Speaker 1: I love the Olympics. I love them as a kid,
Speaker 1: and I still remember some of the huge personalities that
Speaker 1: came out of those games. I remember Dick Fosberry in
Speaker 1: nine eight he invented this new way of doing the
Speaker 1: high jump called the Fosberry flop, where he land on
Speaker 1: his back, and I recently read he's almost seventy years old,
Speaker 1: which quite frankly kind of freaks me out. But I
Speaker 1: remember Peggy Fleming, Olga Corvette, so many great athletes, and
Speaker 1: of course, as a little girl, I was most interested
Speaker 1: in gymnastics and figure skating. So imagine my delight when
Speaker 1: I got to MBC in the early nineties and started
Speaker 1: working on the Today Show and I was told that
Speaker 1: I got to cover the Olympics in Barcelona. My daughter
Speaker 1: was a little baby. She and my husband came over
Speaker 1: and stayed for about a week and it was so
Speaker 1: much fun. And that was the beginning of my Olympic extents.
Speaker 1: I covered eight Olympics in all, and one of the
Speaker 1: great things about covering the Games is I got to
Speaker 1: see all these incredible cities. Athens, I got to go
Speaker 1: to as I mentioned, Barcelona, or as they say, Barcelona,
Speaker 1: And I also really loved Sydney because the people in
Speaker 1: Australia are so friendly and so nice, and they'd all
Speaker 1: gather around the Today Show set and they'd scream azzazazi
Speaker 1: Oi Oi Oi. Covering the Olympics was really a positive
Speaker 1: experience for me because it was a happy thing to
Speaker 1: cover and these athletes had worked so so hard and
Speaker 1: this was their moment to shine. These are some of
Speaker 1: my Olympic memory, sort of smattering of them through the years.
Speaker 1: But we also asked you to tell us your best
Speaker 1: Olympic memory and why, and here's what you had to say. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Michelle Ducepara Ferrell. I'm actually UM, an
Speaker 1: Olympic alumni, member of the nineteen eighty four women's gynastics
Speaker 1: team and UM. Of course, one of my most indouble
Speaker 1: memories of my childhood was watching Nadia scores first perfect ten,
Speaker 1: which just celebrated its fortieth anniversary of it happening. Another
Speaker 1: hand Dan, look at that? Why did they hand Dan?
Speaker 1: My name is Susan Chapman. I live in Christinity, Florida.
Speaker 1: Nineteen seventy two, I think seventeen year old OGA Corp.
Speaker 1: But did a couple of moves that are still repeated
Speaker 1: today that changed the course of the sport forever and
Speaker 1: the excitement of Gordon Annis was the announcer I think
Speaker 1: was the Chris Jankos did facts, So you're right to
Speaker 1: the other bar. Has that been done before by Earl? Never,
Speaker 1: not by any human that I know of. I mean
Speaker 1: this Oscar from Phoenix, Arizona wanted to share one of
Speaker 1: my favorite Olympic memories. We always see the triumphs, but
Speaker 1: the heartbreak of Garrick Redman in the nineteen nine two
Speaker 1: parcels one of games, who was unable to finish this
Speaker 1: and it was joined by his father, definitely stands out
Speaker 1: as one of the most emotional, human and touching moments
Speaker 1: of the Games. One of the best things about covering
Speaker 1: the Olympics for me was having the opportunity to co
Speaker 1: host the opening ceremony with Bob Costas. I did that
Speaker 1: a few times and we had so much fun. Now
Speaker 1: Bob has covered more than a dozen Olympic Games. He
Speaker 1: started out as the late night host in and he's
Speaker 1: his name has really become synonymous with the Olympics, so
Speaker 1: he kind of makes me look like a piker covering
Speaker 1: only eight. I think Bob is a living example of
Speaker 1: the boy scout motto be prepared. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to him about that, but also learn how he
Speaker 1: got interested in covering sports. So Bob Costas is with us.
Speaker 1: Hey Bob, we're so excited. Hi Katie, let's talk about
Speaker 1: your career. How did you get started. Well, when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, like many kids of my generation and
Speaker 1: every generation, I was fascinated by sports, and as tried
Speaker 1: as it sounds, it was a connection between me and
Speaker 1: my dad and the other kids that I grew up with.
Speaker 1: But maybe unlike most of them, I was also as
Speaker 1: interested in the broadcasters as I was in the games
Speaker 1: themselves and the athletes. To me, the games weren't the
Speaker 1: same without the soundtrack. And I grew up in New
Speaker 1: York in the late fifties and in the sixties when
Speaker 1: many of the greatest announcers of all time were plying
Speaker 1: their trade in New York. And these guys weren't just
Speaker 1: competent announcers. And I say guys because for the most part,
Speaker 1: although there are more women now, there are originally no
Speaker 1: women's sports broadcasters at that time. Uh, those broadcasters didn't
Speaker 1: just do a competent job. They did a lyrical job.
Speaker 1: In many cases, there was almost a melody to a
Speaker 1: good broadcast, and the as of them had a literate
Speaker 1: touch without being pretentious. They gave you the notion, the
Speaker 1: understanding that they were men of the world, at least
Speaker 1: to some extent, that they had interest beyond the game,
Speaker 1: and they could weave some of those observations in to
Speaker 1: give the broadcast a little more texture than ball one,
Speaker 1: strike two, or there's a person down or a touchdown.
