Bob Costas’ Commitment to Craft Should Be Commended

The Sochi Olympics are far from perfect. That much is obvious.

But every Olympics and every big event has its share of problems, even here in the good old’ U.S.A.

Our biggest annual event, the Super Bowl, has seen in the past two years alone a blackout that lasted over 30 minutes (New Orleans) and mass transit that experienced massive problems (New York/New Jersey). Vancouver was too warm in the 2010 Winter Olympics; Beijing was too smoggy in 2008.

But the Sochi Olympics has set a record in the snark department, particularly from American media. Whether it’s brown water, Olympic ring malfunctions or toilet capabilities, many journalists—armed not with a pen, but with Twitter—are making sure you hear every last detail of the sacrifice being made on their part for your benefit.

And when media members aren’t talking about themselves, they feed on its most prominent face. NBC’s lead anchor for Sochi is the omnipresent Bob Costas. As you may have heard, the 61-year-old broadcaster has been suffering from an eye infection that has forced him to break out the Harry Potter glasses to (attempt to) mask the issue. Despite the specs, this glaring problem has made Costas a strong runner-up with Vladimir Putin on the punch line front.

Costas had indicated the situation would resolve itself over the past weekend, but instead has deteriorated. Both eyes are now as red as the old Soviet hockey uniforms, essentially blinding him in both eyes.

Here’s the Tuesday’s morning’s Today Show exchange between after Matt Lauer asked how Costas was doing:

Costas: “Well, even worse than when you saw me this morning, Sochi time. So, reluctantly, I was trying to throw a complete game here, but I think we’re going to have to go to the bullpen. I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but you’re Mariano Rivera, at least tonight.”

Lauer: “So, I’m going to step in for you tonight, the master of Olympic primetime?”

Costas: “I believe that’s it. Let’s hope it’s only tonight because right now I’m walking around and might as well be playing Marco Polo. I have no idea where I am.”

So Lauer steps in, at least for now. But Costas trying to battle through this to this point—and battle is the appropriate word when trying to read a teleprompter with limited eyesight—is nothing new.

It brings me back to a time very early in my career when working at NY-1, a Time Warner-owned 24/7 news station in New York. The year was 1997, and Costas was booked to appear on a live show for which I served as a producer, called Sports on 1. In addition to doing highlights of the local teams and taking phone calls from viewers, we did interviews with athletes and members of sports media. And for us to get Costas to come on the show was a big deal.

Budgets were tight (See: no car service to tap) so it was up to me to pick up Costas from his hotel room in Manhattan across town. I was told by my Executive Producer, however, that Costas was very sick, still trying to overcome a stomach flu that literally had him throwing up during an NBA game he was calling for NBC one night earlier halfway across the country.

Of course, Costas could have simply cancelled or postponed the interview. After all, we were a small station airing a sports show at 11:30pm, and therefore wasn’t exactly The Today Show or Letterman. But he kept his word despite still looking like death.

On the ride over (which ended up taking 25 minutes because of traffic), he rode up front with me instead of pretentiously sitting in the back. And despite me being an annoying driver, he affably answered every question I had about the business and his experience in it.

Costas gets slammed for his candid commentary on sensitive issues (gun control, the Redskins name controversy) during sporting events. I’ve been part of that brigade. But I’ve always had enormous respect for his unmatched depth and range (hosting long-form interview shows on regular topics and calling an NBA Finals and World Series in the same year, for example). More than that, it’s always been his work ethic that has been a marvel.

I saw it first-hand almost 17 years ago, and we’re seeing it again in Sochi.

He may be handing over the reins temporarily tonight, but if there’s one guarantee at these unpredictable and imperfect Winter Olympic Games, it’s this:

Bob Costas will be back in that Sochi anchor chair as soon as humanly possible.

— —
>> Follow Joe Concha (@ConchaMedia) on Twitter

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.