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What: “Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is”

Where: HBO, tonight, 10-11

HBO’s documentary on possibly the most famous--and infamous--sportscaster of all time is typically well done. But HBO falls short of telling it like it is in its portrayal of Howard Cosell. The man was brilliant, yes. But that was possibly his only good quality. He was egomaniacal, impudent, self-centered, rude, loud, mean, vicious, disloyal to his friends, and although some of his bad qualities come through, the documentary isn’t hard-hitting enough.

He was sarcastically called “Humble Howard” because he never realized humility is an admired quality.

When he died in 1995 at 77, he was a lonely, pathetic man, although his daughters, Jill and Hilary, have good things to say about their father in the documentary.

Some of the strongest quotes come from, of all people, the usually bland Frank Gifford. Of Cosell’s book, “I Never Played the Game,” in which Gifford and Don Meredith are unmercifully ripped, Gifford says, “I never read the book. I had enough aggravation traveling with him.”

Al Michaels calls the book “cruelty in the guise of candor.”

Michaels also says, “Howard basically despised the print press. Apart from a few sportswriters, Howard thought they were ignorant.”

Sportswriters weren’t too fond of Cosell, either. I had at least a dozen dealings with Cosell, and most were unpleasant. To get a quote meant being berated for 10 minutes or so.

One time he wasn’t unpleasant was before the 1984 Summer Olympics, when we spent an evening together. A hot story at the time was whether he was going to quit “Monday Night Football.” He told me to call him at his office after the Olympics. I called and was told he was vacationing at his home in West Hampton, N.Y., but his secretary delivered a message and he called back and gave me an exclusive that he was quitting.

He wrote about it in “I Never Played the Game,” but his version differed from what actually happened. He wrote that I called him at his home, that I somehow got his number. Apparently, he would never admit to returning a call to a lowly “$10,000-a-year hack,” as he called sportswriters. He wrote that he had “inadvertently” given out an exclusive. In this case, he didn’t tell it like it is.