During a halftime segment on “Sunday Night Football,” NBC commentator Bob Costas took the opportunity to advocate for gun control following the recent tragic murder-suicide involving Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs.
In Costas’ commentary on gun control, which lasted about 90 seconds during halftime of the Cowboys-Eagles game, the broadcaster quoted a piece from Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, which accused our current “gun culture” of ensuring “that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy.”
Costas began the segment by mocking what he refers to as a “mindless” sports cliché. Below is a transcript (via Awful Announing ) of Costas’ opening statement:
“In the aftermath of the nearly unfathomable events in Kansas City, that most mindless of sports clichés was heard yet again, ‘Something like this really puts it all in perspective.’ Well if so, that sort of perspective has a very short shelf life since we will inevitably hear about the perspective we have supposedly again regained the next time ugly reality intrudes upon our games. Please.”
After quoting a few words from Whitlock’s article, he closed out with this:
“In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows? But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”
The reaction to Costas’ advocacy of gun control during a sports broadcast has been, perhaps unsurprisingly, the source of much criticism, as the Associated Press points out. Some praise Costas for being willing to take a stand, while others say that his words would have been more well received if it were on another program and not a sports broadcast.
Do you think Bob Costas had the right to advocate for gun control during a sports broadcast?