Speaker 1: And their mastery of that craft was fascinating to me.
Speaker 1: And that's when the notion of being a broadcaster first
Speaker 1: took hold. And that's what happened to me. I was
Speaker 1: going to say you you became a master storyteller and
Speaker 1: a sports fanatic, because I think there are very few
Speaker 1: people in broadcasting, in my opinion, who are as sort
Speaker 1: of seamless, fluent and eloquent as you are in almost
Speaker 1: every situation. And I'm assuming that you weren't at Syracuse
Speaker 1: even studying communications or really sports and news. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you study a lot of other things that were helpful
Speaker 1: to you in your career. What were those things that
Speaker 1: contributed to your ability to be a critical thinker and
Speaker 1: to express yourself so well, well, you know, I've always
Speaker 1: been a reader, and I've always been someone who was
Speaker 1: interested in pop culture in the biggest sense. Um, I
Speaker 1: think there's a part of me that's probably an old soul,
Speaker 1: but I was interested in what was going on at present.
Speaker 1: But I was also interested in history in the most
Speaker 1: classic sense, but also the history of pop culture, and
Speaker 1: a lot of that just seeped in and I retained
Speaker 1: of the portion of it. And then as I watched
Speaker 1: and listened to people on radio and television, I always
Speaker 1: admired those who had a certain mastery of language, the
Speaker 1: red Barbers of the Vincecullies, who would never miss a
Speaker 1: beat on what was happening in the game, but at
Speaker 1: the same time would fill in all the little brushstrokes
Speaker 1: along with the broad strokes. Know what the weather was
Speaker 1: at the ball game, or what the atmosphere was, and
Speaker 1: you'd find out some interesting story about a ballplayer's hometown
Speaker 1: or something that happened the night before while they were
Speaker 1: out to dinner in this city or that, and that
Speaker 1: that to me made it a fuller picture. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just the primary colors it It had a texture to it. Bob,
Speaker 1: could you tell us a little bit more about your
Speaker 1: relationship with your parents. I remember reading that sports in
Speaker 1: general and baseball in particular, was a way for you
Speaker 1: to connect with your dad. Yeah, my father was a
Speaker 1: colorful character. He was very smart, he was charismatic, he
Speaker 1: was people of an older generational understand this reference. He
Speaker 1: was a runyonesque kind of character. But he was also
Speaker 1: a compulsive gambler, which led to some exciting and interesting
Speaker 1: and numerous circumstances, but also to some heartache because very often,
Speaker 1: no joke, the mortgage would be writing, or our ability
Speaker 1: to pay it would be writing on whether or very
Speaker 1: stressed out by that bos I stretched out, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, the whole the whole family was stressed out.
Speaker 1: And very often my mom, who was the sweetest woman
Speaker 1: you could ever hope to meet, and my younger sister
Speaker 1: two years younger than me, they would leave and go
Speaker 1: to the neighbor's house or go to grandma's house. But
Speaker 1: I would stay and watch the games with my dad,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of tension writing. He made
Speaker 1: a pretty good living for a guy in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: but you know, we lived in a house that he
Speaker 1: bought for nineteen thousand dollars on the g I bill,
Speaker 1: and it was not unusual at all for him to
Speaker 1: have three, four or five thousand dollars worth of action
Speaker 1: going on a weekend. So those bets went well, terrific
Speaker 1: that those bets went less well, then we couldn't pay
Speaker 1: the mortgage. And I remember going with him, and this
Speaker 1: is kind of how we bonded. I remember going with
Speaker 1: him once to a donut shop in Brooklyn, was around
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, and he was going to meet the bookie.
Speaker 1: So there we are sitting at the counter and a
Speaker 1: guy who looks like he was sent in by Central Casting.
Speaker 1: He's got a fedora on, he's carrying a pinky ring.
Speaker 1: He looks like Nathan Detroit. Nathan Detroited would be charitable.
Speaker 1: He looks like a guy who might be mob connected,
Speaker 1: but on the other hand made the Detroit might have
Speaker 1: been too, But he was. He wasn't as handsome as
Speaker 1: Marlon Brando, let's put it that way. But nonetheless I
Speaker 1: remember him saying, hey, that your boy. But yeah, he
Speaker 1: goes nice boy. He says, you drink milk, And I'm
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, I'm fourteen years old, No, you smicked.
Speaker 1: I drink tequila. Yes, I drink milk. And the guy
Speaker 1: goes give the kid a glass of milk and a doughnut.
Speaker 1: And then while all this stuff is unfolding, he slides
Speaker 1: a paper bag across the counter to my father and
Speaker 1: after a few little pleasantries, were back out in the
Speaker 1: car and under a street light in Brooklyn in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty six, my father counts out fourteen thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: one hundred dollar bills that he had just collected from
Speaker 1: the bookie because he had been on a winning streak. Now,
Speaker 1: in that moment, despite all the anxiety and heartache that
Speaker 1: came at other times because of his gambling, at that moment,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, my father is one of the coolest guys
Speaker 1: in the world. The other dad's on the block, just
Speaker 1: mow the lawn on Saturday. This guy, this guy is
Speaker 1: living a life of danger and adventure. And in moments
Speaker 1: like that, what would happen is he took the money
Speaker 1: and he went and bought a Ford Mustang, which, as
Speaker 1: you remember, with a really cool car. I remember going
Speaker 1: with him and he does the usual things, you know,
Speaker 1: he's lifting the hood, he's kicking the tires and I
Speaker 1: remember distinctly the salesman said, is it a little out
Speaker 1: of your league? And my father reached into his pocket
Speaker 1: and he had this giant load of bills. He goes, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bleep in buy it cash if I bleep
Speaker 1: and decide to bleep and buy it. Um so, And
Speaker 1: he didn't say. To be clear, now there was no
Speaker 1: senser involved. Did that mess up your attitude toward money?
