Talk:Howard Cosell
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Unsourced[edit]
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Howard Cosell. --Antiquary 17:49, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
- Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am.
- Boxing is the only sport in the world where the clear intention is for one person to inflict bodily harm upon the other person, mainly to the head where brain damage must ensue... I don't think improvements or controls are the answer. I think the answer is abolition.
- Courage takes many forms. There is physical courage, there is moral courage. Then there is a still higher type of courage - the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead.
- Like President Reagan, he is a Teflon man. No matter how many mistakes he makes during a telecast, no matter how glaring his weaknesses as a performer, nothing sticks to him. The television critics, wooed by his smooth off-camera personality, generally rave about him, rarely taking him to task on purely objective standards.
- Regarding Frank Gifford.
- I see nothing to sanctify any sports event.
- I was right to back Muhammad Ali, but it caused me major enmity in many areas of this nation.
- I would say that Don Meredith's erratic march to the Emmy, the most treasured of all broadcast awards, in his first year of TV work has to be regarded as one of the great feats of modern times.
- Joe Schmidt, he couldn't motivate a frog.
- Mommy, why does daddy cuss the TV and call it Howard?
- My father's name, when he came to America, was Kassell. At Ellis Island, the registrars changed it to Cohen. I honored my father's name by changing it back to its original pronunciation.
- Sports is human life in microcosm.
- Sports is the toy department of human life.
- Nothing is more meaningless or irrelevant than sports writing.
- The importance that our society attaches to sport is incredible. After all, is football a game or a religion? The people of this country have allowed sports to get completely out of hand.
- The man has a cash register where a heart should be.
- Regarding Walter O'Malley, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
- The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.
- Then there is a still higher type of courage - the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead.
- Without me, the nature of the telecasts was entirely altered. I had commanded attention. I had a palpable impact on the show, giving it a sense of moment. If that sounds like ego, what can I say? I'm telling it like it is.
- Regarding the effects of his leaving Monday Night Football.
- He's ready to go. This must be stopped. It is a sad way to end...
- I wonder if that referee knows that he is constructing an advertisement for the abolition of the very sport that he is a part of?
- 1982, while announcing a particularly brutal boxing match.
- I'd never really wanted to become a lawyer. I guess the only reason I went through with it was because my father worked so hard to have a son who'd be a professional.
- To Playboy interviewer Lawrence Linderman.
Quotes about Howard Cosell (unsourced)[edit]
- Howard Cosell was a good man and he lived a good life. I have been interviewed by many people, but I enjoyed interviews with Howard the best. We always put on a good show. I hope to meet him one day in the hereafter. I can hear Howard now saying, 'Muhammad, you're not the man you used to be.' I pray that he is in God's hands. I will miss him.
- He become a giant by the simple act of telling the truth in an industry that was not used to hearing it and considered it revolutionary. Every person working in sports journalism today owes a tremendous debt to Howard Cosell. His greatest contribution was elevating sports reporting out of daily play-by-play and placing it in the larger context of society.
- Roone Arledge, former president of ABC News
- He's a seminal figure not only in sports, but all of television.
- Dick Ebersol, former president of NBC Sports
- If Howard said, `I'm going to get the newspaper,' it sounded like an exciting event.
- Woody Allen, Producer, director
- Howard Cosell was Monday Night Football. Without Howard Cosell, there was no Monday Night Football.
- Chet Forte, former Director of ABC Monday Night Football
- No one has had a greater impact on sports-casting and television sports journalism.
- George Steinbrenner, N.Y. Yankees
- When the complete book on sports-casting in the 20th Century is composed, Howard Cosell has earned the longest chapter. His influence in sports-casting has been profound.
- Dick Enberg, Sportscaster
- If Howard Cosell picked you for a Monday Night Football highlight, you were big.
- Matt Millen
- Cosell is the franchise. He may also be the most valuable property in American sports. There's no question that Howard Cosell was the most important sports journalist of our time, and because so much of what he did transcended sports, he was one of the most important journalists... period.
- Robert Lipsyte, Sports Journalist
- I remember him as someone who was an important journalistic figure, and I think to deny that is to let your prejudices get in the way.
- Frank Deford, author and sportswriter
- Howard was a true original. He rose like a screeching comet and left a trail that no modern broadcaster has ever dared to follow. There will never be another like him.
- Steve Sabol, NFL Films
- He was a fine gentleman.
- Russ Francis, receiver, former New England Patriots
- I found him to be genuine in his compassion. I'll never forget him for that.
- Daryl Stingley, former New England Patriots
- Howard Cosell was a colorful guy. The broadcaster's death is a sad day for sports. I did not, and do not, take exception to anything he said about me in the broadcast. Matter of fact, I am pleased that he singled me out for such favorable attention.
- Alvin Garrett, Washington Redskins wide-receiver
- He rose to prominence during a time of drama and upheaval in sports. His style -- part journalist, part carnival barker -- made him unique.
- He was loud, boisterous and extreme, but he really got people's attention and he was really bright.
- [A] broadcasting pioneer who changed the way people listen to and watch sports.
- Shelby Whitfield, director of ABC radio sports, People magazine.
From Wikipedia[edit]
Here are some unsourced ones that I removed from the Wikipedia article because they didn't belong:
"Who the hell made Monday Night Football unlike any other sports program on the air? If you want the plain truth, I did."
"What is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular."