Around the world together. I think in a time like today, it is a nice thing to think about. And then i wanted also to be able to i think its very simple and it talks to a part of you that when you hear it, it sound almost familiar, not because you heard it before, but because its simple truth about the simple things in life that bring us all together. Rose gumbel and hayek when we continue. And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city this is charlie rose. Rose Bryant Gumbel is here. He is one of televisions best broadcasters underline broadcasters. He was with nbc for more than two decades where he hosted the today show for 15 years. He joined cbs in 1997 and anchored both his prime time program and the early show. Since 1995, he hosted hbos operates with Bryant Gumbel. It delves into the independent caseys that comprise the sports world. The program has won numerous awards including emmys and the peabody in 2012. Pleased to have Bryant Gumbel at the table. Welcome. Thank you, charlie. Someone told me the last time we did this was 99. Rose i dont even remember the 90s. Thats right after my bar mitzvah. Rose so youre doing real sports. Its a wonderful broadcast. Ive got a lot of great people. Its a great place to work and s been really a lot of fun. Rose whats your frame of mind . Its won a peabody, good place hbo great people to work for, pay you well, all that. laughter so is that it for you . Yeah, i think so. I think so, charlie. You and i have talked about this. U know, i enjoyed working in the mornings, as you presently do, and i love your work, and you know that i watch constantly, but i think i had my time and i think my mindset my way of doing things doesnt likely fit with the way things are now. Rose you could step in with what i do tomorrow and theyd not know the difference. I would notice. Rose you would . And plus im not the same guy i was. Rose how are you different . Im much more easy going laughter well, you remember, back in the day, if somebody said something that set me off, i was eager to fight and more than willing to mix it up, and now im more inclined to say, you know what . Youre an idiot. Ill let you be an idiot. Rose you have a great marriage. I have a wonderful marriage. Im very fortunate. My friends say ive kicked my coverage and thats true. Hillary has been terrific. Rose i love hillary. Theres no ambition left in you . I have a lot of ambition, charlie. I still like being engaged with smart people. I still like discussions and conversations. I just dont feel the need to do them in public. I dont have that overriding ambition for everybody to know what im thinking. Its not that important to me. It really isnt. Im happy to have discussions with friends acquaintances, people at dinner and, you know, have my say but the idea of getting in front of a camera and engaging people on any and everything and fighting them, you know, tooth and nail, i dont have that anymore no, i dont. Rose but you do have it for sports and you use sports more than simply as you well know and have defined, its not about the score. No. Rose its about a culture. The score is basically irrelevant. Ive said many times that real sports is about sports like rocky was about boxing. Rose yes. Boxing was the vehicle for them to tell stories about hopes and dreams and class and ambition and disappointment. Rose real sports is . And real sports uses sports as a vehicle to talk about race and gender and class and education and societal norms and politics and finance and Everything Else that it entails and that often gets overlooked. Rose lets talk about sports things. Sure. Rose tom brady. What would you like . I mean, look rose was four games the right i dont know if it was or wasnt. I think the most amusing thing for me rose yes . For me the most amusing thing is people are so concerned about deflated footballs, and you cant get their attention on serious stuff. Rose concussions, things like that . Yeah. Rose dont you think the n. F. L. Is trying now now on concussions . I think theyre eager to get past the problem. Rose you dont think they care about concussions . I dont want to say they dont care. Do i think its their priority . I dont get that feeling. Rose if they dont do something about it, i mean it will be their financial downfall. I think in that respect they care. Rose but they care about the shield, as they say. Yes, which is why rose which is why they care about brady and well, which is why theyre probably delighted right now that everybody is preoccupied with what they like to call deflategate because theyre not talking about all the other stuff that we generally do. Rose like Domestic Violence . Domestic violence, like concussions. Rose how many shows have you done on concussions . Too many. Rose would you say not enough . I would say im happy weve brought it to the fore as often as we have and done a responsible job. Rose have they made a difference and changed in response to the kind of things you pointed out . The problem is so deep that to a certain extent you feel like youre spooning water out of the ocean. Rose really . I do. Im not necessarily sure you can have the game without it. Rose without hard knocks. Thats exactly right. If you made me got tomorrow rose you would play touch . No, i would take the face masks off. Rose so they couldnt grab them and twist the head . No, i think its going to be a rare individual that leaves with his head that doesnt have a face mask. You will wind up with busted noses, bloody teeth and lips but i suspect you will have fewer people leading with their head. My guess. Rose but the interesting thing to me, you know roger as well yes. Rose and theyve got to the most important thing for them is the reputation of the n. F. L. As you know. Yes, they are very protective of the shield. Rose yes. Yes, they are. They care a lot about public opinion. Rose and did they change sufficient for you but a of all the trouble they got into about rayray rice on Domestic Violence . I dont know. They made mistakes but im not necessarily sure there is an easy way out for them on this. They cant get ahead of the legal process. You cant deny somebody due process. So as a result, when somebody has a charge against them, the public may want roger to jump in and suspend the