Yes, Bob Costas is a jerk
I guess I was the only person on the planet who missed Bob Costas’ 90-second rant yesterday on one of your sports games shows. Apparently he decided during a half-time show to preach about gun control, clearly stepping outside his lane, just because some dude named Jovan Belcher shot his baby momma and then shot himself;
In a segment about 90 seconds long, Costas paraphrased and quoted extensively from a piece by a Fox Sports columnist.
“You want some actual perspective on this? Well a bit of it comes from the Kansas City-based writer Jason Whitlock, with whom I do not always agree, but who today said it so well that we may as well just quote or paraphrase from the end of his article,” said Costas. “‘Our current gun culture,’ Whitlock wrote, ‘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. 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.’”
After praising the column, Costas said: “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.”
Now, I don’t know who Jovan Belcher is, nor do I care. I’ve had loaded weapons in my house since before the day I was married and I’ve never shot my wife. Of course, I don’t play any of your sports games, so that might be why. But, ya know, if we have to be preached to every where we turn about the evils of uncontrolled guns, pretty soon we’re going to turn our TVs off. I’d start turning Bob Costas off now, except that I never turned him on, so….
Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists
Hey, Bob! How about some outrage over the exploitation of young men by a sports-entertainment complex that uses university programs as farm teams? How about some commentary about the influence of pain killers, steroids, and head injuries on young athletes?
I guess we shouldn’t blame Costas, we should blame his microphone.
Hey, hairpiece. Shut your cock holster.
I have lived in, and or , owned , a home with a loaded gun in it ALL of my life. What makes this sensational is that it happened to someone in the entertainment world. Yes, Pro Sports anything is purely entertainment. I never heard of the guy and feel sorry for those involved, but , blaming the gun is idiotic. Of course, this is coming from somone who believes he knows everything, Stick to the steroid pumped jocks dipshit (Costas) and leave things you know nothing about alone!
Thank goodness he was not a veteran, we would have even more sensationalism added to the story.
@ #1, What else can be said? You nailed it.
Typical of the protected class to think there’s a simple answer to everything. First clue is when they say “if only”
as in “if only my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle”.
I spent 22 years as a cop, and saw more domestic violence than mr costas can imagine, including murder/suicide. The weapon at hand was the weapon of choice. But someone who can afford to pay others to protect him whines that it’s the guns fault. His kind is so out of touch with reality it’s a waste of time trying to explain it to him. The sad part is he gets a national audience.
Costas is just one of the many tv personalities that think their opinion is deserving of everyone hearing it. That he’s an idiot is without question and that he doesn’t use critical thinking before opening his yapper is testimony to the fact he’s an idiot. By his, and Whitlock’s, reasoning, we should get rid of the easy access to alcohol, too, since drunk drivers kill more people each year than firearms, that way, no one would die in drunk driving crashes. His reasoning that “if Belcher didn’t have that handgun; he and his baby momma would still be alive” is just wishful thinking on his part. He has no idea if they would still be alive, or not, because no one can say what would have happened if Belcher didn’t have the handgun. If someone is that set on killing someone, they don’t need a gun to do it.
I’m sick and tired of leftists trying to espouse their lack of critical thinking as intellectual superiority. He’s a intellectually lazy media type that doesn’t know what he’s talking about and tries to get people to think he does.
MAJ Mike: disagree. Stupidity should always receive appropriate blame, scorn – and consequences.
Costas has just proven himself to be an idiot, and should be told such. As should his employers.
How about we ban felons from playing “professional” athletics? Any misdemeanor conviction will include a suspension and cash fine… Three misdemeanors and you’re out…
If we ban the felons then wouldn’t it stand to reason that the teams would actaully get smarter?
costas will always be known as howard cossel’s goffer and butt boy………….try as he does, he and his opinions (on any subject), are irrelevent.
“If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.” Belcher murdered that woman, plain and simple. Now it’s gun possession that’s the issue and Belcher, I suppose, is a victim of the Second Amendment. What a ma-roon. I guess Costas is opposed to the biathlon, eh?
