Bob Costas, NBC working on contract buyout: Report

Longtime sports broadcaster Bob Costas has spent nearly his entire career with NBC, but that relationship is reportedly about to end.

NBC and Costas are discussing a buyout that would end Costas’ current contract three years early, according to the New York Post.

Costas has taken a back seat in NBC’s sports coverage in recent years, particularly when he chose not to lead the network’s Olympic coverage. This coincided in part with Mike Tirico’s jump from ESPN to NBC; he led NBC’s coverage at the 2018 Winter Olympics and has worked on telecasts for golf, tennis and other sports.

But the buyout also may have something to do with Costas’ soured feelings toward football. He bluntly said the sport “destroys people’s brains” at a sports journalism symposium at the University of Maryland last November. A few months later, he claimed his “ambivalent” feelings toward football were why he did not appear in NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl LII.

Costas will continue his work for MLB Network, the Post reported, but he is apparently interested in hosting a more journalistic TV program.

“Sometimes, you get to a point where it is not a fit anymore,” Costas told the Post. “It doesn’t mean that anyone is angry or upset.”