Speaker 1: I mean, I would think that growing up with a
Speaker 1: father like that and having that much stress didn't make
Speaker 1: you a compulsive saver. Did it affect your attitudes? I'm
Speaker 1: not a thrifty guy. Um. I think that if you're
Speaker 1: lucky enough to have some money, to use it to
Speaker 1: enhance your own life and the lives of others. I'm
Speaker 1: not that much for material possessions, but I'm big on experiences.
Speaker 1: So if you can you can help someone have an
Speaker 1: enjoyable time, or if you can do something with your
Speaker 1: family or people you care about that I'm not looking
Speaker 1: to die with the highest possible that we're you know,
Speaker 1: we're lucky enough to not have to worry about that,
Speaker 1: which is quite a contrast to the way I grew up.
Speaker 1: What it did affect was by attitudes toward gambling. UM
Speaker 1: in the past when I've covered some boxing, which I
Speaker 1: haven't done that much, but a lot of the boxing
Speaker 1: when I was at HBO was either in Las Vegas
Speaker 1: or an Atlantic city. I could walk to it this
Speaker 1: know a hundred times and never stopped. I'm just walking
Speaker 1: right through and go into my room. UM. And I
Speaker 1: never gambled as as an adult, UM, because I saw
Speaker 1: what it did to my dad. But at the same time, UM,
Speaker 1: it connected me to him. And when I was young,
Speaker 1: really young, like nine, ten years old, he would give
Speaker 1: me the keys of the car, not to drive it
Speaker 1: around the block because I could barely see over the
Speaker 1: steering wheel, but because you could get radio reception in
Speaker 1: the car better than in the house. And at that
Speaker 1: time there's no internet, there's no cable TV, there's no
Speaker 1: way to follow his bets on non New York teams
Speaker 1: except to hope that through the crackle and static, maybe
Speaker 1: you could pick up far away radio broadcast. So when
Speaker 1: I was ten years old, I knew where all the
Speaker 1: games were and if the atmospheric conditions were just right,
Speaker 1: and if I calibrated the dial like a safe cracker
Speaker 1: and hit just the right spot. Maybe I could pick
Speaker 1: up these out of town broadcasts. And those were my
Speaker 1: first reporters jobs, because I'd go back in the house
Speaker 1: and I would not only tell him what this score was,
Speaker 1: but i'd a bellowship. I'd say, well, clement A single
Speaker 1: to right, and Stargell doubled. Clement A scored Star was
Speaker 1: at second Skinner single, he scored to nothing, Pirates bottom
Speaker 1: of the fourth, and he papped me on the head.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'd only do that if I knew his
Speaker 1: bet was on the Pirates. If he bet against the
Speaker 1: Pirates and this was bad news, I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: him that I couldn't get it, but I couldn't find
Speaker 1: it because I didn't want to put up with what
Speaker 1: his possible reaction would be to the fact that he
Speaker 1: was losing a thousand dollars. Bob, you're talking about fighting,
Speaker 1: and not that long ago, you and I actually went
Speaker 1: to the funeral of Muhammad Ali, and I know he's
Speaker 1: somebody you deeply admired. I'm just interested in and sort
Speaker 1: of what that experience was like for you, because it
Speaker 1: was a real treat for me to see this very
Speaker 1: interesting conglomeration of people, including Don King, who really had
Speaker 1: you figured for someone else? Altogether? Tell that story because
Speaker 1: it was very funny. Don King comes walking in. He's
Speaker 1: in his eighties now, he's a slightly diminished version of
Speaker 1: Don King, but he's still unmistakably Don King, with the
Speaker 1: outrageous hair and the the outfits that he's waving his
Speaker 1: American flags and he's greeting everyone. Lennox lewis, former heavyweight
Speaker 1: champion of the world, not la most of the Today's Show,
Speaker 1: blah blah. And he gets to me and you're standing
Speaker 1: right next to me, and he goes, Michael J. Fox,
Speaker 1: he wanted his picture with you, and you said, very
Speaker 1: very gently, don no, I said Mr King, Mr King,
Speaker 1: Mr Kings pok Costice, and he, without missing a beat
Speaker 1: in a millisecond, pivots and says Bob cost this greatest
Speaker 1: commentator in the world. Don knows no shame. That was
Speaker 1: quite an event. And I'm just curious now that some
Speaker 1: time has pass, um, what do you remember most about
Speaker 1: that day other than being with me and having much together.
