Is there a bit of friction between NBC Sports and its longtime preeminent voice, Bob Costas?

Last week a bit of a tiff arose when it became public that Costas would not be hosting NBC’s Super Bowl coverage, which will air locally Sunday on KSDK (Channel 5). That was one of the duties he was supposed to have as part of the deal he reached nearly a year ago to significantly reduce his duties as he transitions into semi-retirement after serving as prime-time host for 11 Olympics, a record, as well as for “Sunday Night Football” and other assignments.

Mike Tirico took over those football duties this season and is about to assume that Olympics role. With the Winter Games in South Korea set to start next week, the original plan had been for Costas, 65, to return for the Super Bowl because of Tirico’s Olympics commitments.

But when NBC’s Super Bowl lineup was announced, it did not include Costas. That led to speculation that his strong comments about the negative impact of head injuries on football players was at least part of the reason for his removal from the coverage. The conspiracy theorists’ take was that NBC was pressured by the NFL to remove Costas.

But he played that down at the time, saying he has lost interest in the game, and significantly expounded on it in an interview Thursday with the Post-Dispatch.

“Is there a rift between me and NBC? No,” he said. “I respect their position. They’re broadcasting the biggest event in American sports and the person who hosts that ought to feel either entirely positively, or overwhelmingly positively, about it.

“In recent years — although I was fulfilling my contract and I certainly think I did a professional job, I was always prepared and always respected the audience — I didn’t have the genuine enthusiasm (for the NFL) I had for the NBA in the ’90s or that I have every time I walk into a baseball park. ... Probably millions of people who are watching the game have their own ambivalent feelings or misgivings about whether they’d let their own kid play, but for the moment they’re rooting for the Eagles or the Patriots or have their office pool and they’re into it. The host should be somebody who’s unambiguously into it. I respect that they (at NBC) have to have that in mind. And they respect that everything I’ve said is reasonable and I’m entitled to that opinion.”

Dan Patrick, host of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” coverage and Liam McHugh, who had that role for the network’s Thursday games, will be co-hosts Sunday.

Costas praised McHugh, an up-and-comer who also hosts NHL coverage on NBC and NBCSN and will be an NBCSN host for the Olympics. He said McHugh deserves the chance to rise on the Super Bowl television platform.

“At this stage of his career, it’s something he has earned, something he should do,” said Costas, a former longtime St. Louisan. “Why should I come in for one day and go, ‘Excuse me, get out of my way.’ I’m not going to do that.”

Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC broadcasting and sports, addressed Costas’ situation from the network’s perspective on a recent conference call to promote the telecast.

“Bob was not part of our NFL coverage at all this year (except for the opener),” he said. “And for him to come into our biggest game of the year wouldn’t be right for him and would be unfair to those who have dedicated themselves to the season.

“... I don’t believe any of us — and everyone should speak for themselves — have any ambivalence towards airing the National Football League. The game is an exciting, fast-paced, hard-hitting game. There clearly are some health concerns that the league and the players have been discussing and are addressing, but I think everyone who plays the game goes in eyes wide open, and our job there is to document it.”

Costas said he is fine with that viewpoint.

“They get where I’m coming from and I get where they’re coming from,” he said. “I grew up a football fan — I never liked it as much as baseball or basketball — but I definitely was a football fan and a lot of the best people I’ve met in sports are football people. ... But if you are at all aware, you cannot watch football without being aware of the devastating effects on so many of those who participate and that makes me feel ambivalent about football — and in some cases very concerned.”

NO LONGER THE ‘RIGHT FIT’

Costas acknowledged that the Super Bowl job isn’t for him anymore.

“At this stage of my career I’m more about covering sports than just presenting them,” he said. “Sometimes the two can be done at the same time. But other times it just isn’t quite the right fit. I don’t think I’m any longer quite the right fit for the Super Bowl. But you can tell by the tone of my voice and the way I’m saying this there’s no anger in it. There’s not conflict. ... The broadcast is in good hands. They don’t have an appropriate role for me and no compelling reason to use me.

“There really isn’t a rift,” he added. “There’s a mutual understanding and a mutual respect. They will do as good a Super Bowl broadcast as can possibly be done. They are the best football broadcasting team in the business.

“There’s no contradiction between having misgivings and ambivalence and conflicted feelings as I do about football but at the same time wishing my colleagues well. There is no problem.”

But he does have a problem with those who take pot-shots at him for expressing his opinions about the devastating impact of head injuries on some football players.

