing for today's tournament lunacy and trying to find a picture of Mississippi Valley State's logo (he is Ming, and he is merciless), our phone rang. We didn't have time to answer it, so 20 minutes later, we checked our messages. It was Bob Costas. He wanted to discuss, on record, his comments from last week. We called him back and talked for about 20 minutes. Samplings of the interview follow. More »

Bob Costas Thinks You're A Loser

Leitch — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:40:48 EDT

Some of you out there might like Bob Costas. Some of you might not. We've always been partial to the guy, not just because he's a St. Louis guy, and not just because he did the intro to the final episode of "Cheers," though that certainly helps. Costas is an obviously intelligent guy, if a bit smuggish from time to time, and we never took him for a Bill Conlin, or a Sam Smith, or a Jay Mariotti. The guy's worldly enough to recognize that fans having more of a voice and more media options is a good thing, right? He's certainly not the type of guy who would use that old, so-tired-it's-almost-awake-again trope of the "blogger in his parents' basement" thing, right? Right? Nope. More »

Media Approval Ratings: Bob Costas

Leitch — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:05:19 EST

We once joked that Bob Costas seems like the type of guy who would pee sitting down, but that's a little harsher than our personal opinion toward him really is. He's a St. Louis guy, after all, and it's not everyone who can deal with both Dan Marino and Keith Olbermann. More »

Curt Schilling Is Full Of Opinions!

Leitch — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:00:08 EDT

We really want to like Curt Schilling, we really do. We admire his site and can't deny his ability to raise his game at the most important of moments. But man: Sometimes we really wish he'd just be quiet. More »

Keith Olbermann Now Vital Seventh Cog In NBC Pregame Team

Leitch — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:45:09 EDT

We like MSNBC/ESPN Radio/NBC/whatever talking head Keith Olbermann, and not just because his presence reminds us of those halcyon days of yesteryear when we actually felt cool for watching "SportsCenter." (God, that seems so strange now.) More »

Cultural Oddsmaker: A Very Special Episode

Leitch — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:15:52 EDT

AJ Daulerio's Cultural Oddsmaker runs every Friday. Email him to let him know what you think. Oh, and apologies, again, to The Dugout. More »

Dr. Z Hangs Out With Swimsuit Models

Leitch — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:30:29 EDT

We know, we know: The unconditional love for SI scribe Rick Reilly's "Riffs Of Reilly" segment — sample comedic genius moment: "USC's quarterback is John David Booty and Texas' is Colt McCoy. Hey, weren't both those guys on 'Gunsmoke?'" Oh, Rick, you slay us! — makes you think that SI.com must be so tapped out producing such an earth-shaking segment that they couldn't possibly come up with anything else. But fear not, intrepid online sports content consumer: they've got so much more! More »

A Look At The Sunday NBC Crew

Leitch — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:15:25 EDT

Earlier today, new NBC broadcaster — it feels weird to type that; we haven't quite adjusted to the NFL being back on NBC — John Madden went to visit Oakland Raiders camp and hang out with his former player Art Shell, the new coach (again) of the Raiders. Since it's a slow, non-sexual-harassing day here at Deadspin, seeing Madden — who also looks so strange in photos, like they shoot him full of pancake batter and adrenaline right before he goes on air — got us thinking about that NBC team. More »

Tell Us Your Best Athlete Run-Ins, And Win A Book!

Leitch — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 14:00:44 EST

Hey, look, it's the first-ever Deadspin contest. The fine folks at Hyperion Books just shipped a big stack of copies of David Halberstam's new book The Education Of A Coach to Deadspin World Headquarters, and we're here to give them away. We've read the book and think it's really good, actually, even though it has a blurb from Bob Costas on the front who, as we all know, pees sitting down. More »

Stuart Scott Could Be Yours For $25 Grand (Plus Shipping!)

Leitch — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:30:13 EDT

$25,000. More »

Costas Takes A Seat Against BTK (Wait, He's Standing? Oh.)

Leitch — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:25:15 EDT

We've always found broadcaster Bob Costas to be an insufferable prig, as well as a guy who almost certainly pees sitting down. News came out last week that Costas turned down guest hosting "Larry King Live" because it was supposed to feature a segment on BTK killer Dennis Rader. Costas said he didn't think that particular topic was "appropriate" for him, which makes sense, because, you know, it's actual news. More »

Bob Costas: Hysterical In His Own Mind

Leitch — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:25:28 EDT

Don't know if any of you saw this or not, but everybody's favorite Sports Dwarf In A Suit Bob Costas was a guest on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" last evening. It was a bizarre appearance. Our problem with Costas has never been that he isn't smart (because he constantly reminds us that, yes, he is), or that he's smug (though he is, of course) or that he's too smooth (we like our TV sportscasters like we like our men: Smooth). It's that Costas has somehow convinced himself that he is funny. We're not sure who told him this, though we're sure they were taller. More »