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

Heard Cosell at a banquet once up close and personal. Very intelligent. Very informed.

He would think Vitale is insufferable, which is is. And Cosell would give opinions without yelling at you. I'd love to watch him put someone like Screamin' A in his place.

 

I mute all sporting events anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

 

Cosell was abrasive about things that mattered. Packer was abrasive about some 7-9 ACC team getting into the tournament like it was a birthright.

 

The things that made Cosell great as a sports journalist made him not so great as a color analyst on MNF. He made a big deal out of the fact that he never played the game, but he was in a position where he needed to at least know the game, and he didn't, or at least no more so than the average fan at home. Back in the day, I used to turn the sound down on the MNF games and listen to the radio broadcast with Jack Buck and Hank Stram. Not only could Stram tell you exactly what happened on every play, and why it happened, he could tell you what the play was going to be before the snap. BTW, in my opinion, it was exactly the opposite with Packer. If he'd simply stuck to game analysis, he'd have been fine, because he knows basketball and has the ability deliver that knowledge on the air. But he fancied himself a journalist who insisted on foisting his biases on the viewer.

 

That's a valid point, but Cosell's "I never played the game" was more about how he never caved in to the "game" that saw TV and journalism in bed with sports leagues. At least that's how I remember it.

 

Cosell announced without grandstanding. His arrogance (?) may have been shown in the seriousness with which he announced the event. However, you always felt that he was just talking to you without being condescending.

That would be a welcome contrast to the ridiculous announcing we get these days.

Packer was such an "old school" guy, yeah he knew some basketball, but he conveyed it on a level where you felt you were an outsider and being granted the privilege of hearing from Packer the insider. I hated that. Contrast that with Al McGuire who just talked to you about the game. Loved Al.

 

Cosell would be marginalized as an Around the Horn talking head if he were in his prime today.

 

Howard Cosell was the reason God invented the mute button.

 

He worked his ass off early-on, in the early '50s, and deserved his shot.

And he was a very bright guy.

Too bad he became a caricature of himself, late in the game.