Face of of course muhammad ali was a singular figure of global influence and the 960 s. As we both remember were of very very contentious period of time yet tommie smith and john carlos with the race fizzled at the 1968 olympics in mexico city a lot of Young Athletes protested the war in vietnam some were part of the counterculture bill walton d an extremely likable man nonetheless had some countercultural ideas which many agreed with so that was a period of time when it was out there but i dont think numerically there were as many athletes who had a political bent a seem to have today lets get to so many instances i know you were for it for a long time i wish to what do you make of washington finally dropping the redskins. Well as i said a week ago theyre not doing it because they saw the life theyre doing it because theyre feeling the heat Daniel Snyder the owner had been adamant ill never change the name never and you could put it in capital letters but math when fed ex with a players name fed ex field fed ex says we dont want to be part of it if you consider you with that name nike pepsi others hundreds of millions of dollars involved there along with the social pressure thats been building since the death of george floyd the murder really of joe which way thats the reason they did not because they actually changed their point of view are we going to see a lot more teams doing it. I think youve got to go on a case by case basis larry as i said on n. B. C. And i have time as a 7 years ago i am not a fan and still not of Political Correctness run amok or extreme identity politics weve got to be careful about that and cancel culture youve got to look at each thing on a case by case basis but at any time could have been 30 years ago if you thought about the redskins for 5 minutes you can see how that was distinct from chiefs braves warriors i understand if some native americans and others might be upset with the symbols and rituals chiefs frames warriors whatever it might be but by definition those names are not insults they could properly presented be not much different than cowboys or vikings or patriots but redskins every dictionary defines redskins everyone as a slur and insult derogatory pejorative and there are no such definitions connected to other names that we generally associate with native american sense and if you just think about it this way any other ethnic group any other ethnic group whats the equivalent of redskins of applied to any other of the group and you can see how ridiculous it is that this name has lasted as long as it has all right moving on there is the National Football league shift on the. Taking the knee going to see a lot of it if they play this year. Yeah i think you are and i think that a lot of players black and white many of whom agree with the idea but some may feel pressured into doing it because they dont want to be labeled as insensitive or worse yet racist somehow so were into an area where theres no room for thoughtful disagreement there are people who could say look i am totally in sympathy with the issue of the column tapper nick 1st tried to bring to attention and now has has grown in terms of peoples interest in that in the black lives Matter Movement that we are badly in need of the reform of policing and of criminal Justice Reform but some individual black or white might say the National Anthem is not the place that i feel most comfortable making those points and most comfortable protesting but some of those people are going to get subsume in the general tone theres not going to be much room for disagreement anymore or even for shades of difference a cabinet has signed a big deal with his would disney for production films in the like you think well see him quarterback again. I think its in the leagues best interest especially since theyre now all in it seems in terms of reversing their position and apologizing with the National Football league believe etc etc etc almost as if they had taken dictation. From the black lives Matter Movement i dont have a problem with that but since they have reversed field i think that some team has to give them a try out but as you want i know larry weve been following sports all lives the shelf life of an athlete is short hes been out for 3 years it has rarely happened that someone has been away from top level competitive sports for that long out lead it but even he great as he was was a different fire when he came back. Still great but not as great and not in the same way so capper nick deserves a chance maybe some team like Seattle Peter all their coach appears to be a progressive guy he deserves a chance for a legitimate tryout and if he doesnt make it those who support therapeutic have to be convinced that he didnt make it after being given a full complete and fair chance and if he does make it great padrino holmes 24 years old signs a 10 Year Contract over a 1000000000 over a half a 1000000000. 00 well we could put it this way is anybody word that or is jacking going she uses say if someones willing to pay you your word to. Thats right and if anybodys going to get it you think about it with Patrick Moore holmes hes 24 years old hes one of the most exciting players in the league he took his team to a super bowl championship and once for even considering whatever impact and ripple effects theyll be from cova 19 the one sport that seems to be bulletproof when it comes to their revenues and popularitys is that actual Football League and each team you dont have as much difference if you do another sports market to market because the primary source of revenue is the gigantic National Television contract which every team shares in equally so kansas city gets as much of that and so does green bay as teams in new york or chicago or los angeles so they have a certain kind of revenue security that makes this kind of investment. Practical for them and im sure well have another contract im sure that there are outs for settlements should he sustain a career ending injury