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If you’re not a sports fan you may have missed the news: Kansas City Chiefs’ linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend (and the mother of his child) on Saturday. Belcher then drove to the Chiefs’ practice facility, thanked his coaches for giving him a chance in the NFL and committed suicide in front of them. Bob Costas, one of the most respected names in sports journalism, devoted his halftime commentary to the incident during NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast. But one of the most eloquent voices in sportscasting couldn’t come up with anything original to say about the tragedy. Instead, Costas quoted an anti-gun polemic by a man named Jason Whitlock . . .

Whitlock is a hack sportswriter who’s best known for his ability to find a racial angle in the way a player sips from a Gatorade bottle or how he parts his hair. He most recently achieved a little notoriety for stereotyping an Asian basketball player’s penis size. 

So when presented with the tragedy of Belcher’s murder/suicide, no one familiar with his work could have reasonably expected Whitlock to come up with anything terribly profound. And sure enough, he didn’t disappoint.

Rather than writing about what Belcher did from a mental health or domestic abuse angle, Whitlock pointed the finger of responsibility where any self-respecting mainstream media member would — at the the Second Amendment.

I would argue that your rationalizations speak to how numb we are in this society to gun violence and murder. We’ve come to accept our insanity. We’d prefer to avoid seriously reflecting upon the absurdity of the prevailing notion that the second amendment somehow enhances our liberty rather than threatens it.

How many young people have to die senselessly? How many lives have to be ruined before we realize the right to bear arms doesn’t protect us from a government equipped with stealth bombers, predator drones, tanks and nuclear weapons?

Our current gun culture simply ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead.

Nothing too surprising there. When your sportswriting stock in trade is racial rabble rousing and dick jokes, a little anti-gun agitprop doesn’t even move the needle much.

Costas, however, is a different kettle of tuna. He’s someone who’s held in relatively high regard. When he pronounces, people with IQs tend to listen. Which is why it was such a bummer to hear his prime time anti-gun rant last night.

Even more disappointing, though, was that — no matter what his opinion on gun control may be — all Bobby could muster on the subject was to quote a journalistic mouthbreather like Whitlock. As John Boch of Guns Save Life wrote, Jason Whitlock wouldn’t know liberty even if she had a pair of 38DDs and was wearing stripper pumps. It’s just sad that Costas doesn’t either.

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69 COMMENTS

  1. America is waaay too saturated with the risk-averse bourgeois mentality. Oh noes a a gun! A GUUUUUN! There’s no way a linebacker could kill a woman without a gun, right? Even the standard pro-gun boilerplate would work. If she was armed her child wouldn’t be an orphan. “Think of the children” cuts both ways.

  2. Another tragedy used to blame firearms. Very sad for everyone involved. Costas is a moron for even reading the script!

    • You know, I’m starting to realize it’s you guys who personify the gun, not us. You’re the ones who keep accusing us of blaming the gun, which actually we’re not doing, but in the accusation itself you’re guilty of doing it. And I understand why. You love guns and you can’t stand the thought of anyone disparaging your love-object.

      It’s gun availability, not “the gun” that we blame. And Mr. Whitlock wrote an extremely eloquent piece about it.

      “Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.”

      • The quote from Whitlock you cite basically paints all people as closet savages for which possession of the “Gun” creates an irresistible, uncontrollable urge to engage in violence and aggression towards others, yet in your first two paragraphs you deny you are blaming the “Gun” and state you are blaming “gun availability”. Are you really arguing it is both?

        Whitlock’s piece is cynical and merely parrots tired arguments already shown to be logically flawed and mendacious. The small percentage of human predators will victimize and aggress the vaster majority of peaceable people no matter what means are available. They have always done so and they always will. Similarly, a larger percentage of the peaceable majority will be prepared to defend themselves and others from the predators no matter what means are available. They always have and they always will.

        That’s the real crux of the matter. It has nothing to do with what means are available, nor any objects available as those means.

        • Whitlock wrote nothing of the kind. He was a little wacky with that NRA – KKK nonsense, but the original article quoted by Costas was eloquent and accurate.

  3. How is a pro football player allowed to have a gun anyway? I thought it was the National Felons League?

    Plaxico Burress could not be reached for comment.

  4. Whitlock and Costas are (unfortunately) prime examples of the concensus in the major media. Somehow, both missed/ignored the killings by bow and knife in Casper, WY, which were murder/suicides too.

    Costas and Whitlock are so narrow-minded that either could look through a keyhole with both eyes!

