Bob Costas roasts TBS' viral 'House of the Dragon' promo from ALDS

Costas already seemed a little baffled by the promo on the air, as he joked that the promo may be “frightening some gullible people.” On Thursday, in an appearance on 850 ESPN Cleveland’s “The Really Big Show,” Costas went even further, voluntarily bringing up the ad when asked about how broadcasting has changed over the years.

“Here’s what’s changed just from a production standpoint — there’s a lot more stuff,” Costas said, via Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post. “The commercial imperatives are such that there’s more drop-ins during games including a dragon swooping into Yankee Stadium in simulated form in Game 1. And I didn’t even know what it was. They hand me this card and I’m like ‘What the hell is this?’

“I read it in as detached a form as I could, and then I see it with poor Lauren Shehadi, who is just a wonderful person who does a great job on the MLB Network and for TBS. And she’s gotta do this thing — some simulated report. Now I gotta think how do I distance myself from this without totally trashing it? So I said something which I hope that reasonable people understood was kinda like me rolling my eyes at the whole thing.”

Tell us how you really feel, Bob.

Costas could certainly sound a bit grumpy here, but the ad was pretty ridiculous and over-the-top. Such things are becoming par for the course for a lot of sports broadcasts these days, though, so Costas might just have to get used to it. We wouldn’t mind if he keeps throwing shade at the ad reads, though.