halfway through. Were you surprised that nascars decision to ban the Confederate Flag. Nose potions im sorry have been dixie yeah and they know its going to alienate part of their fan base larry but in this atmosphere i wasnt surprised and any fair minded person should have realized a long time ago that you just dont want to be associated with the Confederate Flag now let me make this point i know that there are lots of people wed be naive to think that many of those who display the Confederate Flag or have no problem with it are at least subliminal racist or passive races but there are some people who would declare truthfully in their own minds im not a racist i want a society that is fair and just but the Confederate Flag to me means blah blah blah means my Favorite College Football Team it means other aspects of of southern culture and but even if thats true thats what it means to you but think of what it indisputably means to not just africanamericans but the people with the social conference khant conscious rather its associated with a traitorous movement with people who took up arms against their country and its associated with slavery forget about systemic racism for a moment or other aspects of racism what could be more direct it is the symbol for many of us of slavery and that consideration if you are a fair minded person even somebody who us but im intentions and doesnt and thinks of the Confederate Flag as that this is what i see when i go to nascar or when i go to my saturday afternoon Football Game if they are a decent person and i think for a moment the consideration on the one hand is so much more important than whatever you it is you think it represents to you that you got to stand down on it it has no place in our country except as a piece of history to be talked about an exam. And what do you make of n. B. A. Players putting signs on their uniforms like black black lives matter i guess as a one off in this unusual unique situation when theyre in the bubble and a huge percentage of the players in the league are africanamerican and many of them have expressed interest in being involved in a social Justice Movement i guess its a one off its ok but just think about the logical extension here at some point somebody is going to say hey i have different views and why cant i put whatever the view i can i put mag a 2020 there you and i might not like it but whats the justification for saying no oh there are only certain forms of expression we agree with and others we want to allow i think thats a slippery slope for a league to find itself on if they want to do it for the 6 weeks or so its going to take the facts out this season in the bubble ok but i dont think it makes much sense Going Forward what is this this this has moment shows how different times we live in bob who thought wed been discussing these things 5 years ago. Yeah and you know when people when you heard it ive heard it stick to sports now i do not believe that politics or social issues should be so pervasive that they get in the way of peoples enjoyment of the game during a game unless something comes up that you have to know during the game you should just talk about the game people were on it as a diversion as a pleasure and obviously sports in compas is people across the spectrum of viewpoints and demographics and Everything Else but the idea that you cant talk about these issues when they intersect with sports on a pregame show a halftime show which was always when i had last halftime pregame never during a game itself or d in moments like this theyre talking about it on c. N. N. And other places the idea that stick to sports makes any sense those people must never have heard of jack Johnson Jackie robinson or a Billy Jean King arthur ashe or muhammad ali or tommy smith and John John Carlos they have no knowledge of history and heres the part thats hypocritical larry what they really mean when they say that is stick to sports unless youre saying something i agree with because fox for example puts on sports figures all the time who have conservative views that align with theirs and entertainment figures what conservative views that align with theirs and thats fine they have every right to do so but then dont turn around and tell the bron james to shut up and dribble. Come on be consistent well get into the pandemic right after these words right back with bob costas. Is your media a reflection of reality. In a world transformed. What will make you feel safe from. The isolation or community. Are you going the right way or are you being led. Direct. What is truth what is faith. In a world corrupted you need to descend. To join us in the depths. Or a made in the shallowness. Immediately you think you dont need. And you dont need your new music you dont need even. Just you have just to get. By if someone takes the out of bed when you are in the wall when. I think. Shes a beacon misjudged there because in tatters the informants of christs dairies rubbish really needs to be tracked. Back old friend and a great broadcaster bob costas ok lets move to our favorite sport was baseball going to handle a 60 game season. I think the pandemic is the bigger question if was just a matter of playing 60 games even without than z. And with a few rules changes like universal d. H. And putting man on 2nd base an extra nice to get it over with more quickly i dont think that would be a problem i think fans would accept that they understand that the conditions are unique and it would be a sprint rather than a marathon almost every team would be in contention right until the end of the postseason would be interesting under those circumstances but the big question as it is for all sports and all of us is that the coronavirus doesnt care about any of this and weve learned that its almost impossible to predict its progression its arc so everybody just has their fingers crossed that even with the very best medical expertise and a comprehensive protocols baseball has some 100 pages of protocols that