    • What are you talking about. No one missed the bow-and-arrow incident in Wyoming. It was all over the news. I even saw some idiots blame it on the fact that the venue was a gun-free zone.

  5. I was just in the process of sending this to you. You left out my favorite line:

    “Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.”

    Classic anti-gunner projection. I’m not going to bother with all the evidence that the vast majority of people who regularly carry firearms go out of their way to de-escalate confrontation, because you’ve all seen it all before. In fact, we had an entire post devoted to de-escalation and general “gun manners” just the other day.

    It’s worth noting that while Whitlock’s actual column has commenting turned off (who’s surprised?), the related story on FoxSports about Bob Costas parroting it does not. When I started typing this, there were just under 1400 comments. As of now, there are just over 1500, and my thumbnail survey says that they’re running approximately 9.5 to 1 in our favor. Maybe 30% of them are of the “this had no business on Sunday Night Football flavor, and the remainder are objecting to the conclusions drawn.

    • That was my favorite line too. What crap! Such personification of an inanimate object baffles me. I am the same person I was before I carried a gun. I have more knowledge now but my attitude and outlook is the same.

    • Matt in FL, I have no problem with “all the evidence that the vast majority of people who regularly carry firearms go out of their way to de-escalate confrontation,” except for what I imagine is your definition of “vast majority.” Whatever it is, and I’m sure you and I disagree on it, it’s not high enough. The “small” percentage of gun owners who don’t know how to de-escalate, who have their egos in the way, who suffer from rage or alcohol or drug problems is too high. As gun ownership grows, like it is nowadays, the “small” percentage of problem guys will also grow more numerous. Seen in that light, what Whitlock said is something to be very concerned with. The solution: proper gun control laws. There’s no escaping it.

      http://mikeb302000.blogspot.it/2012/09/what-do-we-mean-by-proper-gun-control.html

      • Thanks for posting what you think constitutes the requirements for ‘reasonable gun-control’. I, of course, don’t agree with you, but neither of us could be surprised by that.

  6. I dropped an email to Robert about this, then refreshed the page and here was the story. Bob Costas USED to be my favorite sportscaster…period. This is going to seriously going to piss me off next Olympics when I have to here him again. The crazy thing is that it seemed so out of character as Dan pointed out. Whitlock? Expectable. Costas? I’m genuinely shocked.

  7. Costa turned the corner from sporte report to pontificator a long time ago, which is when I stopped listening to his nonsense. When I turn on a sporting event, I’m looking for narrative and analysis of the game, not Costas’ particular take on life.

  8. “Costas, however, is a different kettle of tuna. He’s someone who’s held in relatively high regard. When he pronounces, people with IQs tend to listen. Which is why it was such a bummer to hear his prime time anti-gun rant last night.”

    DZ you have to be kidding right? “Held in relatively high regard”… LMFAO
    A-Costas is a bloviating egomaniac who just happens to have a big megaphone. In about 99% of the bars in America he would get his ass kicked 2 minutes after he started making his grand pronouncements.
    B-who gives a crap who “people with IQs” listen to? Serious? I would rather listen to my plumber or any other trade guy than the BIG IQ crowd.
    C-When the NFL got rid of Hank, I decided to watch the Cartoon channel in protest. So do you think the NFL is on the side of Costas or us? Me thinks they couldn’t give a crap what we think. They all laugh at us “little people” and our views when they hang out at Elaine’s.

  9. Blame the gun. Blame the pills. Blame the pain.

    Hey, here’s an idea: Blame the douchebag who produced a gun and shot his girlfriend to death because he was upset. If the best part of him hadn’t run down his momma’s ass and ended up as a brown stain on the filthy mattress, maybe this shitbag would have learned earlier in life you don’t go shooting people because you’re pissed at them.

    Maybe if his momma hadn’t raised a defective son, he would have been a decent human being instead of a selfish, whiney prima donna who didn’t get what he wanted so he shot his girlfriend.

    What a piece of crap.

    And Bob Costas and Jason Whitlock can both go commit an unsanitary act with their respective mothers.

  10. Bob Costas is bleh. I’ve never liked his sports commentaries anyways.

    The real conversation should be about:

    1. The stigma of counseling, and how many men, but especially the “manly men” of professional sports don’t seek out a professional counselor / pastor / priest / rabbi to discuss their mental and emotional problems. Culturally, it’s neither encouraged and accepted. And many players’ egos need some serious reality-checking.

    2. The pressure that the money and fame of professional sports places on many of these young men to the point that the problems began to manifest in relationships, drugs / alcohol, etc. The NFL / teams need to better.

    Notice, I haven’t said anything about a gun… because the folks at TTAG know that access to a gun in this guy’s case probably wouldn’t have made a difference. When someone goes over the deep end and is committed to violence, he/she will be doing it with a knife, car, gun, etc.

    Let’s address the root cause of the violence, not the tool he chose to use to commit it.

  11. wasn’t he caught a few years back smeling some chicks underware..or shoes?….yup he’s a roll model al right

  12. I’m glad I missed this. Since I don’t watch this garbage I was spared this brain killing diatribe by this particular moron.

  13. Japan has a much higher suicide rate than the US, and essentially no guns in private hands. They OD, drink household poison, jump off buildings, or dash in front of trains. When someone is that deeply disturbed or clinically depresssed, they will find a way to do what they feel they must. Costas should advocate banning ‘being seriously bummed’. It makes about as much sense his anti gun roll.

    • The gun’s lethality and efficiency makes it an extremely good suicide tool. If Japan were suddenly flooded with guns, do you think the number of suicides would stay the same?

      • So you’re saying that an increase in the number of firearms in Japan would increase the percentage of successful suicides or “lure” more people into suicide who wouldn’t have otherwise committed suicide? And you base your answer on . . . ?

  14. “When he pronounces, people with IQs tend to listen. ”

    At the risk of being pointlessly inflammatory, people with IQ’s (doesn’t everyone have an IQ?) tend not to listen to sports casters or pays attention to football.*

    We might as well blame the naked tribalism, worship of aggression, and wanton brutality celebrated in the football culture as a cause for this tragedy.

    It’s like being surprised when a boxer resolve personal conflicts by hitting people.

    * I know lots of smart people who like football, but I also know lots of smart people who smoke. Being smart doesn’t mean you always make the most enlightened decision possible.

  15. Woke up, made some coffee, and spent 20 minutes skimming through MSNBC, CNN, TownHall, and Huffington Post to see what the latest bs stories they are promoting. Read through a piece of garbage at CNN written by what I think is a man who whined that the murder/suicide is all because of how we (most of America) does such a poor job raising boys pressuring them to be macho, overly manly, and to aspire in our manhood never to express feelings etc.

    IMO, American men were much healthier, smarter, and stronger mentally and physically fifty years ago before society kicked in its social engineering program to de-masculinize males and condition males to be more like females.

    IMO, DV is wrong either emotionally or physically, and just as wrong when either sex does it to the other (yes, women do it to men just as much). We will never get the full objective story. Did the shooter grow up in a single-parent mother-run home leading to his emotional unbalance? Did his father irresponsibly leave his mother causing a void in his life, was his mother ever married, or does his mother even know his father’s name? Were the anti-male courts biased towards him in settling his case with his ex-girl friend (?) and I read a comment somewhere she is the mother of his child too. I don’t know. Bottom line: he is responsible for a terrible moral crime in choosing to commit murder and to leave any child of his and his ex-girlfriend an orphan.

    Seems to me that the traditional (and mostly shared) values and codes for behavior and responsibility in the Judeo-Christian tradition of raising boys to be men was a fine upbringing when actually done. Personally, I’ve turned my back on much (not all) of the traditional codes since I’m disgusted with modern society, modern womyn, and the modern bias against men. I see government, society, and women having colluded to destroy the ancient social-contract between men and women the past fifty years. Contract broken; I’m a MGTOW (men going their own way) and what’s called a Ghost essentially a man (among the growing numbers in America and other western societies) who have realized that government, society, and women need us far more than we need them.

    Rant over.

  16. Well, so head injuries may have played a role in this, although brain damage among football players is notoriously hard to diagnose. And, in this wonderful world, what American boy wouldn’t gladly trade some brain damage for the chance to be a televised millionaire (with a Bently, no less!) at the age of 25. After all, being rich and famous are the only thing that matters, which is why every at-risk kid I’ve worked with in a couple of decades of social work knew he didn’t have to pay attention to anything I (or anyone else) was trying to teach him… he was going to be in the NBA or NFL or be a best-selling rapper, with gold spinning rims on his ride and diamonds in his grid, because that is how we define sucess.