Speaker 1: Of course that's at the top of the list. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: when when you've got a range of people that goes
Speaker 1: from former heavyweight champions of the world, and Jim Brown,
Speaker 1: who's a much respected figure, and Billy Crystal and President Clinton,
Speaker 1: but also includes Chubby Checker, who you know. I've known
Speaker 1: Chubby Checker for forty years. Uh, And remember being eight
Speaker 1: or nine years old when the Twist was a big hit,
Speaker 1: and I guess the Chubby and Mohammed were close. I mean,
Speaker 1: the number of people that eventually came into Muhammad Ali's
Speaker 1: orbit was was fast and the kind of arc of
Speaker 1: his life. He wasn't any one thing. Was he this
Speaker 1: angry and too many Americans frightening and polarizing figure and
Speaker 1: to other Americans deeply inspiring and ages figured, Yes he was,
Speaker 1: and was he ultimately a figure of reconciliation and unity
Speaker 1: and brotherhood. Yes he was, which didn't negate what he
Speaker 1: was earlier in his life. His life just had an
Speaker 1: extraordinary art to it. And when you think of this
Speaker 1: guy who was once not only arguably the greatest athlete
Speaker 1: in the world, certainly the greatest boxer in the world,
Speaker 1: but the most physically beautiful athlete, the most fascinating and
Speaker 1: charismatic to watch, the most outspoken, humorous and entertaining, and
Speaker 1: then he ends his life with virtually no mobility when
Speaker 1: once he was the very definition of athletic grace, and
Speaker 1: no ability to verbally express himself when once he was
Speaker 1: the most valuable of of athletes. There was something very
Speaker 1: poignant about that, and yet, with the help of his wife, Lonnie,
Speaker 1: he still managed to be a public figure in a
Speaker 1: way that had some dignity to it. The whole art
Speaker 1: of his life is unline that of any other athlete.
Speaker 1: I remember Bob doing a piece with Michael J. Fox
Speaker 1: about Muhammad Ali, and that was very moving to see
Speaker 1: them join forces. And I think he got a lot
Speaker 1: of courage from Michael J. Fox, because I think there
Speaker 1: was a period of time where he was embarrassed to
Speaker 1: appear in public and he didn't want people to see.
Speaker 1: You know that he had become diminished from this disease.
Speaker 1: And I think all the things that he's done for
Speaker 1: Parkinson's research and all the inspiration he's given people who
Speaker 1: are dealing with the disease. My father died of Parkinson's
Speaker 1: and so I became very interested in sort of the science.
Speaker 1: I think he sort of died as he lived. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was incredibly committed to this cause and I think
Speaker 1: very very inspiring to so many people. We're going to
Speaker 1: take a quick break and we'll be right back. Thanks
Speaker 1: again to our sponsors. Let's get back to the interview.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Olympics. Bob, You've been the primetime
Speaker 1: host for every Olympics on MPC since n you were
Speaker 1: the late night host of the Games. Do you ever
Speaker 1: get sick of the Olympics? Be honest, no, um no,
Speaker 1: I don't get sick of them. No matter who some
Speaker 1: days succeeds me. That person, if they're a thinking person
Speaker 1: I assume they will be, is not going to agree
Speaker 1: with every aspect of it. It's just too vast. There
Speaker 1: are parts of it that are going to appeal to you,
Speaker 1: arts of it where maybe if you were making the decision,
Speaker 1: you might emphasize this rather than that. But in the
Speaker 1: big picture, being the host is not only an honor,
Speaker 1: it's an important responsibility because so many hundreds of thousands
Speaker 1: of people work really hard to produce these pieces and
Speaker 1: to put everything in place. You owe it not just
Speaker 1: to yourself and to the audience, but to all your colleagues.
Speaker 1: Do the best possible job. But are there lines when
Speaker 1: I say to myself, you know what this particular thing
Speaker 1: isn't my cup of tea, or if I was running it,
Speaker 1: I'd do it this way, of course. But of the time,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm well aware that no one else has
Speaker 1: a better position of broadcasting during those three weeks than
Speaker 1: I do. And you do such a great job. And
Speaker 1: I think that people probably have no idea of how
Speaker 1: much preparation is involved in this, particularly when it comes
Speaker 1: to you. I mean, you are just immersed in all
Speaker 1: things Olympics. I mean, you know everything about every athlete,
Speaker 1: every event. It's ridiculous. I mean, are you just reading
Speaker 1: Olympic material from the time you wake up till the
Speaker 1: time you go to bed and no offense? But that
Speaker 1: sounds kind of boring your poor wife. Well, here's here's
Speaker 1: what happens before over Olympics. You're doing preparation, at least
Speaker 1: in a general way in the months leading up to it.
Speaker 1: For example, with Brazil, I'm aware on an ongoing basis
Speaker 1: of all the issues and obstacles that they face and
Speaker 1: the controversies. But about a month before the opening ceremony,
Speaker 1: you go into a lockdown mode and you take all
Speaker 1: of the research that uh, the outstanding research department has
Speaker 1: prepared and you start pouring through it and you close
Speaker 1: everything else off. But one thing that's really become important
Speaker 1: for me over the years is I learned fairly early
Speaker 1: on what you don't need to know. You don't have
Speaker 1: to know everything about or even the name of every
Speaker 1: hurdler from Bolivia or platform diver from Peru. That's what
Speaker 1: the people at the venues are for. And if those
Speaker 1: athletes become a story, the research department is so good,
Speaker 1: and now with everything digitized, you can get it so quickly.
