NFL Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend Kassandra Perkins 22, and then committed suicide in front of his coaches in Kansas City. A couple of days later during the Sunday Night Footbal game half time show Bob Costas made a plea/ rant about gun control. It sounded like Costas blamed Americas' gun control for Belcher murdering his girlfriend and then killing himself. This scenario can be looked at in a couple of sociological sport perspectives. First this raises the question between politics and sports. Is Costas using his 'celebrity' effect to showcase his position on this nations gun control? Clearly after other news reports in the days following raised many biased opinions. Some applauded Costas for raising awareness to this issue, while others complained about how they only tuned into the game for a show. Politics in sports is not always widely accepted when some particular individual proclaims their political status. Yet politics in sports does exist, whether it right or wrong- I do not know. Who is qualified to be the judge of that?
Second, this scenario can be explained through a cultural theory perspective of deviance. Cultural theorist perspective on deviance considers cultural influences such as demographics, geographical location, community, family, and yes even political influences. Cultural theorist will agree with Costas reasoning for Belcher's deviant behavior. Like Costas believes, cultural theorist will say that yes the nations gun control can be a reason for Belcher's deviant behavior in this murder- suicide. Belcher most likely under -conformed or over-conformed to expectations, but it is not Belcher as in individual who is at fault for his lack of moral character and poor decisions.
Amber M.
Kin 332I Sec 06 11144
1 comment:
This post was intriguing because I did not hear about the NFL linebacker you are talking about. That is really intense. One of the aspects of this class that I was interested in and wanted to know more about was politics in sports. I believe that professional athletes should be using their spotlight to highlight awareness of political issues. With a situation as tragic as this linebackers story I think it makes it even more legitimate to talk about a political issue like gun control. Although Americas gun control law may not have solely been to blame for this incident, I also do believe that we should take aspects from the cultural theory, like demographics into thought as well.
-Michelle Ng
Kin 332I/TTH 9:30
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