15 June 2025
David Letterman thinks sport is a “metaphor for life.”
David Letterman says sport is a ‘metaphor for life’
The 78-year-old talk show host is best known for having fronted The Late Show but was able to fulfil a childhood dream in with his ownership of the IndyCar team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and spoke at length about his passion away from showbiz.
He told CBS Sunday Mornigs: “What I love about it is the romance of it. It’s men and women in these machines, 240, 250 miles per hour. They are controlling them with unbelievable precision.
“When you see it occurring right in front of you, it’s almost like ballet. You see the movement and it’s all a blur. Now, that’s underscored by the sound and the sound is unlike something you’ve ever heard.
“The sound is something humans are not meant to hear.
“This is a good measure for my heart. If it doesn’t accelerate my heart beyond how human hearts should be accelerated, then there is something wrong.
“I think all of sports is a metaphor for life. I think nothing is more apt as a metaphor for motorsports. Every day, you gotta be in it. It doesn’t make any different whether youre 33rd or 1st. Every day, you’re gonna see how it turns out by bedtime.”
The My Next Guest host even saw his team win the Indianapolis 500 race and explained how in that moment, he was more than “just the talk show host” that people have come to know.
He added: “It’s a jolt of adrenaline I have never experienced in my life. It was crazy. The first time we won, in 2004 I believe it was, one minute you’re standing there watching and then the next you’ve won the dang thing.
“And your world changes immediately. There was a crush of people around me like I had not experienced, and suddenly I’m not just Dumbell Dave the talk show host, I’m the owner of the Indianapolis 500 winner. And that euphoria stays with you, you might be able to tell, I still have some of that with me.
“It’s crazy because when I was a kid, you belong in a tree listening to the race. You can’t go anywhere near it, and even up until the time I was part of it, you still can’t get near that, but now I’m in the middle of it. The allure of it has been realised and it has repaid me several times over.”