players and everybody involved has to with here to these are very very difficult needles the thread especially for sports like baseball and the n. F. L. If and when they attempt to come back because theyre not in a bubble as a fan how do you feel about no one in the stands i accept it because of the circumstances as an ongoing thing even in a league like the n. F. L. Where the primary source of revenue is Network Television as an ongoing thing. You cant sustain that i watched the soccer game over the weekend and m. L. S. Game where they piped in crowds out and i was agnostic about it i didnt know whether id like it not like it and it was ok it was ok now that they didnt seem to modulating it when things became more exciting but the score the game was one to nothing and the team that won scored in the at the 4 minute mark its going to be a little trickier if youre talking about basketball where many baskets obviously are scored a baseball with a situation changes runaround based on the spectacular catch home run are they going to try to modulating it so that the crowd comes up another going to be skillful enough to understand well at this games at Yankee Stadium we turn it up if a yankee hits a home run but we dont turn up the same level of a red sox its a home run and vice versa if its that at fenway park that give you a little tricky but im ok with it i think its interesting give it a try is it going to be hard to get used to seattle in the dodgers in the same division. Yet technically theyre not in the same division but they dont play each other because teams will only to play west against west central against central when they play in early games which makes tremendous sense because you dont you want to minimize the travel like a settler at that people will accept and understand almost anything short of running the bases backwards theyll accept almost anything under these circumstances if theyre able to play do i. V. Idea of a man on 2nd in extra innings i hate the idea when baseball returns to normal i think one of the worst ideas ive ever heard but under these circumstances part of the motivation is we dont want them to have to be there any longer than necessary we dont want a 19 inning game and were here for 6 hours so thats part of the motivation and again i accept that under these circumstances but sometimes i think baseball in its effort to modernize shoots itself in the foot. There are certain things that the sting wish baseball from other sports imagine if they had that rule d in place during the normal season and now you get to the world series its the 7th game of the world series you want something that gimmicky top of the 10th inning man on 2nd base to start it and lets say the visiting team doesnt score bottom of the 10th 7 game of the world series you now know as the home team on the one run it is for 3 months i swear not you need one run to when men on 2nd nobody out on and the 3rd sacrifice fly world series over is that the drama you want has got to go to time capsule i dont think so are you a little more concerned that coronavirus cases keep turning up n. B. A. Baseball do you think as a chance we might have sports yeah. Again as i said we cant predict were not medical experts although i know you well larry youve always follow the news d closely as have i and one thing weve learned is theres no way to predict the course of these things even epidemiologists those steeped in the scholarship of this dont know for sure thats why its a Novel Coronavirus we havent seen something exactly like this before so we learn as we go is it possible that there could be not just several positive cases but hes been an outbreak in a team or within a league thats possible and then that then has to shut down but we just have our fingers crossed that will be the case. The Kansas State University football coach said that football in college this year is going to be a bumpy bumpy road you agree. Oh yeah i think thats the best Case Scenario just a bumpy road but think of it this way if there is not a normal campus situation at any university either theyre not having classes or theyre only virtual classes d there isnt no kids on campus or greatly reduced campus life. Games cant be attended by students then doesnt that kind of expose the idea that in many cases not all theres a lot of good that comes out of College Sports and one thing we have to keep in mind is that the big time sports football and basketball pay for lacrosse and tennis and swimming and crew and all that so thats an upside but we know that in too many cases the idea that these are student athletes or some kind of proper balance between academics and athletics is a fraud what could expose that more starkly that if they said you know what were just going to play anyway even though theres no real campus life and we dont have students on campus for the most part but were going to play for the Television Money and keep this in mind these are not people who are compensated other than the scholarship which is important but theyre not directly compensated they do not have a union to protect them and football of all sports where there has to be close contact on every single play i think a bumpy ride is the nicest way to describe what might be if. You think that the agree were dart right howard that a lot of sports should be a distraction. That were focused on is this president ial campaign and the pandemic sports is a nice side. Ideally sports is a distraction and a happy shared experience where the only downside is the team youre rooting for has lost but now all of this is coming together yes its a president ial Election Year the country is more divided than any time i can recall since when i was a teenager in the late 1960 s. The vietnam war raging and and other issues and we have the pandemic and sports is trying to return and a lot of people say well when sports comes back in whatever form it will be one indication that were headed back to normal maybe and i understand the impulse but if youre