“It’s not like he was a murderer or something…” relayed Kansas City’s top radio jock Johnny Dare on this show this morning.
That was typical of the silly remarks made by Kansas City media people ever since little-known Kansas City Chiefs player Jovan Belcher drove to Arrowhead Stadium Saturday in his Bentley car and killed himself in front of some Chiefs executives.
With apologies to Dare, Belcher WAS a murderer.
He earlier that morning had killed his “baby momma” in front of his own mother. In the wake of his actions Belcher left a three-month-old baby an orphan likely to be raised by his mother.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been a two-paragraph story buried on Page A-11 of the Kansas City Star. “Man Kills Girlfriend; Turns Gun on Self” would be the standard headline.
However, since Belcher played a few years in the NFL, the story took on a new life. That was despite the fact most sports talkers did not even know how to pronounce his name until Saturday.
WHB talker Soren Petro mentioned a few hours after Belcher’s suicide that much of the discussion this week will focus on concussions suffered by players. That is the now the “get-out-of-jail” card for all NFL football players, and any horrendous actions they do.
KCMO Mayor Sly James sought out every camera near Arrowhead to give his views on the situation. Of course, murders in his city have hit triple digits this year and he has never felt the need to really address that issue. This murder would give him national facetime.
Instead of making excuses for Belcher’s actions, why not ask if Belcher grew up in a two-parent family. Is there a father in the picture? Where did he get the gun? Did he have any faith whatsoever? How can you possibly shoot your partner nine times in front of your mother? Were drugs involved?
The Kansas City Chiefs walked a very tricky public relations tightrope with the awful event and performed masterfully. The team had a moment of silence for those suffering from domestic abuse before the game and never mentioned Belcher at all. The coaches and players were likely provided talking points that were masterful.
Wide receive Dwayne Bowe had commemorative t-shirts made the memorialize his fallen teammate (below). Unfortunately, as the national sports site Deadspin noted, he spelled Belcher’s name wrong on the shirts. Go figure…
While some fans said they felt the game should be cancelled that was never going to happen. It would have set a precedent that the NFL would have been stuck with going forward any time a player killed himself or someone else, which is likely to happen again. It also would have hurt revenues.
Maybe Bob Costas helped summarize the situation best (even quoting former Star columnist Jason Whitlock) about the current gun culture:
BILL MAAS’S EXPERTISE
Bob Fescoe interviewed shotgun-toting at Arrowhead, drugs and guns in car charge in Illinois, handgun in luggage at KCI Bill Maas to get his take “as a former player”.
Maas kept saying “no one knew what was going through his mind”.
Talk about the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
“WAR ON WOMEN”
Heart breaking. It’s a horrible situation all around.
Whenever the subject of Jovan Belcher came up this weekend, I would ask any of those nattering about the man, “What was the murdered woman’s name?”
Their response was always a blank stare.
Heart breaking.
I guess there really is a ‘war on women.’
ET TU BRUTUS?
Oh Lord no, ET TU BRUTUS? Agreeing with Costas and Whitlock on gun control? Oh jeez no.
Maybe that was phrased that wrong. I do believe the gun culture has caused a lot of problems, but I do not believe banning guns is the solution.
After hearing about Belcher’s drug and alcohol issues it sounds as if he would have killed her by any means available.
SILLY SEASON NEVER ENDS
Silly season used to be just the period up to and including an election. Now it’s a never-ending event, especially in light of today’s 24/7 news cycle.
A FULL-FLEDGED THUG
What morons Petro and Dare are. How the hell do they know what happened and who is to blame? The man murdered his girlfriend. He is a full fledged THUG. White trash for sure! He got what he deserved, a bullet to the head. One less idiot to deal with. Tragic part is he killed an innocent girl and his 3 month old is parentless.
WHOSE MOTHER?
John, hope you can get to the bottom of this question.
You report that Belcher killed Perkins in front of his mother. Other outlets reported that the murder took place in Perkins’ home in front of her mother.
Was it her mother or his mother? Both?
According to the Kansas City Star, he shot her in front of his own mother: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/01/3943246/chiefs-player-kills-girlfriend.html
BABY MOMMA
killed his “baby momma”
Pretty crass description to reduce her to a single assumption of who/what she was. Welcome to the media silliness you described.
TONYSKANSASCITY
You want silliness…suggest you read this.
I can’t quite place it, but reading Tony’s Kansas City is like watching someone defecate on another person’s face.
WHAT DARE SAID:
Johnny Dare said, “it’s not like he was murdered.” Get your facts straight.
Not how I heard it…
CUSTODY QUESTION
I’m confused-why did the mother of the murderer get custody? Isn’t the the one who raised that thug? I’m aware that this is a temporary arrangement, but it seems like Kassandra Perkins’s family should get custody. She was, after all, the victim, not the monster who killed her baby’s parent.
So far it might be temporary.
BELCHER VS. OUR TROOPS
I gave up counting the number of times during the game they mentioned how courageous Romeo and the team were and how they were performing amazingly in the face of tragedy. How is this comparable on any level to our troops, who are usually younger than these players and paid far less, but still go out there on missions the day after they lose comrades?