Costas is King

Hot damn, Bob Costas is good.  I wish he was doing the color for every single major network sporting event - for some reason , he seems to be limited to The Olympics, and I say huzzah and hurray for that - but at least HBO gives him his head. Costas Now is the single best sports show on television.  It makes me wish I had Tivo, because I have no idea when it's on, or even if it's been picked up for another season (what constitutes a season on HBO, anyway?) 

Still, it is consistently bold, smart and provocative. Costas is like me - a middle-aged sports dude who doesn't want to be thought of as the dumbest guy in the frat house.  Sports, Costas contends, is being dumbed-down and tarted-up by the nasty bloggers, the gotcha press, Fox.  Last night, I clicked over to something you never,ever see on TV - a serious discourse on the role of the media in shaping our attitudes about sport.  He had reporters, producers, athletes all mixed up and mixing it up with each other.  Buzz Bissinger laying into Deadspin's Will Leitch was worth the price of my exorbitant cable bill alone.  "I think you're full of shit," the great man barked at Leitch. He then proceeded to invoke the great sportswriter WC Heinz's name ("Have you ever even read him") and decried the decline of a skill he "spent 40 years...trying to perfect." I've got nothing against Leitch - I've never read Deadspin that closely - but I was feeling Bizzinger big time.  And yet, I'm not losing hope. I think newspapers could wind up like vinyl records - just when it dies out ,everyone will realize how much they miss it.