watching a baseball game and that the umpire is wearing not not just as usual mask but. A medical mask and they are the manager comes out to talk to the pitcher but thats the socially distance and hes wearing a mask and if more than 2 people handle a baseball d has to be thrown out of play and if you have a shot of the dugout and people are sitting socially distance isnt that going to remind people of how abnormal the circumstances are i mean theres just no way for sports to not be intertwined in some way with whats going on in the country can argue it an umpire right right not allowed to argue not to get this place its as a lot of protestants. As olympic broadcasts of some note there was no 2020 olympics are you confident well have one next year. Not confident. I think the hope is that theyll be either a vaccine or some sort of extremely effective treatment available short of a vaccine that would allow sports to begin with lets say baseball in the spring of 2021 but thats just a hope not a certainty of all the Sports Events that we follow the olympics is the one actually with the greatest peril because youd be bringing people together from close in the case of the summer olympics around 200 nations different circumstances Different Levels of of medical expertise and and different social conditions have them all come together and intermingle in various ways both competitively and socially and then return to their respective nations if you want to test to up to that to gauge what would happen under these circumstances that the olympics would be a good or bad test to for that and theyre aware that it would have been ridiculous and catastrophic to hold them in tokyo this summer and they have to realise or be certain that the coast is pretty much clear before they can do it in 2021 or with a secret so maybe thats a bad word about broadcasting in the olympics was it was that a difficult chore. Yeah its difficult in that its not the same as broadcasting even the biggest Sports Events is not the same as the super bowl the world series the n. B. A. Finals the stanley cup finals and i spoke with the wonderful jim mckay on many occasions and in effect he was my predecessor and the Gold Standard when it came to hosting the olympics and he said keep in mind many people who watch the olympics avidly dont really follow sports that closely the rest of the time and the vast majority audience are not experts on track and field or gymnastics or swimming youve got to present it in as broad a way possible still taking into account those d who are rio officio not all those of the sport you know want to insult their intelligence and their knowledge that has to be part of it but its a broad picture that youre trying to present its not just a sports event its a travel log and all kinds of Human Interest stories from the 4 corners of the globe a globe can have corners that all all of that comes together and its part of this the story that youre telling at an olympics and ill tell you a little story larry and im sure the gym had the same experience although we never talk about it there have been many times over the years dozens of times when strangers will come up to me at an airport or restaurant or something and theyll say what do you do when youre not doing the olympics and this is during the 4 decades i was at n. B. C. And i think mesereau i dont know the world series the super the n. B. A. Finals the Kentucky Derby but those people were honestly asking that question because the only time they saw me was during the olympics so thats a pretty good indication of how the olympics should be presented in the broadest way possible. Who are closing out a staying healthy. Yeah yeah were were in a good situation. Though the worst thing for me and im glad that this is the only thing i havent seen my kids in months were on different coasts right now and it makes sense for everybody to be as cautious as possible thank goodness for zoom and face time and skype and all the rest can you imagine what broadcasting would be if it was even 10 years ago let alone back when we got started how out we put anything on the air without this new technology and how we stay at least this close as possible to those we love and care about without this new technology. Bob thanks for your time today will see and pretty soon larry always great to see you take care. Bob costas hes truly a great we thank him for joining us we thank you for joining us remember you can join the conversation on my Facebook Page tweet me at kings things and dont forget to use the politicking hash tag thats all for this edition the politic. Look forward to talking to you all that technology should work for people. Must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the 1st law. For should be very careful about Artificial Intelligence and the point is to create trust. Only theories with Artificial Intelligence will summon the demon. The robot must protect its own existence as existence. Is anyone safe in the air a wrong way conservatives are formed the monetized then shout about those with the easy ones now the mob is turning on its own long demands conformity does not bring dissent is freedom of speech now only for the all. Clear segregated only by social class. People also in poverty by 1st. If youre born into a poor family if youre born into a minority family if youre born into a family that only has a single parent that really constrains your life chances people die. If youre born into generational poverty. Its a fight every day you meet your needs and the needs of your family. The British Foreign secretary accuses russia of meddling in the u. K. General election but apparently still cant blame. The kremlin strongly denies the allegation. A damning study in germany says Vulnerable Children were fostered by sex abusers for decades. Probably knew about. It in protest. Police in new york. And y p d chief who had earlier solidarity with black wives. Does your headlines for more of those stories of course you can go to