Politics

Bob Costas Has a Non-Apology Apology for Everyone Who Disagrees With Him

Today, Costas called his comments on Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher a "mistake," adding that everyone's still way too angry to really get his point.

By Alexander Abad-Santos
Saved Stories
This article is from the archive of our partner .

On Sunday night, Bob Costas unleashed his own personal logic to halftime in America: If Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher did not have a gun, he and his girlfriend would still be alive. Today, Costas called his comments on the murder-suicide a "mistake," adding that everyone's still way too angry to really get his point. Here's what Costas told the Dan Patrick Show:

Sometimes the quality of those who oppose you speaks for itself ... I was told -- I didn't see it -- that someone compared (the halftime segment) to blatantly racist comments. This is simply a case of people who don't agree with this or they don't agree with what people think I was saying.

Fine, sure, maybe a couple people thought his connecting gun control to a domestic violence case might have been racially charged and those people were so beyond wrong. But as we pointed out, people were more upset by Costas's broken logic; to stretch Costas's example (and quoting one Conservative Dana Loesch), it'd be like solving America's obesity problem by banning utensils:

Or these other examples of #CostasLogic:

Despite Tuesday's non-apology apology, Costas has been defending himself since Monday evening, when he said through an NBC spokesman that he "feels an unfortunate leap was taken that he was advocating taking away Second Amendment rights." (The spokesman went on to add that Costas is "in favor of people owning guns to hunt and carrying them in reasonably controlled circumstances.")

Still, Costas seems to think people didn't like his statement on Sunday because they hold fundamental incorrigible beliefs on gun control. Costas told Patrick:

If someone writes something that people disagree with, no matter how well it was written, if the topic is emotional, people are apt to be described as a screed ... Someone (who) disagrees will characterize it as a rant. ...

If I had gone on and said something at those who are taking shots at me—(Pause). Poor choice of words there—At those who are ripping me agreed with, I sincerely doubt any would have said I agree 100 % with Costas. '(He had) right-on-money comments, but it's not his right to do it at half of a football game.' "

That right there is some #CostasLogic.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.