guy immediately but until and unless he has gone through the system and he is found guilty what are you supposed to do . You cant deprive somebody of their living. So im not sure theres an easy way out for them on that. To what extent the problem is inherent in the people who play it, i dont know. I mean, i think its sometimes overstated. We just did a piece recently on the level of Domestic Violence among guys involved in mma mixed martial arts. Rose right. High . Yes, compared to the societal norm, yes. But the other thing compared to the societal norm, the n. F. L. Is actually less, although it gets a lot of attention. In terms of incidents per 100,000 males, its actually less than the norm. Rose what about one and out . What would you do about that . If you made me god tomorrow of the n. B. A. . Always with a small g. Rose i walk around saying if i was god, all the time laughter its less a college than a pro problem. If in every other walk of life the pro n. B. A. S played by the same rule which is if youre talented enough as a dancer and can get a job without going to college, youre a talented writer, musician, whatever you want. If a guy is good enough coming out of high school to go into the pros, he should have that opportunity, which would get rid of or certainly minimize the impact of the one and donees which really came about when the n. B. A. Passed its rule that you had to have at least one year of college before you could be drafted. Rose then bargained for two years and others are saying look, you should pay them when they come to college. Well, thats true too. Now youre giving me my meat and potatoes. laughter i think its the biggest injustice in all of sports. Rose do you think the biggest injustice in all of sports is not paying kids who come out of high school playing. Its not amateur for the coach school, administrators, the university, the networks, the sponsors, its not amateur for any of them, theyre making a mint. Its only amateur for the guys taking the risks. For them, its amateur. Rather than talking about paying them, i simply say we should find a way to make sure they are fairly compensated for what they are providing. You have this engine rose which is entertainment. Yes, its providing a multibilliondollar industry, and they are spoald getting an education for it but thats done with a wink and a nod, so theyre not even really getting that. Certainly there must be a way of setting up something so theyre rose theyre protected in college not only about grades but conduct. Absolutely. And i saw an interesting piece on that and they were talking about are they treated differently than regular students who follow the law as Young College kids often, are and they say yes but not for the reasons you suspect. Rose why are they treated differently . Because they have access to a lawyer. Rose because the university the university makes sure they have access to a lawyer, and thats what separates them and why they seem to get full, preferential treatment. It is preferential treatment. Its not preferential by the name. Its preferential because you have good representation and, as you well know in the american legal system, you have a better chance of being guilty with a great lawyer than being innocent without a good one. Rose youre going to start giving opinions again on real sports. Mmhmm. Rose you missed it, and then you said laughter it was a dumb thing to do. Rose not giving my opinion, what a dumb thing because you need my opinion i have a lot of opinions. It was so dumb of me to stop giving them. I know how much i deprived you i know how much you needed this. I know how good it was for you but i said for years, for 19 years i had buttoned every show with a brief commentary. Rose people liked it. Some of them. Rose people liked the idea overall. Nobody expected you to hit it out of the park every time. And, boy, i didnt. laughter but i guess i missed it and i think the show need something at the back end in much the same way as 60 minutes, in much the same way that at the back end that people expected. People expected it and it buttoned the program. Rose a great example is what chad did on sunday morning. He used to have natural themes i still like sunday morning. Rose i do, too. Rand morrison is one of the unsung producers who really created and made better a very good show. Its terrific and charlie is rose charlie is charlie. Nobody in this business is irreplaceable, but, boy, hes close. Charlie does a wonderful job. Rose pretty good on radio too. I never heard him on radio. Rose is that right . Honest to god. Rose oh, boy. The story is paul harvey tried to get the two to the two of them together because he said, if you and i can come together almost as a package well own the radio. I grew up with paul harvey, my dad had him on the radio. Rose your dad was a lawyer. A lawyer and a judge. Died in his chambers in 1972. Rose heart attack . Second heart attack. Rose the most admired man youve ever known. Easily. Easily. Ive often said its not a fair world. My dad with you brighter than i am, was harder working than i am. Rose yeah . Did more for society than i ever did. Rose yes . And i would venture to say in his best year, in his best year, he didnt make what people in Television Make in a month. Rose in a month yeah. Or for one speech . Yeah, you know. Society is not fair sometimes. Rose i think about that a lot with my father. Couldnt have been a better man but times change. Times change. You know whats interesting, when i outlived my dad my dad died at 51 rose when you became 51. I counted the days, when i passed him thats when i really sat back. You always look at your parents like theyre so old, you know. And when i passed that time i was, like, wow he really was young but it was a different time. Their 51 years were different than our 51 years right . Rose yeah. He was a world war ii vet. So, yeah. He did before i was ever on the air. Rose so he didnt see you . Never. Rose my father died during night watch. Come on rose he would watch it every night. We dont know, he may have been watching it, he was on a treadmill, fell off and the doctor said he was dead by the time he hit the floor. How old was he . Rose he was 77. The point, is he probably was watching me on the television. He