Speaker 1: But as long as you're someone who's able to take
Speaker 1: a briefing quickly, and you know this from your days
Speaker 1: on the Today Show or as the Network news anchor,
Speaker 1: some stuff can be scripted and planned, and other stuff
Speaker 1: just comes up and you have to take it, take
Speaker 1: a quick look at it, and use your experience to
Speaker 1: make some sense of it and get it out there quickly.
Speaker 1: Over time, you develop those muscles and you're able to
Speaker 1: do it. You have to be a quick study and
Speaker 1: incredibly fast on your feet. You know. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about Rio because having covered so many Olympics, and
Speaker 1: many of them have been fraught, I guess at the
Speaker 1: onset and usually these cities rise to the occasion. But gosh,
Speaker 1: I feel like Rio is under more pressure than any
Speaker 1: other city that that I've watched through, you know, the
Speaker 1: Olympics that I've been aware of or at least involved in.
Speaker 1: Rio faces such an array of issues. The pollution, the
Speaker 1: political term, well, the financial crisis, the zeke of virus,
Speaker 1: the venues and the infrastructure, and also security. When you
Speaker 1: say to yourself, look, if they don't have enough money
Speaker 1: to pay the police and security forces when they've got
Speaker 1: to ask the federal government for nearly a billion dollars
Speaker 1: in additional cord, can we be sure that everything will
Speaker 1: be as fully buttoned up as it should be. And
Speaker 1: in addition to the kind of terrorism that people worry
Speaker 1: about at any big international event, um, Rio has a
Speaker 1: problem with just general crime, street crime. You've got to
Speaker 1: be very careful if you visit what areas you venture
Speaker 1: into and what you stay away from. Are you worried
Speaker 1: about the athletes? Are are you concerned a about the
Speaker 1: security of the people covering the games? And are you
Speaker 1: worried about the athletes as well? Given gosh, where we
Speaker 1: seem to be in such a volatile, uh scary time
Speaker 1: all around the world, not just in the United States.
Speaker 1: What they have told the athletes is, if you stay
Speaker 1: in Olympic housing, then we'll have it secured. If you
Speaker 1: choose to stay elsewhere, then you're on your own. You've
Speaker 1: got to get your own security. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to be Debbie Downer here, but it's worth noting that
Speaker 1: the athletes in sports where the Olympics are not the pinnacle.
Speaker 1: You know, it's great to play on the Olympic basketball team,
Speaker 1: but Steph Currier, Lebron James would rather win the NBA
Speaker 1: titled than win a gold medal, or Serena Will's rather
Speaker 1: win Wimbledon than win an Olympic gold medal. So a
Speaker 1: great number of these basketball players, golfers, tennis players have
Speaker 1: already announced their intention to skip these Olympics, and most
Speaker 1: of them have very rationally said, look, even if the
Speaker 1: risk is low, it's not a risk that I'm willing
Speaker 1: to take now. If you're a pole vaulter with a
Speaker 1: chance to win a gold medal, and you've trained for
Speaker 1: this for four years and this is your one big
Speaker 1: turn on the international stage, then that risk is more
Speaker 1: than worth it. But those who have other options, I'm
Speaker 1: not surprised that they've decided this to take a pass
Speaker 1: this time. No real masters for pole vaulters, is there No.
Speaker 1: I mean, with the Olympics, it's at best once every
Speaker 1: four years, and maybe for some of these competitors it's
Speaker 1: once in a lifetime. And most Americans don't pay that
Speaker 1: much attention to Olympic sports outside the context of the Olympics.
Speaker 1: So these competitors stepped out of the shadows and into
Speaker 1: the biggest spotlight for just that a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: or in the case of some events, just a few
Speaker 1: minutes or a few seconds. I think probably the biggest
Speaker 1: story coming out of the Olympics in the United States
Speaker 1: is the concern about Zica. And you know, the Brazilian
Speaker 1: health minister says that the odds of getting it are
Speaker 1: very low because it's happening during the South American winter. Uh.
Speaker 1: And yet you have a number of athletes who are
Speaker 1: deciding to skip it, as you know better than we do,
Speaker 1: largely because of this disease um you have. You have
Speaker 1: a number of men who are participating who say that
Speaker 1: they're going to preserve their sperm and advance of going.
Speaker 1: How are you doing that? I think I'm at a
Speaker 1: stage of life where it's not a factor. How how
Speaker 1: big of a crisis do you think Zekea represents. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor, I don't play one on TV.
Speaker 1: It does seem credible to me that it being winter
Speaker 1: near the equator, UH, that the risk would be diminished,
Speaker 1: the mosquito population is diminished, and that if you take
Speaker 1: uh proper precautions, the chance of it is relatively low.
