Originally posted in DCBLOG's Challenge Invasion coverage earlier tonight,
reposted in the interest of sports fans and featuring a video embedded below.
BY DC CUEVA
This week marked one year to go to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, taking place in the winter resort town of PyeongChang, South Korea. If you know me, the Olympics are the one sports event I look forward to more than any other, and embodies the philosophy of diversity I have watching all sports and appreciating the athletes who compete on sports' grandest stage. DCBLOG can cite one very important partner of the Olympic Movement as an inspiration of sorts to how this site gets to present our coverage of the Trifecta here and the stories of this ecosystem.
Aside from my MTV connections, I've always had an equally great relationship with NBC Sports in being a loyal viewer, big fan and tremendous admirer of their exceptional work covering the sports world. You might say that anything that airs on the weekend on the network or during the week on NBCSN, Golf Channel and the CSN regional networks where I live is better quality-wise than the hot takes taking over their 3-& 4-lettered rivals in the sports media world. Them also being the Olympic broadcaster for 30 years also makes having a 17-night appointment with sports' biggest event feel that much more enjoyable for me.
NBC's way of telling the stories of the athletes who compete for gold serves as a template to how I get to tell the stories of the people of the Trifecta to all of you on here, in addition to offering everything else DCBLOG offers each week...sharing that passion for quality that I put forth in these posts. And Thursday, a transition of power took place at its most prominent position.
Bob Costas began his broadcasting career in the 1970's where he went to college, at Syracuse University as a proud alum of that upstate New York college. There started a career in sportscasting that would ultimately take him around the world, which included stints in St. Louis calling the ABA Spirits on radio powerhouse KMOX and in Chicago with the Bulls, among others. In 1979, an icon of the TV business Don Ohlmeyer, who was executive producer of NBC Sports at the time, called him up and asked him to bring his talents to a national audience, and Bob made his debut covering a weightlifting event shortly thereafter... The rest has become history.
In 37 years at the Peacock, Bob has represented the heart & soul of NBC Sports, becoming one of the network's most recognizable faces and voices. Virtually every event - big & small - that NBC has covered, he has contributed at in some sort: spanning the NFL, the golden age of the NBA on NBC, Triple Crown horse racing, golf, NHL and beyond. His love of baseball - best exemplified by having a Mickey Mantle baseball card stuffed in his wallet - flourished there as a play-by-play announcer on NBC's baseball Game of the Week in the '80s, which has parlayed into having a prominent part of the MLB Network in addition to writing several books on his favorite game since childhood.
That journey has taken him to Atlanta, Australia, Salt Lake City, Athens, Italy, China, Canada, London, Russia and, most recently, to Rio de Janiero...traveling a good portion of the world as much as my parents have as of late. He, like everyone else, watched in awe when Muhammad Ali lit the cauldron in Atlanta, stood in Tienanmen Square a day after the bold Opening Ceremony in Beijing, flew into Vancouver via a seaplane, chronicled the entire journey of Michael Phelps, and interviewed hundreds of medal winners and newsmakers including two Presidents. You pretty much knew this was gonna be Must See TV the moment you heard Bob's voice in the opening tease that began NBC's primetime broadcast to the tune of John Williams' Olympic score.
On Thursday - one year before the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games, Costas - now in his mid-60's - announced on NBC's Today Show that he will be stepping down from his Olympic hosting duties and passing the torch once held by Jim McKay - who crafted the mold of hosting an Olympics at ABC - to another fellow Syracuse alum, former ESPN & ABC broadcaster Mike Tirico, starting next February. Last year, this site looked at how pivotal Tirico's move from ESPN to NBC was in being a game-changer in sports media, as viewer habits are changing, talent are switching networks and those who've been in this business for very long, including Bob, are either retiring or reducing their work load.
With him being one of the best broadcasters of his generation and also one of the most versatile and hard-working as well, there's been wide industry sentiment, including at his old employers, since yesterday that no one is more deserving of inheriting the Olympic host job than Mike. Having developed 25 years' worth of his craft hosting and calling the NFL, NBA, golf and so many other sports, plus hosting the past two FIFA World Cups and returning to Rio last year as a NBC daytime host, Tirico has accumulated the credentials necessary to handle the job of hosting an event that attracts a routinely large audience every night for two weeks, which was once of the key factors in him making that move. And ironically, Mike was the first recipient of a sportscasting scholarship made in Costas' name at Syracuse back in 1987, making this all come full circle when he moved to NBC last summer and gaining this promotion to primetime.
As someone who stood literally many feet away from him when I was at the Niners/Seahawks game on Thanksgiving in 2014, I have enjoyed Bob's company for those two weeks every two years since I was in elementary school. He has no doubt enjoyed a tremendous run as NBC primetime host, doing that for a record 181 nights over 24 years, which doesn't include of course that well-known bout with pinkeye that saw him miss a week's worth of competition at the Sochi Winter Games earlier that year. As he now inherits an emeritus role at NBC Sports similar to what longtime NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw has at NBC News, Costas says of his successor, "NBC has made the right choice and I could not be more happy about that."
Aside from my MTV connections, I've always had an equally great relationship with NBC Sports in being a loyal viewer, big fan and tremendous admirer of their exceptional work covering the sports world. You might say that anything that airs on the weekend on the network or during the week on NBCSN, Golf Channel and the CSN regional networks where I live is better quality-wise than the hot takes taking over their 3-& 4-lettered rivals in the sports media world. Them also being the Olympic broadcaster for 30 years also makes having a 17-night appointment with sports' biggest event feel that much more enjoyable for me.
