Crime

Why Bob Costas Is Wrong

Dec. 4, 2012 12:57am

Steve Cochran is an American radio broadcaster currently hosting a radio show from 5pm to 7pm on WIND AM 560 in Chicago, and 10am to 12pm on KTRS 550 AM in St. Louis.

Steve describes himself as a populist who leans to the right. During more than twenty years in the radio business, Cochran has made stops in some of the biggest markets around the country, including Chicago, where he spent a combined fifteen years at WGN and the Loop. Previous stops in his career have included New York, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, and Baltimore.

He has shared the stage as a stand-up comedian with names like Jerry Seinfield, Jay Leno, Garry Shandling, Richard Lewis, and Don Rickels. Steve regularly appears on Lou Dobbs on FOX Business and has been a contributor to CNN.

While I fully respect Bob Costas for his success and his talent, he was misguided in his Sunday night comments on the murder-suicide nightmare of Jovan Belcher.

The Kansas City Chiefs linebacker shot Kasandra Perkins, the mother of their 3-month old baby, 9 times…and in front of his own mother. He then drove to the Chiefs facility and shot himself in front of the head coach and GM that he said meant so much to him.

Costas agreed with columnist Jason Whitlock who wrote at Foxsports.com in part…

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.

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.

Bob Costas (and Whitlock, and Mike Lupica) is entitled to his opinion as you and I are to our own. The problem is that his national platform has already changed this discussion away from its root cause and back to the un-winnable argument on gun control. The details we know now come from bewildered friends and neighbors who say…

- Jovan came from little and made a huge success of his life through football

- He loved family and always credited his mother, but had no father figure in his young life

- He was apparently loved by his team

- He partied too much

- He had been accused of domestic violence before

- Kasandra was 22 and said to be as immature as Jovan at 25

- They fought a lot and she threatened to move out for good

- She was out “all night” at a concert Friday…they fought Saturday morning and Jovan shot the mother of his daughter 9 times

This is not an access-to-guns story. This is not about concussions, pain killers, drugs, and booze.

Everyone of us…if we are honest…has had a rage filled moment.  The question is about what we do at those times.  Do you yell and scream, break something, or walk away?

The cowards that punch women or pull a gun are in a different category all together.

Think about it. The gun culture, as Whitlock calls it, combined with those rage moments should be leading to horror stories like this one every week. That doesnt happen. The reason is because Jovan Belcher is to blame…not the gun he was holding. He is the coward that  handled his rage by killing the mother of his child- in front of his own mother.

If he hadn’t had a gun, the nearest blunt object may have been his weapon of choice.

The NFL and other team sports have begun addressing domestic violence more assertively but it needs to be a priority for  every player in the game- of every league. That’s why Bob Costas missed the point. Guns are an issue that always deserves more realistic discussion but the blame here needs to be in only one place. That’s squarely on Jovan Belcher. He committed murder and changed his innocent baby daughter’s life forever.

Costas called out sports media for the lazy cliche of this being another one of those incidents that puts sports in perspective. I would argue that it is more dangerously lazy to blame Belcher’s murder/suicide on the gun he held when Costas could have created a national discussion on the domestic violence issue instead.

That would have helped clear the air instead of muddying the water.  That’s what we should be talking about.

 

Comments (26)

  • LBRTYorDTH
    Dec. 8, 2012 at 1:56am

    What exactly are we doing to secure the rights of our kids to keep and bear arms?

    I hope you will all make time to call the NFL and NBC and tell them you either want Costas fired or you want to hear an apology. And let them know you wont be watching them or buying from their sponsors until one or the other happens.

    The NFL contact: phone (212) 450-2000 ———– fax (212) 681-7599
    Email: Roger.Goodell2@nfl.net
    mailing address is: 280 Park Ave. 15th Floor, New York, NY 10017. Their

    NBC Sports contact: Carol Ko (212) 664-6256 Fax: (212) 664-6035
    Email to: nbcsportshelp@nbcuni.com
    Mailing address: 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 1802, New York City, New York 10112

    PS. I hope you are also calling your Senators & Assemblymen and telling them how you feel about the gun control issues in congress.

