The real story on this has been unveiled in an eye-opening and very lengthy and detailed story on the ESPN website. It essentially reveals that NBC was furious with Costas over his constant haranguing on-air and elsewhere about the relationship between the NFL, the sport of football and life changing concussions.

With billions of dollars vs. athletes health at stake, the network not surprisingly chose the former and dumped their star, who would no longer, you should pardon the expression, play ball.  

From the article:

"As much as he cherished his time at NBC, he and the network simply had reached a point of divergent interests.

"I am not a Howard Cosell at the end of his career deciding he doesn't like boxing," Costas says. "I decided long ago that I had misgivings about football, and I tried to use the forum they gave me to make those points. They gave me bits and pieces, but eventually they took those bits and pieces away from me."

The story is very long but if you're interested in the inner workings of what went on behind the scenes at a huge network, one of its biggest and most prominent personalities and what is arguably North America's most powerful and lucrative sports league, the entire ugly but fascinating story can be found at the link below:

Bob Costas, unplugged: From NBC and broadcast icon to dropped from the Super Bowl 

RadioActive wrote:

"I am not a Howard Cosell at the end of his career deciding he doesn't like boxing," Costas says. "I decided long ago that I had misgivings about football, and I tried to use the forum they gave me to make those points. They gave me bits and pieces, but eventually they took those bits and pieces away from me."

Such as using a Football game to push a personal political agenda? To divert the attention of fans to something you hold near and dear? Is that what was taken away? Considering NBC would stand with Costas' leanings I'm sure they had to pull it back due to negative feedback from fans.

And the concussions....well, I guess Costas won't be helping with hockey broadcasts in the near future. Better yet, how about use your skills to talk about alternative careers a young athlete can have over football. Afterall, these student-athletes are enjoying a free education (most likely) over 4 years at a very prominent American institution. They have the ability to enjoy an excellent career outside of Football rather than live with catastrophic injuries. My guess is Costas would not do that.

Maybe he can push for no Wild Card team and ban the Designated Hitter on the MLB Network while he lives the good life in New York City.