    Just like I always say when something like this happens… domestic abuse, dog fighting, child molestation, nightclub tantrums involving firearms… FOR CRYING OUT LOUD… don’t you people remember high school? Jocks are jerks and coaches are perverts and when you give a pervert/ jock several million dollars all you get is a rich pervert/ jock. I love sports as a participant and spectator… coed softball at the park, a neighborhood pickup volleyball game, the lever of roller hockey where a trip to the ER is a possibility, but obsessing over instant psuedocelebrities “owned” by egomaniacial captains of industry whose hobby is their sports team is for people who are badly in need of a life.

  17. Yet we’re endlessly reminded “there’s no way” a firearms ban is in the works.

    “No way. They’d never try that, would they?”

    These are the ‘seeds’ they plant. Bob Costas & our self-appointed intellectual betters are preparing the environment, setting up all the strawmen, nuancing the talking points. They’ll never give up. This is a part of their faith system. The believe in it like a religion, just like global warming & redistribution.

    Bans are coming. Mark my words.

    • Ever since the election was over the gun-grabbers from judges to celebrities to mayors to ‘you name it’ have been in full-swing blasting gun ownership for private citizens. The gun-grabbers kept their heads and voices really quiet and now that Obama is in for the next term they are in all out propaganda and action step mode. The seeds are being planted and fire-hosed onto the masses of sheeple. Fortunately, the mass media and Hollywood are not the sole sources for their industries communication with the masses they were thirty years ago. Still, between them and the anti-gun government factions, we are in for a tougher fight than many realize. All the gun right gains we’ve experienced the past ten years can be reversed. I think too many gun owners are too smug with the rights we’ve won. Danger is always waiting at the gates of freedom to re-new its attack.

  18. Listening to Costas’ gun control laced diatribe is reminiscent of the intellectual dishonesty voiced by many pundits surrounding the Aurora, Colorado theater shootings. To make the claim that Belcher (a 6′ 2″ 230lb NFL linebacker) would have been denied the means to murder Kasandra Perkins and/or himself had the 2nd Amendment been repealed (as argued by the source article) is the same as arguments claiming James Holmes (a man who booby trapped his home with explosive devices) would not have been able to kill anyone in the theater had a similar ban been in place. Both claims are opinions that are not grounded in reality. Instead they’re based on the unrealistic belief that banning firearms prevents evil people from committing horrific acts. Such bans deny millions of law abiding citizens an effective method of protecting themselves; especially from monsters who have proven that they have no intention of following the very laws that gun grabbers believe would prevent these acts.

  19. It is unfortunate that an individual who has created his life’s work under the protection of the First Amendment is so willing to display such blatant contempt and disregard for the Second.

  20. You realize of course that stereotyping all football players as dumb jocks is ridiculous, and that 99.9% of people who play football have none of the problems that this one player did don’t you? We ridicule anti-2A people for stereotyping us as a bunch of old, fat, paranoid, WASP’s, why should we do it to people who play football?

  21. Interesting, because on the same day that Jovan Belcher killed himself at the Kansas City facility, an employee of the Cleveland Browns killed himself at the team’s practice facility. He was a grounds crew member and hanged himself in an equipment shed.

    One thing we know for sure: if the Browns didn’t have an equipment shed, that man would be alive today. See — I can be just as stupid as that midget Bob Costas.

  22. What galls me is that a guy like Belcher gets to play in the NFL, which is a Dream hundreds of thousands of good kids never get a chance at, he has money and means to access help, and he throws all that away, killing his girlfriend and orphaning his child because he’s “too manly” to get the help he needs (and can better afford than the average person). That is just BS to the max!

    Yeah, the NFL has put a long overdue emphasis on player’s head injuries, preventing head injuries, and supposedly helping those who already had issues with head injuries…so NO ONE on the KC Chiefs knew Belcher was having problems? That’s BS, too, or else the NFL’s anti-head injury campaign is just so much BS (which it probably is to an extent). Okay. I am far enough out on a limb here…time to STFU… I hear chain saws starting-up.

    If we took guns out of the picture, it would not deter those intent on committing suicide one little bit because it is an irrational impulse in an irrational mind, which is proven time and again, just as other Comments have stated above. The worst is that a suicidee often seems to be responding to professional help and actually progressing towards “wellness”, then abruptly and without warning commits the deed. I have seen that happen to people I knew on several occasions in the course of my life, as well as a couple of times where a person who seemed just a little depressed or stressed, but had not sought professional help, just up and killed themselves to everyone else’s shock and dismay. None of the aforementioned used a gun…NONE! Not to omit a few who tried and failed, none of which used a gun, either.

