Late last week, Jovan Belcher, an NFL linebacker who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed a murder-suicide. He killed his girlfriend, who he had a 3 month old girl with, and then proceeded to go to the Chiefs Stadium. While there, he confronted the head coach, GM, and linebackers coach. He thanked them all for the opportunity over the past 3 years (he was in Kansas City for 3 years) then stepped away and took his life. When watching football this past Sunday Night, Bob Costas, a long time broadcaster, discussed his "topic" of the week. This week it happened to be gun control. Here is the link to the clip with an article:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/bob-costas-advocates-gun-control-sunday-night-football-164208209--nfl.html
To me, this was taking advantage of peoples emotions. Earlier in the, in class, we saw the Budweiser commercial about all the troops coming home and how good we all felt to see that. I feel like this is the same type of thing. Millions of people are watching this game, then he says this, it sort of takes people by surprise and almost makes you want to help ban guns. This may not be the case at all, but given the circumstances of the situation and the timing, I saw it as a shot at our emotions. Whether it was or not, we will never know.
I don't know why everyone's hating on Bob Costas. I thought his commentary was completely relative, and in my opinion, much needed. Were his comments too soon after what happened? Maybe, but still i feel like people dont pay attention to the gun control debate unless something tragic like this happens, which is just really unfortunate and not how it should be.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Ryan, this came too soon. Personally I'm against gun control so I guess that makes me biased. Nevertheless, I felt like he was throwing it in our faces in a way and trying to use the situation against us. While it is a tragedy, I don't really think the day after this incident was the time or place to say this. I suppose since I believe people kill people not guns that this commentary from him was unwarranted.
ReplyDeleteNow with the CT tragedy, the issue of gun control is back toward the forefront. I hope that my class taught you all to look at this in a more critical fashion and realize the problems take more than legislation; they are cultural.
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