Politics & Power Quote by Howard Cosell

Cosell frames solidarity as both moral arithmetic and a career hazard: “I was right” lands with the clipped certainty of a trial lawyer, while “but” admits the price of being correct in public. The line is less self-congratulation than a ledger entry, balancing principle against backlash. He isn’t just defending a past position; he’s reminding you that in American sports media, taking a stand rarely stays in the sports section.

The context is Ali’s refusal to be drafted for Vietnam and the subsequent stripping of his title, a moment when patriotism was treated like a loyalty test and dissent like contagion. Cosell backed Ali on air and off, insisting on his right to conscientious objection and on his humanity when much of the country preferred a simpler story: champ becomes villain. The subtext is that Cosell, a prominent white broadcaster, understood he was violating the expected script of his role - to narrate games, not to challenge national myths.

“Major enmity” is tellingly formal, almost courtroom language, as if he’s still cross-examining the public. He doesn’t say he lost friends; he says he incurred hostility “in many areas of this nation,” widening the scope from personal beef to a cultural climate. That phrasing captures how Ali’s case exposed fault lines - race, war, celebrity, citizenship - and how Cosell’s allyship made him a proxy target. It’s a reminder that the loudest crowd reaction isn’t always to the fight in the ring, but to the politics outside it.