Speaker 1: But no one can guarantee that there's no chance. And
Speaker 1: you can't blame someone from not wanting to roll the
Speaker 1: dice if they're a female athlete. Most of these athletes
Speaker 1: are obviously people in the prime of their lives. They're
Speaker 1: sexually active, many of them are apt to become pregnant
Speaker 1: or considering and starting a family whatever may be. Or
Speaker 1: as male athletes, that could affect their their partners or
Speaker 1: potential partners. So for them to be concerned about it
Speaker 1: makes makes perfect sense to me. When you look at
Speaker 1: sort of the highlights and low lights of your Olympic experiences,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure there's so many, and you must write
Speaker 1: a book about this at some point, but up were
Speaker 1: some of the moments that are seared in your memory
Speaker 1: that you know you still think about today. Well, we
Speaker 1: talked about Muhammed Ali a moment ago, when he lit
Speaker 1: the cauldron as the final torch bearer in nineties in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: That was such a sunny moment because virtually no one knew,
Speaker 1: including me and dick Enberg on the opening ceremony. We
Speaker 1: might have guessed it, but no one told us that
Speaker 1: it was going to be Ali. And they had practiced
Speaker 1: at one time at three o'clock in the morning, I'd
Speaker 1: say fewer than twenty people actually knew that it would
Speaker 1: be Mohammed Ali. In the way they staged it, he
Speaker 1: stepped out of the shadows and into that spotlight when
Speaker 1: Janet Evans, who had the torch before him, handed it
Speaker 1: to him, and there was a moment or two of
Speaker 1: silence while it kind of sank in to the crowd watching,
Speaker 1: and then there were almost audible gasps followed by this
Speaker 1: deafening applause. It was surprising, it was touching, it was
Speaker 1: exciting because of his presence, but it was also even
Speaker 1: though he lived another twenty years after that, I think
Speaker 1: that was the moment of reconciliation for him on the
Speaker 1: world stage. There were so many aspects to that that
Speaker 1: when I'm asked, what's my most memorable Olympic moment? Even
Speaker 1: though I could rattle off another twenty. That's the ones
Speaker 1: at the top. Were there any other athletes that just
Speaker 1: inspired or moved to you? Yeah, And sometimes they're big
Speaker 1: winners and sometimes their relative footnotes. When Kathy Freeman lit
Speaker 1: the torch and then also won her event at the
Speaker 1: Sydney Olympics because of her Aboriginal background, there was a
Speaker 1: story there that was meaningful and inspiring to Australians and
Speaker 1: which could be told and understood by the rest of
Speaker 1: the world. And her performance she won resoundingly emphatically. But
Speaker 1: then you have other moments, and you and I have
Speaker 1: covered them, but we could list dozens of them. Will
Speaker 1: just give you one. In ninety two in Barcelona, there
Speaker 1: was a marathon her from Mongolia named Pambo Tool, and
Speaker 1: the Ambo Tool had zero chance to win a medal um.
Speaker 1: He came there with the idea of just representing his
Speaker 1: country and finishing on top of it all, he was
Speaker 1: legally blind. The marathon finishes in the main Olympic Stadium,
Speaker 1: which and it's always the last day of the Olympics,
Speaker 1: and the closing ceremony takes place in the Olympic Stadium too.
Speaker 1: The Ambo tool came staggering towards the Olympic Stadium not
Speaker 1: minutes but hours after what officials thought was the very
Speaker 1: last competitor had finished. It took him like seven hours
Speaker 1: to run the marathon, but he managed to finish. And
Speaker 1: when he got to the entrance of the Olympic Stadium,
Speaker 1: security at first stopped him, like who is this guy
Speaker 1: and what is he doing? And after it was made
Speaker 1: clear what was happening, they cleared a path for him
Speaker 1: to get to where the finish line would have been.
Speaker 1: And right in the middle of a closing ceremony with
Speaker 1: all the hooplah and pageantry, this guy came staggering across
Speaker 1: the finish line and he had accomplished what he came
Speaker 1: there to do. And when asked about it afterwards, he said,
Speaker 1: my country didn't send me here to win a medal
Speaker 1: because I had no chance. The only thing I could
Speaker 1: do was finish. And if you're not touched by that,
Speaker 1: you've got to check your pulse. You know, there are
Speaker 1: so many great stories, and one Olympics in particular was
Speaker 1: marred for you personally because of an eye infection. You
Speaker 1: got how how how how bummed were you when you
Speaker 1: had to sit out in two thousand fourteen because you
Speaker 1: was it officially pink eye? What happened to you? Exactly
Speaker 1: how pink I is to viral conjunctive itis, what the
Speaker 1: common cold is to a really bad case of influenza. Um,
Speaker 1: So I had viral conjunctive itis, they hoped. I woke
Speaker 1: up the first day that we're going to be on
Speaker 1: the air, felt perfectly fine. When I went to bed,
Speaker 1: woke up, looked in the mirror, my left eye was
Speaker 1: red and virtually closed, and I'm thinking, what the heck
Speaker 1: is this? So I go in and the NBC doctors
Speaker 1: take a look, and at first they thought it was
Speaker 1: some kind of bacterial infection. They give me some antibiotics,
Speaker 1: They tell me it'll be gone in like three days.
Speaker 1: But by three days it had jumped from my leftot
Speaker 1: in my right, and now both eyes were all red
Speaker 1: and inflamed. And they knew at that point that it's
Speaker 1: a viral. So with something that's viral, all you can
Speaker 1: do is make the person feel more comfortable, but it
Speaker 1: just has to run its course and the problem. Here's
Speaker 1: how I felt if it had been my first or
Speaker 1: second Olympics. I think I would have been crushed, but
Speaker 1: because I've done so many Olympics, I really wasn't crushed personally.
