Bob Costas advocates for gun control at halftime of NBC's Sunday Night Football game

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I was watching and thought it quite remarkable. I suspect it'll get more coverage in the morning, but here's one of the early reports, from the Globe:

NBC broadcaster Bob Costas used his halftime segment on "Sunday Night Football" to advocate for gun control following this weekend’s murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, causing an immediate debate on social media.

In a segment about 90 seconds long, Costas paraphrased and quoted extensively from a piece by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock.

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."

Belcher shot and killed Perkins, the mother of his 3-month daughter, on Saturday morning, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in the parking lot of the team's practice facility.

The online reaction to Costas' segment was swift, with many people criticizing the broadcaster for expressing his personal views on a program meant for entertainment.

I must admit, my reaction is mixed.

On the one hand, I agree with Costas. I am a strong advocate for aggressive gun control. On the other hand, I'm not sure we want our sportscasters going all political. It's fine when we agree with them, but what if a conservative -- and there are many of them in the sports world, of course -- had used his or her platform, say, to argue for tax cuts for the wealthy, or against financial regulation, or whatever. Okay, sure, the Belcher case has an obviously connection to sports, but I'm sure there's a "sports" spin for any number of issues. Remember when Rush was on ESPN and said there was pro-black racism in the media?

At the same time, I don't want to suggest equivalency here. What Costas said is very different than what Limbaugh said. The problem is, it's hard to know where to draw the line.

And yet it's important to keep in mind that sports and sports media engage in political activity all the time. Consider how the NFL traffics in pro-military jingoism pretty much constantly -- at the draft, at games, etc. Consider how FOX highlights the fact the game you're watching is being seen all around the world on Armed Forces Network, showing troops in some faraway place grouped around the TV, with the play-by-play man saying wonderful things about how they're fighting to defend our freedom, the freedom of the greatest country in the world.

Which is to say, the sports world, and especially football, is filled to the brim with conservatism -- and particularly with the sort of militaristic jingoism that lies at the core of conservative politics, along with a general outlook on the world that is generally quite right-wing.

And yet it's Bob Costas who's somehow in the wrong for speaking his mind about gun control in the wake of a tragedy like this? What should he have done, just dabbled in the same old platitudes without acknowledging the elephant in the room? That's what always happens, and it's why nothing ever gets done: oh, how horrible, now let's think no more of it, whether it's Columbine or Aurora or countless other examples of gun violence.

Well, fucking think about it for once. Costas was right, and he was right to speak up. It's about time someone did.