What Is He Doing There?

After Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann did the first round of highlights on Sunday night’s “Football Night In America,” Bob Costas said, “I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing here.”

And as much as I hate to admit it, I was wondering what he was doing there too…

For the second year in a row, “FNIA” made a significant change to its lineup. Last year they replaced Sterling Sharpe with Tiki Barber and brought in Olbermann to do the highlights with Costas. This year, they reunited the “classic” Sportscenter duo of Olbermann and Patrick to do the highlights leaving Costas to basically introduce commercial breaks and Peter King’s occasional drop-ins.

In fact, I think it’s possible that Cris Collinsworth talked more than Costas.

But in all honesty, Costas’ reduced role wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it was reduced for a good reason. But I didn’t see one Sunday night…

In a recent media conference call, Collinsworth said, “The ‘Football Night in America’ show, we've come a long way, baby. We went from having Cris Collinsworth doing the highlights in the first year to having Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann do them now, the greatest highlights team of all time. We're awfully excited about that and can't wait to kick it off.”

You guys know that I’m a big fan of Cris and I rarely disagree with anything he has to say. But if Olbermann and Patrick are the greatest of all time, I’m the new quarterback of the New England Patriots…

Now it’s possible that Patrick was just a little rusty and he and Olbermann need to get back in a rhythm, but for the second year in a row, I find myself asking, why fix what wasn’t broken?

Because making the great Bob Costas almost unnecessary is definitely not a fix…

“Football Night In America” airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on NBC…

Photo provided by NBC