Bob Costas Hopes NFL National Anthem Protesting Will Not Be Confined To One Day
Even as a broadcaster whose career has included some of the greatest games and the most powerful moments, Bob Costas says the protesting of NFL players and personnel this past Sunday was unique.
"A handful of people became hundreds of people," Costas says. "What centered around one issue, a valid issue -- calling attention to inequities in the justice system or law enforcement -- became about something bigger. It became about the whole tone and the culture wars in this country and the political divisiveness in this country, and I hope it's not confined to just one day and not confined to gestures, but leads to productive conversations."
Costas, who was born in 1952, can draw some similarities between the activists of his youth and the current voices of progress, but he notes that today's athletes are taking that to a new level.
"I wasn't around covering it then, but Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968 had the clenched fist salute after they won medals in the 200 meters," he says. "Muhammad Ali was an Olympic athlete, but he didn't really become an activist until after his Olympic days in Rome, which was in 1960.
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