    I used to think suicide is the ultimate “cop-out” (no pun intended), but experience taught me that it is irrational behavior that those of us for whom it is unthinkable can only empathize with, but never fully understand. It is a sickness of the mind and spirit.

    I am sad for Belcher and sadder still for his girlfriend and orphaned baby girl. May they all find peace whatever their current situation is.

  23. Good stuff here: http://doubleplusundead.com/2012/12/03/an-open-letter-to-bob-costas-and-jason-whitlock/

    “Do you know what kept me safe? Not some piece of paper. Not a judge tut tutting at him and shaking his/her finger and telling him to leave me alone. Not the police, who, after all, would only be able to respond once he had caused me harm. No, what kept me safe was my Glock.”

    “I will not let you two demand that my blood be shed so that you can sit there and declaim your supposed superior morality to the world. No. You would rather I be dead. That is the logical conclusion of your positions. I will not die for you. No other woman should either.

    Alive despite you,

    Alexandria”

  24. I really love the part from Whitlock where he states the 2nd Amendment won’t defend citizens from a government armed with stealth drones and tanks. That may be true, but I would rather face an Abrams tank with a rifle in hand than face one without.

    It’s a shame that the gun is so vilified in society today. It’s an easy scapegoat: A big black Beretta is an easy target compared to the real causes for gun violence. Including substandard schools, broken families, and a severely lacking mental health system.

  25. Whitlock is a jackass. Has been ever since he didn’t get drafted out of whatever cut rate DIV III college gave him a football scholarship. When he writes about sports I like his work. When he writes about anything else it revolves around every problem in the world is as a result of white men being inherently racist.

    Here’s the more likely scenario. If there were no guns Belcher’s girlfriend would still be dead, probably from being beaten. (Funny how 120lb women have problems defending themselves in fist fights with NFL players…if only there was a way for them to defend themselves. Hmm.) Belcher would probably still be alive, and in custody of the KCPD who would have eventually shown up to the 911 call, but too late to do anything about it.

  26. They got tired of blaming the likely culprit- drugs and head trauma. They wanted to change it up a bit.

    Oh, and somebody needs to show that girl how to dress herself.

  27. You give Costas WAY too much credit. He’s just another “progressive” hack, but this hack has a national stage. Since his bosses agree with him they won’t rein him in.

  28. Mr. Costas believes people like us need to “recalibrate our sense of proportion” to prevent further gun violence.

    I’m not sure about Mr Costas, but I am quite satisfied about how big it is. And I’m pretty sure she is too.

  29. Shows that in sports or mass media the Soviet mindset is still the norm. The thing is there are thousands alive today because we can have guns. If the NFL want to kiss Brady inc time to STOP watching foot ball for a year and see how low rating do them for being left wing.

  30. Given the choice between football and gun-rights, most Americans — including gun owners — will choose football.

    Gun owners will not generate enough outrage to impose any type of punitive sanction on the NFL, NBC, or Bob Costas — who will all be laughing at us on their way to the bank.

    Contrast with what happened to Rush Limbaugh on Monday Night Football a few years ago.

  31. Upon reflection the tragedy is not that some big angry football player had a gun and killed his girlfriend. The tragedy is that his girlfriend didn’t have a gun with which to defend herself from her big angry football player boyfriend.

  32. Costas, however, is a different kettle of tuna. He’s someone who’s held in relatively high regard. When he pronounces, people with IQs tend to listen.

    Sorry, but I doubt the overwhelming majority of people with high IQ’s watch sports. They’re too busy starting up new businesses and inventing things to watch sports.

  33. Hey Costas, you mental retard, why aren’t you using your 1st Amendment rights to go off on all sports that can potentially cause brain damage due to concussions??? Are you afraid you might be out of a job?

  34. I’m sure as a well known little guy, he’s surrounded by armed body guards. What a hypocrite! I wonder if he just committed career suicide by shooting off his mouth. I suppose he could make a lateral transfer to MSNBC where he’d blend in with the rest of the former-sportscasters-who-are-now-left-leaning-loons…Think Keith Olbermann.

  35. The fact this guy did this does not condition the object he used to do it as evil or what not. When someone is mentally challenged he/she will find any means neccessary to commit a crime. If not see what has happened to countries where a gun is too expensive to buy or obtained due to regulations.

    They use knives, machetes, etc. Some men have used other methods of killing their wives and children such a burning the house down ang then themselves. Let’s stop the gun subjectivity and be concerned about the fact that anything around us is a weapon. You take guns away and other ways to kill inocent people will arise.

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