If Belcher ran down his GF with his car, would Costas be pushing for banning all cars? What a dick!
I got the short version of that rant on the sports news this morning. The first thing I thought was “Has Costas never seen what’s in a kitchen drawer?” Maybe his wife should show him what’s hiding in there sometime.
Belcher could have strangled his girlfriend instead of shooting her. Should we then ban hands? Take them away from everybody?
Guns don’t kill people.
Inflated egos and multi-million dollar contracts kill people!
Sadly, too many people don’t recognize their right to speak their mind isn’t a requirement they speak their mind.
@#7 — Hondo: Guess you didn’t catch the snark in my comment. Perhaps you should read it again.
I guess nobody murdered anyone in a rage before there were guns.
Here’s the NBC Sports feedback email address.
nbcsportshelp@nbcuni.com
MAJ Mike: I caught the sarcasm. I just don’t agree with letting the guy off with a version of “that’s just Bob being an idiot”. I’d prefer to see some real consequences.
Idiocy that is benignly tolerated without consequences tends to repeat itself.
What, you guys didn’t know that there was no such thing as murder before the gun was invented?
Wonder what he’d say about the three people dead to a bow and arrow attack the other day. Or the knifing spree, or the people being run down with cars or…
Reminds me of the anti-gun hippie I work with. I showed him my Mosin 91/30 and explained the history behind the gun and who likely would’ve used it. His tone went from fear to curiosity and surprise. He admitted he’d never once even held a gun before that. Maybe we need to go into the history of guns as well as actual training in the handling of the weapons so they stop thinking of them as the boogie man.
As previously mentioned in other blogs on this, the response from Costas on O.J. was just a tad different. No calling on the ban of knives there……
Jovan Belcher was a linebacker in the NFL-most people he could kill with his bare hands. Guns may make some crimes of passion easier to commit, but they make defending oneself from someone like Belcher possible (God made man, Sam Colt made men equal). If Belcher had gone after his girlfriend with murderous intent and she had defended herself with a firearm, Costas would doubtlessly have remained silent-the hell with him, he’s using tragedy to pimp his agenda.
This is not a defense of Costas, I do think hes a douche bag for his statement during the half time show, but this wasnt something he wrote. He was actually quoting a piece written by Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports. Everyones pissed at Costas because he had a much more substantial audience but lets give the credit for writing it to the correct douche.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chiefs-murder-suicide-tragedy-girlfriend-self-leave-orphan-daughter-why-still-playing-sunday-120112
As of last night, there will be no more Fox Sports or NBC programming on my TV. Ill miss F1 next year (Fox Sports has the coverage of that next year) and theres a whole lot of stuff on NBC that I would love to watch but I can do without both.
Not letting Costas off the hook, but he has lived in such a rarefied world for so long, even he doesn’t realize how out of touch with reality he is. His producer should have muzzled him and since they didn’t, Costas should be looking for a new one.
And this is a great example of why talking heads should not set policy for our Legislatures. Just as nearly all of us are vets, we work and lead reguler, everyday folks. We’ve seen the struggles of our country right up front. A lot of the country’s ills walk through our barracks and we understand the challenges in changing that behavior.
But this ass-wipe Costas doesn’t have a clue, will never get a clue as to what the everyday man has to deal with, and should stick to what he apparently gets paid for: giving the play-by-play on a bunch of guys three times his size playing a game that is a great distraction, but really has NO impact on those of us working for a living.
The little man (in many ways…) living in his bubble says that bang bangs are bad. Thanks little man for your highly inflated opinion that I could GAS about. Now go back to your bubble and talk how great baseball is to someone who cares about that sport.
In regards to Whitlock, just through a bunch of Krispy Kreams in front of that fatty, it’s the only thing he knows what to do with his cakehole.
