Hall Of Fame broadcaster Bob Costas was recently interviewed on the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch. Costas was on to talk about his career, which included a conversation about his infamous HBO Sports interview with Vince McMahon.
Costas was asked how he viewed the resignation of Vince McMahon:
“Well, I don’t have any particular insight into the circumstances that leads to his present problems, if that’s what you want to call it, and I certainly take no pleasure in anybody else’s difficulties in that respect. I think people often want to view things only in primary colors, so I must dislike Vince McMahon, and he must dislike me. Now, he does continue to say when asked about our first interview, that if I were closer in size to him that he would have beaten (bleeped out). My answer to that was, wait a minute. Let’s suppose someone’s on Meet the Press and they’re in the same weight class as Chuck Todd. They’re a senator from Illinois. They don’t like Chuck’s line of questioning. Well, as long as it’s a fair fight, why don’t we just start pummeling one another? That makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?”
“I found Vince to be much more intelligent than some people give him credit for. When you think about it, he built an empire. He’s a shrewd guy. He can think on his feet. I had no problem with it, no hard feelings. As I’ve recounted before, he called me the next day after the first one and said, ‘Bob, let’s go two out of three falls. You won the first one.’ I’m not sure I won the first one. It might have been a draw. But you can look at it in different ways. But in any case, he came back for a second one, which was also very good, but not as heated as the first one.”
“Our paths crossed a few times after that. In fact, he once gave me a ride on his private plane, me and Dick Ebersol, back from the Kentucky Derby to New York and it was all very cordial. There was another time someplace in Florida. My wife and I are having dinner. The waitress taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘Bob, Mr. McMahon is over there and wants to say hello to you.’ So he’s with his daughter and her husband, who is the wrestler, Triple H. So I approached the table to greet Vince, and Triple H, this gargantuan guy stands up and he goes, ‘Careful Bob. This time he brought backup.’ So it’s all a joke. It’s almost like a wrestling thing except there were some people who thought that the first one was staged. It absolutely was not staged. It wasn’t like a wrestling thing. But you know, stuff happens. No hard feelings. I’m not sure how this will play out, what’s happening now as I have no real insight into the business aspect and what led to Vince’s resignation, but, you know, I hope that everyone is able to piece their lives back together without too much pain.”
Click below to listen to the entire interview.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The Sports Media podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
