Bob Costas may finally achieve the grace note he desired at NBC Sports.<\/p>\n
The face of NBC Sports for most of his nearly 40-year tenure with the company from 1980-2018, Bob Costas has returned to the network as the host of its new Major League Baseball package and a contributor to its NBA coverage, it was announced Thursday. He will make his official return on NBC\u2019s primetime Diamondbacks-Dodgers game on Opening Day, March 26.<\/p>\n
Costas described his new role as an \u201cemeritus\u201d position in a statement released by NBC: \u201cAs appreciative as I am of other aspects of my career, especially HBO and the MLB Network, for 40 years, my true broadcasting home was NBC. So many great moments, memories, and friendships. Now, I am very grateful to Rick Cordella and Sam Flood for inviting me back in an emeritus role to conclude my career where so much of it played out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Costas left NBC on negative terms in 2018 after he and the network got \u201csideways\u201d over his commentary about CTE in football and the \u201cIOC\u2019s troubling affinity for authoritarian regimes,\u201d he told<\/a> the Sports Media Watch Podcast last year<\/a>. Costas: \u201cAt that point, and I think it was shortsighted on both parties, some passive aggressive stuff going on. Both of us couldn\u2019t see the forest for the trees and we threw up our hands and said, okay, it\u2019s been a good long run.\u201d<\/p>\n In the podcast appearance, Costas lamented that he had not been given a graceful exit from NBC, and said the relationship \u201cshould have ended more graciously and a more mutually respectful way.\u201d He described his quiet exit from NBC as \u201ca little off,\u201d and said that it had left him \u201clooking for the ribbon, and maybe, in a bit of poetic justice that ribbon is found right back at 30 Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the interview last March, Costas seemed to hint at a reconciliation with NBC. The relationship, he said, was \u201cin the process of mending itself now, so that maybe I can achieve that grace note back where I belong at NBC.\u201d<\/p>\n NBC acquiring the two leagues with which he is most associated \u2014 the NBA and MLB \u2014 would seem to have opened the door to a return. Just since that podcast last year, Costas has made multiple cameo appearances<\/a> on NBC\u2019s new NBA package \u2014 voicing the pregame teases for which he is well-known<\/a>.<\/p>\n And two years ago during the Summer Olympics, Costas and Al Michaels joined host Mike Tirico for an on-air interview segment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Costas may finally achieve the grace note he desired at NBC Sports. The face of NBC Sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,28259,14495,32770,47847],"class_list":["post-533075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-mlb-broadcasters","tag-mlb-on-nbc-peacock","tag-nba-broadcasters","tag-nba-on-nbc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115940323801095914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}