If Howard Cosell were alive today, would you listen to him?

After reading the Billy Packer thread, I was curious what people actually liked in a play-by-play man or woman.

Packer obviously knows his basketball, and many people here seem willing to sacrifice knowledge to rid themselves of his abrasive behavior.

So what about Cosell, who at the top of his game was a fantastic announcer, but he was rough at times. Very rough.

 

As arrogant as he was, Cosell was one of the best television journalists television in the medium's history. He was among the first to bring a sense of social consciousness to the airwaves.

 

I sure would. I'd love to hear him discuss what it's been like being dead.

 

He would have been fired the first time he said anything controversial... Howard Cosell would not last in today's society and that says more about society than it does Cosell.

 

Cosell had great intelligence and insight, and on many topics would be wonderful to listen to.

But an analyst/commentator on football, baseball, etc., was NOT anything he ever did well IMO.

Give him a "Real Sports" or "Behind the Lines" type of vehicle, and he would be grand.

 

I don't like the Cosell-Packer comparison. Cosell would have disliked Packer, because even though Packer covered it with a relatively intelligent veneer, at his heart he still had jockocratic tendencies.

 

Hell MFing yes. Maybe the only one behind mic that isn't named Bob Costas who is/was a journalist. Well, Jim McKay too.

I echo BTE -- if Cosell had some sort of long-form commentary going today ... I would sop it up with a biscuit.

rb

 

It's easy to forget that for all of his bluster, Cosell was a very good interviewer and displayed charisma doing it. That's another thing that sets him apart from Packer.

 

The comparason I was looking at was the informed but abrasive slant.

I know the Venn Diagram circles do not overlap a lot on these two, but Cosell was the only person that came to mind.

Maybe I could have selected a better person for the Packer comparason, but I was noticing that some people on theother thread were sacrificing strong content for a milder delivery.

 

YES!!!

howard was the bomb. mnf made him more famous but that wasn't his thing. his weekly radio show, "speaking of everything," was the greatest. he'd be tailor-made for an hbo show or "outside the lines." 8)

 

Cosell was a legend, and rightly deserved. I can't think of another national journalist who railed against teams moving from city to city to get better deals, or some of the other realities of modern professional sport. He was Simon Cowell, Keith Olbermann, and Rush Limbaugh all rolled in to one. A towering figure in broadcasting who I believe always put the fan watching at home first.

 

He would be 90 if he were still alive today, so that's a no.