    Report this comment

    LBRTYorDTH  
  • RCAlto
    Dec. 5, 2012 at 2:32am

    Costas is a no talent jock sniffing little *****, which is why I changed channels for halftime. NFL halftime last approx. 12 to 13 minutes. He has the right to be stupid on the Air if he wants and I have the right to not watch him. I only watch NBC on Sunday Night Football. I find no news value on the network and their regular programming like to New Normal is a real Mind-F____. Let us see, a family unit made up of unmarried tramp who gets pregnant, her racist mother, two queers, and a Moeesha acting angry black woman and they are telling you that this is the New Normal; only in the world of white lib tar*s!!!!!

    Report this comment

    RCAlto  
  • RCAlto
    Dec. 5, 2012 at 2:21am

    Costas is liberal mentally-challenged individual who sticks to the lib mantra of using any crisis to promote the liberal cause. For God’s sake, the man was 6′ 3″ tall and weighed 257 lbs; he shot her 9 times which means he totally lost it. No gun and he would have beat her to death with a golf club or his bare hands. Then he would have crashed his car to kill himself, maybe killing someone else in the process. Costas is no talent opinionated POS trying to further the liberal agenda. Belcher stayed out all night with a Ho and his girlfriend jumped his ass over it and was going to leave him. He was hung over and lost it and pumped 9 bullets into her. He meant to kill her; him not having a gun would not have saved her or him. How stupid Costas and people like him are? That is why they call them liberal mentally-challenged individuals or lib tar*s.

    Report this comment

    RCAlto  
  • AlternativeOne
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 11:51pm

    If he didn’t have a gun he would have used a pillow. A murderer is a murder nothing you can do about that except hope they don’t kill you.

    Report this comment

    AlternativeOne  
  • chicagopunkie
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 7:58pm

    Thank you for the article, Steve!

    I did not know that Belcher shot his baby momma in front of his own mother.

    I heard only a small portion of your show yesterday on WIND, as I was in my car. I do remember thinking, though, that you were bringing up a very valid point. This was after you brought up the poll results on Bob Costas.

    You are so right in saying that “This is not an access-to-guns story.”

    Report this comment

    chicagopunkie  
  • grumpy77
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 7:55pm

    I notice that all you constitution-defenders are so busy suppressing Costas’ rights that no one bothered to take up Whitlock’s point: “What I believe is, if he didn’t possess/own a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.” THAT’S the issue up for debate, the fact your collective blindness prevents you from seeing.

    Report this comment

    grumpy77  
    • OfBy4thePeople
      Dec. 5, 2012 at 2:20am

      No one is trying to suppress Costa’s rights. Just express them on his own time, not to an audience that is paying, by way of their patronage to advertiser’s products, to see football. To say that if there was no access to a gun, that the two individuals would be alive is prognosticating. He could have stabbed, bludgeoned, strangled, drowned etc, etc, etc. All this conjecture is just that. He did what he did by his choice. No one, and nothing else, is to blame.

      Report this comment

      OfBy4thePeople  
  • sondoggie
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 5:56pm

    The gun culture I grew up in, where all my family owned guns, was a culture of respect of others. Respect of our elders, children should be seen and not heard, obey authority, parents’, teachers, police, elders, etc. We were taught that God is the ultimate authority Who would be our eternal judge. It would never have occurred to any of us to get a gun and shoot anyone, except in self defense. We have decided to make our children the center of everything and have reaped narcissistic, irresponsible, godless, soulless lawbreakers.

    Report this comment

    sondoggie  
  • foxrocks
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 5:21pm

    Better buy all the ammo and guns now, idiots like this are leading the charge on banning weapons.. Obama wants complete control of us……………..Lock and Load!!!

    Report this comment

    foxrocks  
  • Larry E
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 4:27pm

    If guns caused this murder – suicide it amazes me that there aren’t many, many more of these in places where most people have guns. In Montana where I’d guess that most homes have at least one gun there are very few such incidents, and from what I can see in the local paper no more than with knives, clubs, or fists and feet. If people are so mentally unstable or deranged that they will kill their spouse or ‘domestic partner’ they’ll do it no matter what. Aside from the fact that most men are larger, stronger, and likely have more experience fighting than most women so that the men really don’t need another weapon.

    It also seems that booze and drugs were a good part of this pair’s problems, and we’ve already tried to prohibit booze to no good effect and the war on drugs appears an abysmal failure as well.

    Let’s just lock everyone up in little cages, that would solve the problem.

    Report this comment

    Larry E  
  • charles116
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 4:24pm

    Costas has the same rights as Rush Limbaugh. Hello

    Report this comment

    charles116  
    • Sensibility
      Dec. 4, 2012 at 5:07pm

      Yes, same rights . . . . less intelligence!

      Report this comment

      Sensibility  
    • cantstandlibs
      Dec. 4, 2012 at 5:30pm

      Great example of a lib moron who thinks our dissent with Costa’s miserable opinion means we don’t think he or the network have a right to say what was said. It’s ok. We are used to your mentality. It comes down from Ried, Schumer, and all the rest of the tyrants. It is understandable that your are misinformed, misguided, and mistaken.

      Report this comment

      cantstandlibs  
    • Patriot Rider
      Dec. 4, 2012 at 5:45pm

      You are correct. We are not saying that Mr. Costas can’t say what he wants, the problem is he is placing the blame for this tragedy in the wrong place. This whole mess is not about guns but DOMESTIC VIOLENCE and him saying if we didn’t have guns they would still be alive is idiotic at best. It’s just another way for the liberals to use such a sad tragedy to promote their agenda. After, like Saul Alinski wrote, don’t let a good tragedy go to waste.

      Report this comment

      Patriot Rider  
    • azrt
      Dec. 4, 2012 at 11:20pm

      yes- he has the same rights, but he is wrong about gun control. it is truly a way for the government to control us, and the criminals will still have guns. look at the last couple weeks. several stabbing deaths that could have been stopped if security had been armed, and even a murder with a bow and arrow. Guns do not kill people, people kill people. I have never even thought of owning a gun until the last 4 years, and I know that eventually Obama is going to bring us to complete chaos, so I am going to learn to use a gun, I have no intention of using it until the bitter end, to protect me and mine.

      Report this comment

      azrt  
  • bigjake25
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 4:21pm

    We have a man in Salt Lake City who beat his wife to death using his fists. What would Costos ban; his fists, his arms etc? dumb a$$!!

    Report this comment

    bigjake25  
  • Dennis1954
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 3:28pm

    Here’s the rub: cohabiting women in the U.S. and Canda are 9 times more likely to be killed by their live-in boyfriends than a married woman is by her husband.

    Report this comment

    Dennis1954  
  • labec
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 2:54pm

    Never miss a opportunity to USE an event to launch an Agenda. Is Bob the Media Matters Mouthpiece to launch The AGENDA? The Joyce Foundation, out of Chicago, is one of the
    hidden and protected Special Interest donors behind Media Matters. They not only run Obama’s Campaign but All posturing and propaganda, relentlessly. Obama and Valarie Jarrett both served on the Board of The Joyce Foundation. ANTI-GUN is The Joyce Foundation Special Interest.
    See the Connection, the Agenda, the Cohorts, the Cronism, the Coercion, the Purpose & Intent?
    It’s almost like incest.

    Report this comment

    labec  
  • Budrow
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 2:53pm

    So…he shot his girlfriend “nine times”???
    That is uncontrollable rage and a mental disorder, nothing more, nothing less. The real unfortunate issue (excluding the child’s welfare) is that the shooter is no longer here to face the consequences of his actions.

    Report this comment

    Budrow  
  • shorelineliz
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 2:52pm

    This article is spot on. Jovan Belcher was a violent man in a violent sport. He had rage issues. He chose to “act them out” with a gun instead of a knife or some blunt object. He had a jealous rage issue. His Baby Momma was in danger of him. At all times. He was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen. If it wasn’t this girl it would have been some other girl. This is a violence issue not a gun issue. Bob Costas got it wrong. As usual. Liberals usually do. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. If they don’t have a gun they will use something else. The have murderous intentions. The lack of a firearm will not deter them in the least. They will use their bare hands if need be.

