The next Olympics will be without the face of NBC Sports, Bob Costas. Costas made this surprise announcement on Thursday February 9th on the Today show. Former Monday Night Football announcer Mike Tirico is said to be taking over for Costas. “I am going to be like the rest of the country watching Mike Tirico, who will be an able successor in Korea for the Winter Olympics a year from now,” Costas said.
Costa, who will turn 65 next month, will remain with NBC Sports and appear if needed, as Tom Brokaw does for NBC News. “They’ve been kind enough—and it’s an honor to even have your name in the same sentence—they’ve been kind enough to call it the Brokaw phase of my career,” stated Costas. “So, I will be to sports what Tom has been for the last several years to news.”
Trico, 50, also appeared during Costas announcement, where he said he attended Syracuse University on a Bob Costas scholarship. Costas said Tirico was interestingly the first recipient of this scholarship. Since Tirico will be in South Korea for the Winter Olympics, according to USA TODAY Sports’ Christine Brennan, Costas will host one last Super Bowl next year in Minneapolis.
Costas has hosted eleven Olympics, both Summer and Winter, in his 25 year career. When asked about his favorite moment, Costas told Today show host Matt Lauer, “I always go with Muhammad Ali lighting the torch in 1996 in Atlanta because it stands alone. When he stepped out of the shadows and Janet Evans handed him that torch and you saw him trembling that way, somehow even in that condition, he was just as charismatic and magnetic as he’d ever been.”