NBC's way of telling the stories of the athletes who compete for gold serves as a template to how I get to tell the stories of the people of the Trifecta to all of you on here, in addition to offering everything else DCBLOG offers each week...sharing that passion for quality that I put forth in these posts. And Thursday, a transition of power took place at its most prominent position.
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| Credit: NBC Sports Group |
In 37 years at the Peacock, Bob has represented the heart & soul of NBC Sports, becoming one of the network's most recognizable faces and voices. Virtually every event - big & small - that NBC has covered, he has contributed at in some sort: spanning the NFL, the golden age of the NBA on NBC, Triple Crown horse racing, golf, NHL and beyond. His love of baseball - best exemplified by having a Mickey Mantle baseball card stuffed in his wallet - flourished there as a play-by-play announcer on NBC's baseball Game of the Week in the '80s, which has parlayed into having a prominent part of the MLB Network in addition to writing several books on his favorite game since childhood.
His versatility of hosting, play-by-play, reporting and interviewing has also afforded him to host several talk shows including the late night Later with Bob Costas; contributing to NBC News the exclusive interview with disgraced Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky, and providing bold halftime commentary on the NFL's off-field dealings. And that has translated into winning 27 Emmy Awards - more than any other broadcaster in history and spanning the three main TV genres of sports, news and entertainment; plus many other awards, accolades and acclaim from his industry peers.
But to both the passionate sports fan and those casuals who don't watch sports regularly, Bob is best known to everyone as the longtime primetime host of NBC's Olympic coverage. In 1988, he hosted late night in Seoul, and four years later his Later executive producer (and a protege of influential ABC Sports & News executive Roone Arledge) who had become executive producer and NBC Sports head, Dick Ebersol, upgraded Bob to the big chair. There in Barcelona where the Dream Team debuted - and in every Olympics NBC has broadcast since (spanning all but two since summer '92), Bob has proudly served in that position for eleven Games, taking viewers from venue to venue, interviewing athletes and newsmakers, and all else that makes the Olympic host job as highly-coveted as any in the television business.That journey has taken him to Atlanta, Australia, Salt Lake City, Athens, Italy, China, Canada, London, Russia and, most recently, to Rio de Janiero...traveling a good portion of the world as much as my parents have as of late. He, like everyone else, watched in awe when Muhammad Ali lit the cauldron in Atlanta, stood in Tienanmen Square a day after the bold Opening Ceremony in Beijing, flew into Vancouver via a seaplane, chronicled the entire journey of Michael Phelps, and interviewed hundreds of medal winners and newsmakers including two Presidents. You pretty much knew this was gonna be Must See TV the moment you heard Bob's voice in the opening tease that began NBC's primetime broadcast to the tune of John Williams' Olympic score.
 |
| Credit: NBC Sports Group |
With him being one of the best broadcasters of his generation and also one of the most versatile and hard-working as well, there's been wide industry sentiment, including at his old employers, since yesterday that no one is more deserving of inheriting the Olympic host job than Mike. Having developed 25 years' worth of his craft hosting and calling the NFL, NBA, golf and so many other sports, plus hosting the past two FIFA World Cups and returning to Rio last year as a NBC daytime host, Tirico has accumulated the credentials necessary to handle the job of hosting an event that attracts a routinely large audience every night for two weeks, which was once of the key factors in him making that move. And ironically, Mike was the first recipient of a sportscasting scholarship made in Costas' name at Syracuse back in 1987, making this all come full circle when he moved to NBC last summer and gaining this promotion to primetime.
Tirico tweeted afterwards, "Thanks to Bob, the entire NBC Sports team and so many of you who reached out today. So excited for this new chapter with the NBC Olympics family." Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth had similar sentiment: "Mike Tirico is the gift that keeps on giving. He will be a great Olympic Host. Lucky to have him at NBC. Bob Costas never flinched when it came to journalistic integrity at the Olympics. Harder than you will ever know." And over at ESPN, Mike & Mike co-host Mike Greenburg added, "Congrats to Mike Tirico on the Olympics, the biggest gig in the industry. You couldn't be more deserving than he is. And congratulations on a job brilliantly done for 24 years by Bob Costas, the best there has ever been in our line of work. #Respect."
This move echoes what happened in 2009 at NBC Sports' other high-profile property of the NFL: when John Madden retired from Sunday Night Football after a classic Super Bowl XLIII, Collinsworth was brought in from the studio to take over alongside Al Michaels. That transition was likened by those at NBC as "going from Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle," and SNF has remained the gold standard among NFL broadcasts, much the same way as the Olympics and all of NBC Sports' content over the years are around the industry.
That chair will no doubt be in great hands going forward with the network's long-term Olympic partnership stretching over the next decade. And while it came as a little bit of a surprise to some that this move has come a little earlier than planned as it was thought this was going to occur at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, it's no surprise Mike Tirico has earned his moment to debut in a year from now in South Korea, and Bob Costas has earned his place as the best of all time in sports television.
Below is a video of Bob hosting NBC's Football Night in America from Levi's Stadium on Thanksgiving night 2014.
- DC
