Howard Cossel> who likes to listen...
Cosell got the job despite the fact that he had zero qualifications for it.enrique wrote:Cossell got the job because he was a lawyer for the network and stoop up for Cus Damato against Jim Norris which gave Cosell a little celebrity status and he filled the void.
He had a poor physical appearance (as any drunk does).
He had a non professional voice.
He know nothing about any sport.
As long as he sold the dictated agenda, he stayed.
When he wrote a book criticizing his superiors, he was booted out immediately.
He never worked as a lawyer a day in his life. He was a local NY sports announcer.
Cosell is the face of the vileness (ABCTV, Don King, Sports Illustrated etc) that destroyed boxing.
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Ambling Alp
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 3627
- Joined: 15 Jul 2005, 22:31
Cosell was certainly very egotistical. However, he was a very good boxing announcer. He certainly had a flair for the dramatic. When something surprising or exciting happened, he was great at describing it in an interesting and sometimes memorable way.
They often would show his taped interviews with the fighters right before the fight, and he asked good questions and good followup questions.
No he wasn't an expert as far as the "X's and O's", but he wasn't any worse than say Jim Lampley, who constantly says fighter A landed a punch when it was in fact his opponent. People say that he was biased toward Ali and Leonard, and there certainly was no question that he liked them. However, he wasn't afraid to criticize them. He doesn't have a man crush on them like say John Madden does with Brett Favre or Lampley has with the Klitschko's.
Another thing that was interesting about Cosell was that he sometimes was the only announcer for the fight. Sometimes there was no "color man" and he would do all the talking, which is harder to do than it may sound.
Sometimes he would have a "color man" (He had Rocky Marciano in his early announcing days) and various other people in the 1970's and 1980's. Often working with those people were harder than it seems. Often trainers and former fighters aren't the most eloquent people.
He was especially good at the post fight interview; and did more than announcers usually do like ask "Do you think you deserved the decision"? (The answer is almost always yes) or "who are going to fight next?" (Usually the answer is "I'll fight anyone", which tells us nothing).
If you are too young to remember Cosell, you have to keep some things in mind:
-They usually don't show his pre-fight or post fight interviews when they show an old fight that he announced.
-Most of the old fights that he announced that are shown are Ali fights so it almost seems like he was just Ali's personal announcer. However they are just a fraction of the fights that he did. He often did fights on ABC Wide World of Sports on the weekends as well as a few big doubleheaders a year on Friday Nights on ABC.
-They seldom show fights from years ago between two fighters who weren't alltime greats. So you don't see how he made a fight between two guys who weren't huge names seem interesting.
Yes, he could drive you nuts, but he had some great attributes as well.
They often would show his taped interviews with the fighters right before the fight, and he asked good questions and good followup questions.
No he wasn't an expert as far as the "X's and O's", but he wasn't any worse than say Jim Lampley, who constantly says fighter A landed a punch when it was in fact his opponent. People say that he was biased toward Ali and Leonard, and there certainly was no question that he liked them. However, he wasn't afraid to criticize them. He doesn't have a man crush on them like say John Madden does with Brett Favre or Lampley has with the Klitschko's.
Another thing that was interesting about Cosell was that he sometimes was the only announcer for the fight. Sometimes there was no "color man" and he would do all the talking, which is harder to do than it may sound.
Sometimes he would have a "color man" (He had Rocky Marciano in his early announcing days) and various other people in the 1970's and 1980's. Often working with those people were harder than it seems. Often trainers and former fighters aren't the most eloquent people.
He was especially good at the post fight interview; and did more than announcers usually do like ask "Do you think you deserved the decision"? (The answer is almost always yes) or "who are going to fight next?" (Usually the answer is "I'll fight anyone", which tells us nothing).
If you are too young to remember Cosell, you have to keep some things in mind:
-They usually don't show his pre-fight or post fight interviews when they show an old fight that he announced.
-Most of the old fights that he announced that are shown are Ali fights so it almost seems like he was just Ali's personal announcer. However they are just a fraction of the fights that he did. He often did fights on ABC Wide World of Sports on the weekends as well as a few big doubleheaders a year on Friday Nights on ABC.
-They seldom show fights from years ago between two fighters who weren't alltime greats. So you don't see how he made a fight between two guys who weren't huge names seem interesting.
Yes, he could drive you nuts, but he had some great attributes as well.
Re: Howard Cosell
While Howard Cosell was severely challenged when it
came to know the fine points of certain sports, I would
not have hesitated to hire him if I were Roone Arledge.
When you have such a provocative individual like
Cosell as a commentator on sports telecasts, there
were extremely high ratings. Moreover, people still
have vivid memories of Cosell regardless of what
they thought of him personally.
- Chuck Johnston
came to know the fine points of certain sports, I would
not have hesitated to hire him if I were Roone Arledge.
When you have such a provocative individual like
Cosell as a commentator on sports telecasts, there
were extremely high ratings. Moreover, people still
have vivid memories of Cosell regardless of what
they thought of him personally.
- Chuck Johnston
I still don't understand why people think "DOWN GOES FRAZIER" is some sort of magnificant line???
Wow, Frazier went down, and he says Down goes Frazier. Oooooooohhh, ahhhhhhhhh.
It's much more entertaining when the ex-boxers/trainers are commenting on how dangerous the opponent is, and the lead boxer shouldn't take such risks, and BAM he goes down right afterwards.
A good example is Kelley - Gainer, George Foreman says... "You wonder why Gainer would even fight this kind of fight when he can really clearly stay on the outside and win", 3 seconds later, Derrick Gainer gets knocked out cold.
Wow, Frazier went down, and he says Down goes Frazier. Oooooooohhh, ahhhhhhhhh.
It's much more entertaining when the ex-boxers/trainers are commenting on how dangerous the opponent is, and the lead boxer shouldn't take such risks, and BAM he goes down right afterwards.
A good example is Kelley - Gainer, George Foreman says... "You wonder why Gainer would even fight this kind of fight when he can really clearly stay on the outside and win", 3 seconds later, Derrick Gainer gets knocked out cold.