Up until Sunday evening, I've never thought much about Bob Costas one way or the other.
Now, I believe Bob Costas can be summed up in three words: "What a weasel"!
During NBC's broadcast of Sunday Night Football, Costas used the tragic murder of Kasandra Perkins by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher (and Belcher's subsequent suicide) as a basis to go off on a rant about gun control. According to Costas, "If Jovan Belcher didn't possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today."
Yeah - and if people didn't drive cars, there wouldn't be automobile accidents.
Costas, a big Liberal who has in the past gone off on former President Bush, has never been accused of being a particularly deep thinker when discussing matters beyond the designated hitter - and his gun control comments will do nothing to dispel that notion.
The fact is that Belcher was obviously a deeply troubled guy. Whether those troubles were related in whole or in part to football is an open question. Still, for Costas to blame the gun - as opposed to the shooter - is absurd.
I recognize that there is a certain logic to Costas' anti-firearm position. That is, if there were no guns, there could be no shootings. Still, since we can't get into a time machine and prevent the invention of gunpowder, we have to live in this thing we call the real world. A real world obviously far removed from the fantasy world of sports and private jets and chauffeur driven limos inhabited by Bob Costas.
Unless Bob is seriously calling for the government to go door to door and confiscate all firearms owned by law-abiding citizens, his knee-jerk reaction on Sunday night was pointless in the extreme. If, on the other hand, Bob really wants to confiscate guns, a variation of the old adage would be true: "When Bob Costas manages to outlaw your guns, only outlaws will have guns"!
I thought the way that Costas presented the issue was interesting as well. Aside from being an inappropriate time, he also chose to quote a sportswriter from Kansas City as opposed to stating the position in his own words. Obviously Costas knew there would be some controversy and undoubtedly hoped to deflect some attention from himself by hiding behind someone else.
Yesterday, faced with a firestorm, an NBC spokesperson tried to do damage control by issuing a statement denying that Costas was advocating taking away Second Amendment rights. The statement went on to say that Costas was "in favor of people owning guns to hunt and carrying them in reasonably controlled circumstances"!
Huh?
So Bob, should Javon Belcher have been able to own a firearm or not?
In addition, what's this stuff about using a spokesperson? Why is Costas hiding behind p.r. guys as opposed to giving interviews himself to explain his position? I'll bet a lot of reporters would even let him use a teleprompter.
So much for having the courage of your convictions!
Candidly, I'm surprised that NBC let Costas use Sunday Night Football as a platform for his gun control rant. Of course, this is the same network that put Keith Olbermann on its pregame show for a couple of years.
Maybe that's what this was really all about: Costas channeling Olbermann? Now that Olbermann has imploded (again) maybe Costas can replace him on Al Gore's struggling tv network.
Until then though, my advice would be: "Hey Bob, just shut up and call the game"!
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