“Take it from the dozens if not hundreds who have come forward,” he said. “And then people will say, ‘Oh, all of a sudden you’re a doctor?’ No, nitwit, I’m not a doctor and neither was Walter Cronkite an astronaut when he covered the space program.” And he added that neither is Tom Brokaw an elected official when he covers politics.

Costas said he has “gone to the trouble of actually speaking at great lengths” with experts who have studied the impact of head trauma in football “and I’m reporting what I know from my discussions with them. This is idiocy. Don’t take it from me. My name is John Doe. Take it from all the football players. Take it from the medical experts. I’m telling you what I know based on what they have told me and what I’ve observed. I don’t back off anything I’ve said.”

But that won’t keep Costas, whose next assignment for NBC is its Kentucky Derby telecast in May, from watching the Super Bowl.

“Oh yeah, sure,” he said when asked if he’ll tune in. “Will I record it and rewind it and analyze it? No. But of course I’ll watch it. And I’ll watch most of the pregame show because I’m rooting for my friends to do well.”

A LONG PARADE

The Super Bowl figures to last no more than four hours, including the elongated halftime show. But a marathon of pregame shows will dwarf that in terms of programming hours.

NBC’s pregame parade starts at 11 a.m. Sunday, 6½ hours before the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles are scheduled for kickoff in Minneapolis.

Patrick is to open things by broadcasting from a studio on top of a snowy hill.

“That snow hill is going to enable us to be a part of the entire Minnesota scene,” NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said on a conference call. ” We’ve got skijoring, which is dogs pulling people on skis. We’ve got fat tire bikes. We’ve got tubing. We’ve got a snowcat. We’ve got ice fishing. You name it, we have it. We’re engaged in the place.”

But as the day progresses the production will become more football-centric.

“We’ve already done some very good interviews and conversations with key players, telling the stories of this game and the two sides of the story, which is the underdog attitude of the Eagles and the Patriots who are coming back as part of this dynasty,” Flood added. “We’ve had a good time breaking down those stories, getting the content on those, which will make for some good viewing. But again, our key focus is to build to the game and get people ready for it.”

One of the highlights of the pregame marathon figures to be an interview Patrick did with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

“(I) got a chance to spend 30 minutes with him talking about a variety of things, from his summers spent here in Minnesota, to his mother’s health, to his legacy, to his relationship with (coach Bill) Belichick, a variety of things that came out that I was proud of what we were able to do, and his willingness to open up,” Patrick said. “So that will be in the final probably 40 minutes of the show, but we’re ready to go.”

• If all that isn’t enough, NFL Network gets rolling at 8 a.m. with its 8½ hours of coverage, with host Rich Eisen joined by Kurt Warner, Michael Irvin, Steve Mariucci. A feature on the Eagles’ Chris Long, a former St. Louis Ram, is scheduled to be included.

• And ESPN has a 4-hour version of “NFL Countdown,” starting at 9 a.m. After the game, Chris Berman is host of “NFL PrimeTime” at 9:30 p.m.

GAME TIME

After all those hours an zillions of words of buildup, it finally will be time for the game at 5:30 p.m.

Al Michaels does the play-by-play for his 10th Super Bowl and Cris Collinsworth provides analysis of the Big Game for the fourth time. Michele Tafoya reports from the sidelines, her forth Super Bowl assignment

On radio, Westwood One (WXOS, 101.1 FM locally) has the broadcast, with former St. Louisan Kevin Harlan doing the play-by-play for the eighth straight year. He is joined by analyst Boomer Esiason, with Mike Holmgren also contributing. Former St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner will be on the pregame show.

BUCK BIZ

The NFL this week awarded Fox its “Thursday Night Football” schedule for five years, beginning next season. But it is unlikely that Fox’s lead NFL broadcast team of Joe Buck (play-by-play) and Troy Aikman (analysis) will do the bulk, if any, of those telecasts.

NBC and CBS had been sharing the package and usually used their lead team on Thursdays as well as Sunday afternoons. But Fox has the full load – 11 Thursday games – and calling all those contests and being back at it again on Sunday afternoons for that long stretch would be a major undertaking. Add the fact that St. Louisan Buck also does a lot of postseason baseball, and it just doesn’t seem feasible.

Why not just move Buck and Aikman to Thursdays? Well, the late Sunday afternoon NFL games often are the best-rated programs of the week on all of television.