After news broke that NBC will not be sending Bob Costas to next month’s Super Bowl, some speculated that it was because he called football a dangerous sport. Now Costas is speaking out to set the record straight.
It had been reported that Super Bowl LII was going to be the last one Costas would cover, but the network abruptly announced this month that Costas will not be participating in this year’s coverage, either.
Many assumed that Costas was removed from the broadcast team over his November comment that football has no future because it “destroys people’s brains.”
But Costas disputes that characterization of his removal from the Super Bowl team, according to the New York Post.
In a note to Sports Business Daily, Costas said that the decision to exit the Super Bowl coverage was “mutual.”
“The decision was mutually agreeable, and not only do I not have a problem with it, I am actually happy about it,” Costas wrote. “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.”
Costas also disputed that his recent anti-football comment was anything new for him.
“I have been making the same points for several years, often on NBC. In halftime commentaries, interviews with Roger Goodell and other prominent NFL figures, appearances on CNN and elsewhere, I have addressed the issue of football and its undeniable connection to brain trauma many times. Why? Because the evidence is overwhelming and the effects are often devastating.”
“It’s the elephant in the stadium at every game whether others choose to acknowledge it or not. And it’s not going away. So the idea that I am only now finding my voice on this, or that NBC was taken aback by what I said at Maryland is just wrong. It’s all simple and straightforward.”
NBC has chosen Dan Patrick and Liam McHugh to lead its coverage for the February 4 Super Bowl broadcast.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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