    Report this comment

    shorelineliz  
  • batmanroxus
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 2:43pm

    Bob Costas sitting in his gated community counting his money and telling the rest of us about life is a little surreal. He needs to shut up and stick to football, it’s challenge enough for his intellect.

    Report this comment

    batmanroxus  
    • biffer
      Dec. 4, 2012 at 4:32pm

      The best comment I saw was the fact that NBC is always showing violent shows on their channel, where is Bob’s outrage about that. I don’t know for certain, but I’m pretty sure that NBC is guarded by armed security guards, why is that necessary? As it always is the case, do as I say, not as I do. Personally I cannot stand to watch a guy that couldn’t carry the jockstrap of a high school athelete tell us how we should think.

      Report this comment

      biffer  
  • Oldshooter
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 1:55pm

    I have been a member of the “Gun Culture” all my life, and I find the misunderstanding of our cultural values among the general public astounding (probably due to long term anti-gun propaganda). I learned to shoot around age 11. I grew up being taught that it is never OK .to “lose your cool,” especially when guns are involved. I was taught never to point a gun at anything I wasn’t willing to destroy, to be careful of what’s behind my target, and the rest of the safety rules in adolescence, and I followed them (even in combat). I was taught to shoot safely and accurately; both of which require suppressing strong emotions such as anger, and fear, and to focus on shooting carefully and calmly, ESPECIALLY when in stressful or dangerous situations (whether it be a national level competition, a charging wild boar, or a Viet Cong shooting at me – I’ve experienced all 3). I was taught always to be polite and respectful of others, not to brag, and not to rub it in when you beat someone (ie, no “spiking the ball” or end zone dancing). I was taught to be honest, never to cheat, nor to claim another man’s bird. I was taught to control myself, not to poach, even (perhaps especially) when there was no one to catch me at it. I was taught that one’s behavior, “the way he plays the game,” is the mirror of his true character, not whether he won the competition or “got his limit.” THOSE are the real values of our “American Gun Culture,” but not, unfortunately, of the N

    Report this comment

    Oldshooter  
    • Myron_J_Poltroonian
      Dec. 4, 2012 at 3:17pm

      “Spot on” as our British cousins are wont to say, “Spot On”. My life’s experiences are reasonably similar to yours, except for the fact that I cheated on being involved in the “Unpleasantness” in Vietnam by joining Uncle Sam’s Army one month and two days after my eighteenth birthday, and taking my chances with my three year stint in the barrel from 06/’59-06/’62. I too was raised to believe that your character is defined by how and what you do when you know no one is watching and not how you act when the spotlight of public scrutiny is upon you. Doing the right thing isn’t always the easy thing, but it is always the right thing to do. I have had more than one opportunity to stop escalating, potentially deadly, aggressive action with a gun, but have always found a way to not finish the squeeze if (upon the rare occasion) I actually had to display my piece. “With great freedom comes great responsibility”, as the saying goes, and would that the current wimp (“It’s not my fault …, it’s someone/something else’s fault”) culture would become enlightened to that fact. As a life member of the NRA, thank you for your service to our country and do what you can to pass on your knowledge and take on life to others – especially the newer crop of “Man-child” being raised today.

      Report this comment

      Myron_J_Poltroonian  
  • LOJ
    Dec. 4, 2012 at 12:11pm

    So sorry for the 3 month old boy, and his mother. If you want to stem the violence and unhappiness, you must first change the culture, of drugs, violence, lack of upbringing and hopelessness. Values, and integrity matter, something that has been sadly lacking in our society, and especially when the government promotes…Just do what feels good! There is alot of rage out there because of unhappiness, and misguided values! Belcher had just spent the night with another woman, other than his boy’s mother, how tragic the betrayal…the firearm was not to blame, but the rage of a great linebacker who gained success very fast, and things tumbled down around him.

    Report this comment

    LOJ  

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