Whitlock’s piece was, in my view, much better than the delivery of it by Costa. Whitlock’s words rang genuine as his heartfelt personal opinion about the “gun culture.” Costas, on the other hand, decided to pimp a view (as another here pointed out) and attempt to sidestep accountability by giving attribution to Whitlock. I descpise Costas all the more for that. He’s a politically correct whore.
It really was pretty clever of Costas to quote someone else to express his own opinion. Gave himself what, in his mind, is an “easy out.” In his world that may work. In the real world out here, not so much.
And if OJ hadn’t had access to those guns, Ron and Nicole…oh wait. Nevermind.
Too bad Costas doesn’t actually address the concerns regarding violence and the NFL, which should be renamed the National Felons League, and the relationship between steroid abuse and rage related violence. Based on that correlation it’s likely Belcher would have beaten her to death or choked her until she died…the gun made it easier but murderers of their spouses/children/families have proven over time to use whatever means necessary to vent their rage.
Something that would actually save lives, or lengthen them at least, is to discuss what necessity a sport that recreates the head trauma inflicted by high speed automobile crashes multiple times in a few hours has in a “civilized” society. Of course that would touch on profit, and supposed “American as apple pie” horsesh1t that has been peddled to a mindless public for so long they actually believe that crap. No matter what some millionaire talking heads articulate regarding the “work” ethic of millionaire athletes no one in professional sports is actually doing any heavy lifting when it comes to aiding the nation. We have become a nation of celebrity/athlete watching fat slobs and guys like Costas are the face of that decline.
Costas can kiss my 4ss and go to h3ll.
@ 28 ……….. BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The NFL is full of thugs and criminals anyway…no shock that another one would decide to kill somebody.
Hey Bob, how many murders were committed with knives? Do you want to ban kitchen utensils too? Don’t use a national sports network to voice your opinion! Why don’t you come to Louisiana and say that chitt?!!! I think you need to keep your opinions off the sports network, asshole!
I just want to know where Cain got the gun to shoot Abel. Since, according to Mr Costas, it’s apparently unpossible to kill someone without a gun, someone had to have made it for him.
I do not recall ever hearing Bob Costas protest Michael Vick’s disgusting treatment of the dogs he shot and buried in his own back yard. But then, dogs are just stupid animals that don’t deserve any notice by someone like him.
I’d like to know what “sensible gun laws” the Brady Campaign wants in place that would have stopped this
First, perhaps Belcher suffered from the “If I can’t have her, no one will have her” syndrome. In which case, it doesn’t matter if there wasn’t a single gun in all of the world, she still would have died. By a knife, tire iron, hammer, boot, fist, head butts, strangulation, car, whatever. He’d made up his mind, she was going to die that day.
Second, Jason Whitlock has now decided that the NRA is the new KKK, “I believe the NRA is the new KKK. And that the arming of so many black youths, uh, and loading up our community with drugs, and then just having an open shooting gallery, is the work of people who obviously don’t have our best interests [at heart]”. See, NRA members are not only arming the utes in the ghetto, we’re “loading up” the utes with drugs. See the article: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2012/12/03/columnist-who-inspired-bob-costas-drops-new-bomb-nra-new-kkk
And, check out the pic of Whitlock, in his case, it may come true, that forks and spoons kill, also.
UpNorth, I guess he forgot that the NRA fought for civil rights.
Probably not, Twist. That’d fall under history, and Whitlock only gets his history from the Brady campaign, apparently.
And, Whitlock can not address the fact that the homicide rate in his “community” is black on black, and the bangers are the ones who “don’t have our best interests [at heart]”. It’s all the fault of the guns, the NRA, White guys and gals, anyone but where the fault really lies.
@37. Well, the good news is that these knuckleheads (Whitless and Cosco) most likely are not armed but we sure are.
Letter fired off to NBC today
To whom it may concern,
It is very rare that I write to matters but what happened last night on Sunday Night Football is extremely disturbing.
