Bob Costas recently appeared on the Marchand and Ourand podcast to discuss discuss his career, favorite interviews, favorite players, and more.
During this, he announced that he received very interesting offer that he was considering heavily that would have changed the course of his career.
“I never mentioned this for 20, 30 years, but I have mentioned it a couple of times because I’ve been asked,” said Costas. “I guess it’s far enough in the rearview mirror, but, when David Letterman left NBC after Jay Leno got The Tonight Show rather than David, and went to CBS, part of the deal was that he controlled the hour after his.
“And to sweeten the pot, CBS offered me a correspondent spot on 60 Minutes. So I would have done the hour after David Letterman and then a correspondent on 60 Minutes and it was very, very tempting.” said Costas.
Costas said that in a different point in his life, he may have taken the offer. “But at that time NBC had a treasure trove of sports riches. I had a very close relationship with [NBC Sports chairman] Dick Ebersol.”
Costas said that another reason that he did not take the offer was his kids.
“As corny as it sounds, you can say to a little kid, ‘hey, wanna go to the ballgame? We’ll stand by the batting cage, we’ll say hi to Ozzie Smith.’ ‘Wanna go to the Bulls game? Well, we’ll watch Michael Jordan.’ Or ‘lets everybody go to the Olympics.’ It’s a little harder to have a kid’s attitude perk up when you say, ‘I’m interviewing the Secretary of State, wanna come along?’ That was actually part of the decision.”