pioneer98 wrote:It has to be mentioned in light of all the other deaths and suicides by former NFL players: could this incident have been caused due to head trauma Belcher suffered while playing football?
I wonder if they can even investigate that at all. But this to me is why the decision to play this game is even more tone deaf, as a nice way of saying it.
Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, had separated two weeks ago in the midst of a dispute over the care of their three-month-old daughter, Zoe, a friend of Belcher's has told Deadspin. They'd only very recently reconciled. In email messages sent to us, the friend described Belcher as a young man whipsawed between football-related head trauma and ongoing substance abuse, and the source speculated that a "combination of alcohol, concussions, and prescription drugs," mixed with domestic problems, led to Belcher's murder of Perkins and his subsequent suicide.
The friend wrote that after the Chiefs' Nov. 18 game against the Bengals, the last game Belcher played in, Belcher "was dazed and was suffering from short-term memory loss. He could not remember the events that had taken place prior to that game or what he had said to get Kasi [Kasandra Perkins] to return home."
pioneer98 wrote:This is a travesty. I understand why the Chiefs might have wanted to play the game, but come on. Not everyone could possibly be thinking clearly enough to make a rational decision about this so quickly. I guarantee that some of the players, fans, others will look back on this in time and regret that they played the game.
I really don't think anyone is going to regret playing the game.
pioneer98 wrote:This is a travesty. I understand why the Chiefs might have wanted to play the game, but come on. Not everyone could possibly be thinking clearly enough to make a rational decision about this so quickly. I guarantee that some of the players, fans, others will look back on this in time and regret that they played the game.
I really don't think anyone is going to regret playing the game.
Why, because they won?
I guarantee players that were close to Belcher will regret it once they realize they didn't give the family any time at all to grieve. Just another day at the office, I guess.
The NFL has a long and shameful history in handling tragedy. The league played as planned on the Sunday after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. They were going to play the Sunday after 9/11 until the New York Jets rebelled and Major League Baseball cancelled its own schedule forcing the NFL to follow suit. Now we have another example of a sport absent of perspective.
By Saturday afternoon, it had been announced that the Chiefs would play Sunday at home against the Carolina Panthers as planned. CBS Sports had even, stunningly, factored Belcher’s suicide into whether he was a wise pick-up for fantasy football players. There would be no postponement, no mourning, and no space for his teammates to come to grips with what happened. On the highest possible cultural platform, the NFL told the world that the death of a 22-year-old woman, the suicide of a player and the mental state of his teammates is secondary to the schedule.
pioneer98 wrote:This is a travesty. I understand why the Chiefs might have wanted to play the game, but come on. Not everyone could possibly be thinking clearly enough to make a rational decision about this so quickly. I guarantee that some of the players, fans, others will look back on this in time and regret that they played the game.
I really don't think anyone is going to regret playing the game.
Why, because they won?
I guarantee players that were close to Belcher will regret it once they realize they didn't give the family any time at all to grieve. Just another day at the office, I guess.
No, because they were able to have some sense of normalcy. Also, because what Belcher did isn't exactly worthy of a tribute. The game going on isn't interrupting the family's ability to grieve, either.
pioneer98 wrote:This is a travesty. I understand why the Chiefs might have wanted to play the game, but come on. Not everyone could possibly be thinking clearly enough to make a rational decision about this so quickly. I guarantee that some of the players, fans, others will look back on this in time and regret that they played the game.
I really don't think anyone is going to regret playing the game.
Why, because they won?
I guarantee players that were close to Belcher will regret it once they realize they didn't give the family any time at all to grieve. Just another day at the office, I guess.
No, because they were able to have some sense of normalcy. Also, because what Belcher did isn't exactly worthy of a tribute. The game going on isn't interrupting the family's ability to grieve, either.
Yeah, I guess 3 month old babies really don't know how to grieve yet, anyway.
It's not a tribute to cancel a game because of something like this. The fact that it was such a disgusting act I would think would make it much, much harder on the coach and teammates to cope with, not easier. It wasn't like they died in a car accident.
I don't know if Costas is right or wrong on the issue...or even if he is right or wrong to bring it up at that time. But the NFL invited this kind of commentary by going about business as usual. It could have been worse for the NFL - Costas could have gone after the concussion angle.
pioneer98 wrote:This is a travesty. I understand why the Chiefs might have wanted to play the game, but come on. Not everyone could possibly be thinking clearly enough to make a rational decision about this so quickly. I guarantee that some of the players, fans, others will look back on this in time and regret that they played the game.
I really don't think anyone is going to regret playing the game.
Why, because they won?
I guarantee players that were close to Belcher will regret it once they realize they didn't give the family any time at all to grieve. Just another day at the office, I guess.
No, because they were able to have some sense of normalcy. Also, because what Belcher did isn't exactly worthy of a tribute. The game going on isn't interrupting the family's ability to grieve, either.
Yeah, I guess 3 month old babies really don't know how to grieve yet, anyway.
It's not a tribute to cancel a game because of something like this. The fact that it was such a disgusting act I would think would make it much, much harder on the coach and teammates to cope with, not easier. It wasn't like they died in a car accident.
Different people "cope" in different ways. For some people, it is much easier to try to maintain a routine (as TFT pointed out), rather than focusing on the tragedy.
Socnorb11 wrote:Different people "cope" in different ways. For some people, it is much easier to try to maintain a routine (as TFT pointed out), rather than focusing on the tragedy.
Yes, there is a whole spectrum of ways people cope with a tragedy. Hopefully, every last person involved is of the "maintaining a routine to cope" variety, because that's what they got.
Is Monday an off day or what in the NFL? Will the Chiefs be watching video today to get ready for the Browns or what?