Speaker 1: But I felt a professional responsibility to all the people
Speaker 1: who worked so hard to put on an Olympics, and
Speaker 1: you're the guy carrying the ball for them. So I
Speaker 1: tried to be as professional as I could about it,
Speaker 1: and anyone who recalls it fairly knows that the only
Speaker 1: references I'm me to it were very brief, kind of
Speaker 1: self deprecating, hopefully humorous remarks. I just was afraid that
Speaker 1: I was creeping out most of America, and in fact,
Speaker 1: maybe I was, but here it became part of the story,
Speaker 1: especially in a social media age, and no matter how
Speaker 1: professionally tried to be, and no matter how self deprecating
Speaker 1: he tried to be about it, people are going to
Speaker 1: do with it what they will. And then after five
Speaker 1: or six days, it got to the point where my
Speaker 1: eyes were so light sensitive. That's when I had to
Speaker 1: step aside because I couldn't be in the studio. So
Speaker 1: for six days I'm in a dark and hotel room
Speaker 1: with various things over my eyes, washed claus and dipped
Speaker 1: in one solution or another and taking whatever they told
Speaker 1: me to take, and by I don't know, the six
Speaker 1: or seventh day, I was able to come back and
Speaker 1: kind of stumble through what remained of the Olympics. But
Speaker 1: for about two months after the games, my eyesight was compromised.
Speaker 1: My prescription kept changing. I couldn't read the newspaper. It
Speaker 1: was really hard to call baseball games because I couldn't
Speaker 1: see out of the distance. And it was probably around
Speaker 1: June or July before it finally stabilized. Well, we're glad
Speaker 1: that it did, and that that you're all better. And
Speaker 1: you mentioned social media, and I guess they had a
Speaker 1: field day with this, which is sort of shitty when
Speaker 1: you think about how miserable it must have been for you.
Speaker 1: But social media can be even more than sort of shitty,
Speaker 1: and you experience that with your remarks about Caitlyn Jenner
Speaker 1: when she got the Arthur Ash Award. Yeah, the backlash
Speaker 1: wasn't too terrible. It came from certain quarters and then
Speaker 1: in other places, like it was like, hey, he's saying
Speaker 1: something that's just common sense. But what happened with Caitlyn
Speaker 1: Jenner was this. Dan Patrick has a radio show which
Speaker 1: I go on from time to time, and he just says,
Speaker 1: what do you make of Caitlyn Jenner winning the Arthur
Speaker 1: Ash Award at the SPS? Now, I don't think the
Speaker 1: SPS are really worth that much attention. They're clearly made
Speaker 1: for TV event and a promotional vehicle for ESPN, and
Speaker 1: they're welcome to it. But the only two things that
Speaker 1: redeem it are the Jim Belvano Award and the Arthur
Speaker 1: Ash Award, because they stand for something. And my point was,
Speaker 1: and I took pains to make this clear, I support
Speaker 1: Caitlin Jenner in her decision. I certainly hope we're moving
Speaker 1: toward a more tolerant and compassionate society, for people are
Speaker 1: free to choose their own path in life, and we
Speaker 1: treat them with respect and dignity, and so I'm all
Speaker 1: for it, and I recognize that it takes a measure
Speaker 1: of courage to do it. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: the Arthur Ash Award is supposed to represent people who
Speaker 1: have used their position as athletes two get beyond just
Speaker 1: those achievements, and up until that very moment, Bruce or
Speaker 1: Caitlyn Jenner had never done that. So what I said
Speaker 1: was what they should have done, would have been A
Speaker 1: brilliant stroke would be to have Caitlyn Jenner. Because of
Speaker 1: her visibility, and it is television and you're trying to
Speaker 1: bring eyeballs to set, why don't you have Caitlyn Jenner
Speaker 1: present the Arthur Ash Award to Renee Richards, who had
Speaker 1: been Richard Raskin underwent gender reassignment surgery I think in
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies while still an active tennis player, then
Speaker 1: played as Renee Richards against whoever her contemporary where she's
Speaker 1: still alive and in her eighties. You could have had
Speaker 1: Caitlyn Jenner make the speech that she made, which was lovely,
Speaker 1: and at the same time present the award to someone
Speaker 1: who actually represented what I took the Arthur Ash Award
Speaker 1: to represent. But some people just think in a binary way,
Speaker 1: and so to some people, how you feel about Caitlyn
Speaker 1: Jenner receiving the Arthur Ash Award is a litmus test
Speaker 1: of how you feel about the rights and dignity of
Speaker 1: transgender people. Well, if that's how some people think, um,
Speaker 1: I guess there's nothing to do about it. Do you
Speaker 1: think if it were this year and Caitlyn Jenner was
Speaker 1: up for the award, you would feel more comfortable given
Speaker 1: that she has given voice to many transgender people and
Speaker 1: sort of I think increased understanding of the whole issue
Speaker 1: to a whole generation of people. Yeah, somewhat. I think
Speaker 1: the very first thing that Caitlyn Jenner did to take
Speaker 1: a step in that direction actually was after she received
Speaker 1: the award, when she made the speech. There's no hostility
Speaker 1: in my in my take, he asked me the question.
