CNN announced Monday that sportscaster Bob Costas has joined the network as a contributor.
The news comes days before the scheduled restart of the MLB season and the resumption of NBA play.
“Bob Costas is a respected and legendary voice across the spectrum of sports and beyond,” wrote CNN President and Jeff Zucker in a statement. “As the world continues to change amid the coronavirus pandemic, we are confident that Bob’s insightful analysis will help our viewers better understand what the future holds as the sports and teams we love evolve to meet this challenge. moment”.
Costas joins CNN as the COVID-19 pandemic and racial calculations in the wake of the George Floyd murder have magnified the intersection of sports, news, and politics.
Zucker and Costas worked together when Zucker was an executive on NBC. He left his position as President and CEO of NBCUniversal in 2010 before joining CNN in 2013.
Bob Costas joins CNN as the intersection of news, sports, and politics grows ever larger. (Photo by Tom Pennington / Getty Images)
Costas is fighting with NBC
Costas officially left NBC in 2019 after a long role as the face of the network’s sports coverage. He assumed a reduced role later in his term that once included organizing coverage of the NBC Olympics and covered Super Bowls, NBA Finals, World Series and Triple Crown races.
Costas had been with NBC since 1979 and left two years before his contract expired in 2021. He said in 2019 that the terms of his departure were resolved “more than fairly.”
Costas became increasingly vocal about the connection between soccer and brain damage and said after leaving NBC that executives removed him from coverage of Super Bowl LII in 2018 because of that.
Costas has made recent appearances on CNN, with presenter Don Lemon hinting at an official association with the network when Costas joined him on July 8 to talk about anti-Semitic comments from former NBA player Stephen Jackson.
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