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NBC Meet the Press

Bob Costas warns legalized sports betting will ‘ruin some lives’: Full interview

NBC Meet the Press

NBC News

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3.83.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a Meet the Moment conversation with Kristen Welker, sports broadcaster Bob Costas warns about the rise of online sports betting and reflects on how his father’s gambling shaped his perspective.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Few interests bring people together the way sports can.

0:03.7

Last year, the top 10 most watch telecasts were all live sporting events,

0:08.5

with the Super Bowl bringing in 121 million viewers.

0:12.4

Now, Bob Costas, a voice that has been central to so many iconic sports moments

0:17.2

is marking the end of a legendary run after retiring from play-by-play announcing.

0:22.8

Kostas spent four decades with NBC covering nearly every major sport and hosting a record 12

0:28.6

Olympics for the network. I sat down with Kostas to talk about the unifying power of sports

0:33.7

and to reflect on his extraordinary career. Bob K Costas, welcome back to meet the press.

0:39.2

And welcome back to NBC.

0:40.9

It feels like I never left.

0:42.5

Well, it's wonderful to have you here and to be sitting with you.

0:47.0

The NBA season is winding down.

0:49.8

We're in the middle of baseball season.

0:51.3

The NFL is right around the corner.

0:52.9

So it seemed like the perfect time

0:54.6

to sit and have a conversation with you. You, of course, retired from play-by-play announcing

1:02.1

last year. What has this chapter of your life been like? You know, I really think that for a number

1:08.9

of years, I was rightly in an emeritus stage. It was only by a fluke that I came back and called a few postseason series on TBS. And I wasn't quite as good at it, to be honest, as I had been for 40 years. And when you care about your craft and you care about that particular sport,

1:28.8

baseball as much as I do, I just didn't want to hit beneath my lifetime batting average.

1:33.4

I could have continued, but it was my decision not to. But I think that all the other things,

1:38.9

the interviews, the commentaries, the essays, all the other things that I did previously,

1:43.9

I can still do, but at an emeritus position, all the other things that I did previously, I can still do, but at an emeritus

...

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