Speaker 1: I gave him what I thought was a well considered
Speaker 1: answer under the circumstances. But there's still if you if
Speaker 1: you want to parse it, there's a difference between the
Speaker 1: experiences of Caitlyn Jenner, who had a five million dollar
Speaker 1: reality series waiting for her, and a well thought out
Speaker 1: kind of rollout of this cover of Vanity Fair up
Speaker 1: from the mistake in the book. Reality show interview with
Speaker 1: Diane Sawyer. I'm not criticizing any us, but this is
Speaker 1: hardly typical of the experiences and the obstacles that a
Speaker 1: transgender person is likely to encounter in going forward. Bob,
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, I have to ask you about
Speaker 1: the other great competition dominating the media at this point,
Speaker 1: which is, of course, the presidential campaign. Do you know
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and what do you make of his role
Speaker 1: in this extravaganza. I have known Donald Trump, not well,
Speaker 1: but that acquainted with him since the nineteen eighties. He's
Speaker 1: always had um some relationships sports. He owned a team
Speaker 1: in UH the old USFL, which posed the challenge briefly
Speaker 1: to the NFL. So I've encountered him at charity events
Speaker 1: and whatnot, and I must say that he was always
Speaker 1: extremely friendly and nice to me. We never talked politics,
Speaker 1: We talked sports and television. I have not caused paths
Speaker 1: with him, probably in the last three years or so.
Speaker 1: What do you think about his candidacy and sort of
Speaker 1: what it has symbolized I think, or what it has
Speaker 1: told us about the state of our country. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it comes about because of a confluence of events. Um,
Speaker 1: there's some similarity with Bernie Sanders candidacy in that UH
Speaker 1: at the root of it, the gut reaction is discussed
Speaker 1: or impatience with politics and government and business as usual,
Speaker 1: and that's understandable. Depend there's also the aspect of a
Speaker 1: celebrity culture and left and right wing echo chambers on
Speaker 1: cable television. We live in a post factual universe where anything,
Speaker 1: even if it doesn't check out. That supports your gut feeling.
Speaker 1: You'll find a place that will echo that, and it
Speaker 1: will reverberate. And it doesn't just apply to Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: It's hey, if I agree with it, if I like
Speaker 1: him or her, I don't want to hear anything that
Speaker 1: differs from that, and anything that supports my viewpoint. It's true.
Speaker 1: I don't have to check it out. It's it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Daniel Patrick moynihan, UM Senator, intellectual long gone but famously
Speaker 1: once said, you're entitled to your own opinion. You're not
Speaker 1: entitled to your own facts, but these days you are.
Speaker 1: We live in a post factual world where at hominum
Speaker 1: attacks and baseless assertions, no matter where they come from,
Speaker 1: pass for insight and pass forward legitimate arguments. And I
Speaker 1: don't think on balance that that can be good for
Speaker 1: the country. I'm curious, as somebody who consumes media and
Speaker 1: of course understands media as much as you do. What's
Speaker 1: your take? Was he given too much airtime while the
Speaker 1: other candidates weren't because it was basically good for the
Speaker 1: bottom line. To some extent, that has to be true.
Speaker 1: He moves the needle news or what passes for news
Speaker 1: is business, just the same as any other television program
Speaker 1: is UM And except for a few people trying to
Speaker 1: hold the line and uphold standards, UM, it's not going
Speaker 1: in the direction that that you and I grew up
Speaker 1: approving of an aspiring to Well, I'm that happy note
Speaker 1: going to hell in a handbasket. Good night everybody. Bob.
Speaker 1: It's always great to talk to you. It's always so
Speaker 1: wonderful to hear your insights, and you're quite a rock
Speaker 1: on tour. By the way, Thank you. Let's let's see
Speaker 1: how much trouble you and I can get in over
Speaker 1: this one. Yeah, anyway, Bob, I hope I get to
Speaker 1: see you soon. Thanks so much for taking the time
Speaker 1: to talk to us today. Thanks Katie, Thanks Brian. So
Speaker 1: as you can see, Bob can talk about everything and anything,
Speaker 1: not just about sports, and that's why I love having
Speaker 1: conversations with him, because I'm always dazzled by his eloquence.
Speaker 1: He's going to think that's really weird for me to say,
Speaker 1: but it's true, Bob. I'm sorry. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: hear what he says about Rio because it's been plagued
Speaker 1: by some significant problems. You have to feel sorry for
Speaker 1: the city in a way, because they're dealing with Zeka,
Speaker 1: the economy, crime, and apparently the Olympic village itself is
Speaker 1: having some problems. So I hope everything works itself out
Speaker 1: by the time they say let the Games begin. By
Speaker 1: the way, I just made an appearance on this really
Speaker 1: fun parenting show called The Longest Shortest Time. I love
Speaker 1: the title because I feel like it is the longest
Speaker 1: shortest time having daughters who are twenty five and twenty
Speaker 1: and having no idea how that happened. But you can
Speaker 1: go listen for a little peek into my personal life.
Speaker 1: I talk about what my mom did when she found
Speaker 1: me making out in a guy's basement when I was
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, mortifying, and how I'm dealing with my
Speaker 1: impending sixtieth birthday. So you can find The Longest Shortest
Speaker 1: Time on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: We want to thank Gretta Cone and the Right Reverend
Speaker 1: John Delore for producing the show. Thanks to Mark Phillips
Speaker 1: for our terrific theme music. David Herman mixed this episode,
Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. Please subscribe, rate, and review
Speaker 1: the podcast. That's what helps other listeners find the show
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you next time. When my baby
Speaker 1: smiles at me, I go to Rio de Janeiro. Okay, Grett,
Speaker 1: it's gonna find a way to use that. By the way,
Speaker 1: I do have a good voice for radio. I think
Speaker 1: you do have a good voice face for radio too.
Speaker 1: I have a voice for print. No, that's not true.
Speaker 1: That's funny. M