I worked with Howard for many years; he was a brilliant mind. As to everyone loved him, that is not necessarily true. He made enemies in the business, unwisely. In my own view he had the emotional maturity of a petulant 14 year old... it made him extremely difficult to work with.
Howard owned a piece of the action in ABC Sports and Monday Night Football and that helped to sustain him. He was quick to lose patience when things did not go the way he thought they should. Personally, I watched how his wife handled him at such times and learned a good bit of useful knowledge.
I suppose many brilliant people tend to be that way. Don't think that when, on MNF, Howard would start talking about some obscure game or player - or set of plays or any sport - don't think he had a 'spotter' or notebook full of info; Howard probably had near total recall... amazing.
I retired from the business in 1980 so I can't really help you to date his fall; I don't even recall that fall. But I can't say that he didn't play some role in his fall.
Part of his downfall was the Washington Redskins ‘Smurfs’ and one of them took off and Howard commented about ‘look at that monkey run’ and he was referring to Alvin Garrett.
Cossel later explained that he called his grandkids little monkeys all the time....
I don’t think he had a racist bone in his body, his action/reaction to Cassius Clay for example but he did make a decent ‘payday’ off him.
Thanks for that insight, Bob.