NBC cracked a Bob Costas pink eye joke to start the Olympics

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 7.09.47 PM — (@NBCOlympics)

Ask anyone to name a lasting memory from the 2014 Winter Olympics and there’s a chance they might mention Bob Costas and his very public battle with pink eye. The lead NBC Olympics host had such a bad case of conjunctivitis that he was forced to take a few days off, leaving the internet plenty of time to make memes in his absence.

With the internet once again champing at the bit to make a Costas eye joke, the network’s social media account beat everyone to the punch by posting its own eye joke as NBC took to the air.

Clear eyes.
Full hearts.
CAN'T LOSE!#OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/xOPweazndT

— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) August 5, 2016

Because if there’s anything the internet likes more than a Costas pink eye joke, it’s a Friday Night Lights and Coach Taylor reference, you see.

Costas, 64, is starting his 11th Olympics as NBC’s primetime host and told USA Today Sports this week that he’s not sure when he’ll hand the duties to someone else. He said he’ll take future Olympics on a “case-by-case” basis.

Costas maintains a good sense of humor toward the pink eye that knocked him out of the anchor desk after a combined 157 straight nights of doing prime-time duty at the Olympics.

“Well, you have to have a sense of humor about it,” Costas told USA Today. “And I think people who are fair-minded will recall that I was as self-deprecating as possible from the start. You had to acknowledge it. If you had a broken leg and it was in a cast, just be under the desk, and no one has to know about it. If you feel lousy – and we’ve all gone to work feeling lousy – you’d disguise it and get through it. But in this case it really couldn’t be disguised. It was literally written on my face.”

I'm just happy Bob Costas doesn't have pink eye for this Olympics. #Olympics2016 #Rio2016 #TeamSpirit pic.twitter.com/zcv58JMTYE

— Bradford Gibson (@bradfordkirk) August 6, 2016