There’s been a lot of talk about how the NFL and the Chiefs are wrong, greedy, cynical, whatever for going ahead with today’s game in the light of the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide yesterday.
It’s all nonsense. I’m sorry, that’s harsh, and it’s also accurate. Lemme explain why.
If Jovan Belcher were a radiologist at your local hospital, they’d stay open (once any necessary intrusion by the police and crime scene investigators was taken care of). If he were a stocker at Wal*Mart, they’d stay open. If he were a customer service representative for your cell phone company, you’d still be able to call and get support today.
Maybe, if he were an employee of a very small business, they’d close for the day. Maybe. But outside of that, business continues in the face of incidents such as these. Why should the NFL be any different?
Indeed, there are those who might argue that this IS different, because… I don’t know. Because it’s in the news? Because we care more? Because we know, when we get in our cars and drive to the stadium, that something horrible happened and things are surreal whereas when we get in the car to go buy groceries we have no idea that the schlub who put the beans on the shelf three days ago shot himself in the loading dock?
We want the NFL to cancel today’s game because we feel it’s the right thing to do, and we accuse them of being selfish for not doing it. Maybe we should consider this: expecting them to halt business only serves to make US feel better, and in that respect we’re the ones being selfish for demanding they do so.