never saw the latter part. He was very proud. You got to go to the white house. I would give 20 years off my life if i could play a round of golf with my dad. My dad never played at a private course, never had a caddy but made it possible for me to do those things. Rose and you could take m to any course in the world d play. And he would love it. He made it possible for me to do that. I play private clubs and have caddies, and boy would he love that. Rose morning shows whats wrong with them . I dont know that there is anything wrong with them charlie. Everybody who does one always likes to believe theirs was the better than the one who followed. Rose put the emphasis on news i understand. Times and audiences change. Whether theyre responding to the audience or whether we should be telling the audience what is important is a debate we could have forever. Theyre not as substantive as they were. Would people rose you and tom were there and yeah. Would an audience sit there for that now . I dont know. Rose were going to find out. Yeah, i dont know. I mean, i can remember having a 20minute conversation with the reverend Ralph Abernathy on the today program. Rose you went to a couple of commercial breaks . Yeah. Yeah, ran through a bunch of stuff. Im not sure the public would sit for that kind of thing anymore. Rose anymore. Rose jeff . No, probably steve freedman. Rose . Rose just let it go. I ran for the stop sign. Rose one of the bigger mistakes they make is they will dump out for something really good for something not quite as good because it was programmed that way. This is supposed to be four and the next is four and when you weigh them theyre not equal. And the other thing i dont get i sent you a note when i was concerned yours was going to do it i dont want everybody sitting there and weighing in. Okay, this happened. Do we really need to say, that was great fun, wonderful, great fabulous, good, okay. I mean, no no, no. Rose you dont. You dont. Rose the big advantage you had but the opportunity to do a lot of oneonone stuff. Thats the way that program was designed. Unless you are going off to do a piece outside the studio outside the studio you can do a thousand oneonones but at the table. I remember we did a fivepart interview with David Stockman reagans financial you know, i cant imagine now a Morning Program doing a fivepart vee of interviews with president obamas chief financial advisor. You know, five minutes each. I cant imagine. Rose i can tell you what we would do on cbs this morning, we would do five segments but all different. Rose no, same guy or same woman, and some really interesting way. We would do that. In fact, im arguing for that. Thats something i argue for. But in a sense, take head of the c. I. A. , take joe biden the other big change charlie, and you know this very well, is the morning show has always been a progress progression where the heaviest stuff goes the first half hour and you get progressively lighter. For years there, we still talked about mideast peace prospects in the third half hour. Rose yeah. Well, now, in a lot of shows i watch, they eve gone to the latest makeover in the first half hour. Im kind of out of step. Rose well, i mean its no secret you like in. Yes i do. Rose you like news. Yes. I send charlie notes. Why did you do this . laughter rose this show, peter jennings, god bless his soul, used to watch this all the time. The idea to be able to talk to someone oneonone, peter with you, like, golden. Except it came with criticism applause, judgment i interviewed someone once and peter called me up and said how could you do that . And then the next night he would cop up and call up and he would say, you should be there the rest of your life. laughter because when you like a broadcast, you become proprietary by it. Youre kind of offended when it goes off the rails to something you dont want and youre like hey, put it back where i want it. Rose do you like having leisure time beyond playing golf . Yeah. Rose because you want to take hillary out and do a lot of things together . I like doing things i didnt get to do for the first how many years of my life. Im fond of saying time is like closet space whatever youve got, you fill. Im fortunate. I fill mine. Rose yeah, i know. I dont feel like at the end of the day i wasted the day. I feel like im doing something i enjoyed. Rose its how my life fills me. Yeah. Rose but heres my argument with you. Here it comes. Youve got without sucking up to you youve got a lot of talent. You have stronglyheld views about this world we live in, and i think you have the unique ability to communicate that. I mean you you know, you know how to grasp upan an issue and understand and communicate it. I think you owe it to us to do more because i think you really have skill. I would say the same thing to Marlon Brando about acting, and i did say that to Marlon Brando. I used to say to him if you have contempt for acting, i dont want this conversation to go one step further, im out of here. He said, no, i dont have contempt no, i dont have contempt for the business. First of all i thank you. Second, in fairness to all the people in television, theyre kind enough to come knocking and ask. But they ask about various programs, would you do this . Rose getting ready to go on vacation, five nights, if you want to i like doing oneonones. A buddy of mine said you could do a show called get off my lawn because thats where you are now. Im like the lit guile on the corner who keeps finding problems with this and that. I like being engaged. I just dont feel an overwhelming need to do it in public. Rose is it enough for you. When i see things happening in the public sector, in politics, on the racial front where i say, boy oh boy oh, boy oh, boy, do i wish i had a forum because i would like to come out swinging and say such and such. Rose richard would give you a forum tomorrow, do you want me to call him . He has enough headaches without me. laughter you know, i dont know. Its funny. Im sure come friday morning after this, which well probably call debate with a small d on thursday night, i will have oh, my goodness, who was it who said letterman said the day after trump announced, he was sorry he quit, and thats what i think when i see whats passing for dial