By now the bru ha ha over Costas' commentary on KC Chief lineback Jovan Belcher's murder of his wife (and subsequent suicide by shooting himself in the head in front of his coach and GM a the team's practice facility), is well known - though here is a link to it for those who have not had a chance to see it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/bob-costas-gun-control-jovan-belcher_n_2229496.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular I saw it "live" (that is, in the time-shifted alternate live universe that I inhabit, which was about 90 minutes delayed on Sunday) and pretty much agreed with everything Costas said (none of which, of course, suggested or implied that guns should be outlawed or confescated, though try explaining that to the radical gun lobby). Costas has pretty regularly used those 90 seconds or so right before they go back to the game for the second half on SNF for a personal commentary, and his bsaic point - that cliches about a tragedy putting sports in perspective are trite and absurd, and that if we really are searching for perspective maybe we should rethink a gun culture in which many people, especially many professional athletes (according to former NFL coach and current NBC SNF studio analyst Tony Dungee 75% of the players on his teams every year) not only own handguns, but feel the need to routinely carry them as they go about their daily life for so-called protection. What many of the virelent critics of Costas seem not to understand is that much of what he said in the 90" was simply reading from a piece written by KC area columnist Jason Whitlock. Even the HuffPost piece linked to above mistakenly attributes the conclusion of the commentary ("In the coming days, Belcher’s actions will be analyzed through the lens of concussions and head injuries. Who knows? Maybe brain damage triggered his violent overreaction to a fight with his girlfriend. What I believe is, if he didn’t possess/own a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today"), which has recieved a lot of the focus of the criticism, to Costas himself - that is incorrect, he was just quoting verbatim from Whitlock's column (see Whitlock's original piece here: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chiefs-murder-suicide-tragedy-girlfriend-self-leave-orphan-daughter-why-still-playing-sunday-120112 ) Costas was on the Dan Patrick show this morning, and what I found most interesting was the revelation (to me) that Costas does not know until near the end of the 1st quarter what the half-time show is going to be about, and he has about the time of the second quarter to write and prepare his commentary. His producer made the decision to spend the entire half time show on the KC tragedy (instead of the usual highlights from the day's games), and Costas decided not to just rehash what had already been said, but to try to explore some other angles. I thought he did an appropriate and insightful job - though I do agree with DP that it was maybe a mistake to end the commentary with that extended quote from Whitlock, which requires a more nuanced and complex presetnation and discussion than Costas was able to provide in the short amount of time he had. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
