NBC’s star sportscaster Bob Costas confesses he began gaining expertise on athletics as a bookie in high school!
The 69-year-old announcing vet says his dad gambled and would call a bookie and have “thousands of dollars riding in a given day.”
His dad’s big bets and his boyhood love of playing sports led to him running a sports book at age 15 in his Queens, N.Y., high school.
One day in 1968, his dad found $120 — about $1,000 today — in his dresser with betting sheets saying: “Joey bet on the Jets, Sam bet on the Browns.”
His dad scolded him, saying: “I can’t stop” betting and warned, “Don’t start.”
Costas says, “I knew by the tone of his voice, and the look in his eye, there would be an ass-kicking the next time.”
