“I don’t know if it approaches crisis [with the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide]; perhaps it does, but it’s at a crossroads because there’s an issue about the fundamental nature of the game. It’s so popular and so profitable, but it takes a tremendous toll on many of those who play it. Not just body, but as we’re now learning, mind and emotions,” Costas said on “Piers Morgan Tonight.”
“And it’s a legitimate question to ask whether, for some players at least, the toll that the game takes, brain trauma, medications that they may take, enhance performance or deal with pain, all those things. The culture of the league increases the likelihood of abhorrent behavior. It’s possible.”
It’s a comfort to know that the same culture pertains at quite a few of our university football and basketball programs.