I watch Sunday Night Football as a form of mental relaxation and escape from all the disturbing things life has to offer. So imagine my dismay when at half-time Bob Coatas decides to go on a 90 second personal opinion about the horrors of the lack of gun-control in this country. Why is this disturbing? Very simple.
First off, Bob Costas is a sports announcer for NBC. Please explain to me how this qualifies Mr Costas as an expert in the 2nd Amendment.
Second, Mr. Costas utilizes the time during half-time of a Football game to offer his own personal opinion in regards to this subject. NBC never stated that this was his own personal opinion and as such this was inferred as the official opinion of NBC Universal. Gun ownership is a protected fundamental right that has been affirmed repeatedly by the United States Supreme Court. What Mr. Costas was suggesting would violate the US constitution.
Finally Mr. Costas tried to pass blame from a person that willfully broke the law with heinous intent to a protected right of US citizenship. If Mr. Belcher would of killed his girlfriend by running her over with a car would Mr. Costas be asking to ban all automobile ownership in this country?
Please have Mr. Costas apologize to the Sunday Night Football audience for such an ill-advised opinion piece.
Thank you for your time,
Contin, with NBC not posting a disclaimer, it’s probably safe to assume that they are in agreement with the idiocy that Costas spewed. MoF, if one listens to the airheads on NBC and DNCNBC(MSNBC), this is, more than likely, company policy.
Of course. These guys don’t get to say anything without prior approval. Hell, it was halftime. Every millisecond is accounted for, including how long it would take Bob “Constitution’ Costas to spew his drivel. That said, no network is above hanging someone out to dry, but I don’t expect it in this instance. If he had said something in support of the Constitution and lambasted Whitwhathisname, well THEN he’d be on the carpet. I don’t watch football for political points of view. And, while I’m at it, let me say that a bubbly, pretty chick doesn’t belong on the sidelines, unless she’s a trainer or a cheerleader.
@41, I’ll agree for the win…
NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN will all probably let the same commentary be discussed without any expectation of recourse.
They make millions and billions from football being on TV, so its never football’s “fault”.
A for Affort on the email, but I don’t see the productivity. Its a 50/50, Costas will come back on and apologize for bringing up something political in the event of a tragedy, being an insensitive thing to do. Or, they won’t say anything about it and won’t care to. I don’t see any repercussions for it for Costas either way.
Of course the little smug smart ass Englishman over at CNN has to weigh in with his 2 quid to tell us what is good for America.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/piers-morgan-defends-nbcs-bob-costa-on-gun-control/article/2514976#disqus_thread
Something I saw on Twitter as I was following the Keith Olbermann thing;
Re: “If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”
“If guns were illegal, Abraham Lincoln would be alive today.”
Bob Costas is an anal orafice, plain and simple. Since when does a sports broadcaster suddenly become an expert on the 2nd Amendment? I guess I can watch more Fox Sport and the ESPNs!
If knives were banned Nicole Simpson would be alive, if sweatpants were banned Plexico Buress wouldn’t have shot himself, if vehicles were banned there wouldn’t be a hit and run, if keyboards were banned there wouldn’t be cyber bullying…the logic is flawed.
http://www.freep.com/usatoday/article/1745491&usatref=sportsmod?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CSports%7Cp
Half assed apology. You can tell he only addressed this because the network pressured him to.
Hey Bob,
As the university professor wrote years ago…more guns less crime. When the criminals and government totaliterism freaks are the only ones having guns, guess who loses? I’ll not watch you ever again Bob! Don’t blame me when they come for you.
Costas is expanding his “thoughts” on gun control in this article:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/04/15679906-bob-costas-on-gun-control-comments-availability-of-guns-makes-mayhem-easier?lite>1=43001
First off, I didn’t know he actually HAD any thoughts. Second, he’s now SPLAININ’ himself (didn’t say repeal 2nd Amendment, etc.). And third, the backlash he apparently got from running his mouth must have been nasty. One can only hope so. I just wish he’d shut his silly mouth.