Bob Costas Defends Gun Control and Other Political Stances on Late Night with Seth Meyers
During an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Bob Costas doubled down on statements he's made in support of gun control and other political topics.
Host Seth Meyers asked Costas about the criticisms he's received over making political statements on air, which prompted Costas give a thorough explanation of why he sometimes integrates politics into his broadcasts:
I'm not talking about Syria or the national debt, I'm talking about whatever may occasionally come up that is directly connected to sports. How the name of the Washington Redskins isn't a football issue, I have no idea. Who should be talking about that? Lou Dobbs.
Costas then re-iterated his concerns with gun culture in the NFL in reference to a previous speech he delivered on the topic during Sunday Night Football in 2012.:
How the fact that there is in fact a gun culture, no matter how you feel about the Second Amendment or gun control, leave that aside. There is a gun culture in sports
He then directly challenged opponents of his gun criticisms:
Here's what I would say to anybody who anytime they hear the word "guns" automatically goes off like they're going to repeal the Second Amendment. Let's make a bet you and me. Let's say over the next five years, we'll do a Google search -- we'll have an independent party monitor it. You keep track of how many good and constructive things are associated with athletes having a gun, and I'll keep track of all the tragedies and criminality and folly. And let's see who comes out ahead or behind as the case may be.
Finally, Costas defended the comments he made during this year's Winter Olympics, when he said on air that the Sochi Olympics are Vladimir Putin's Olympics and that "no amount of Olympic glory can mask those realities any more than a biathlon gold medal, though hard-earned and deeply satisfying as it is, can put out the fires in Kiev.":
If the Olympics were in Paris, you wouldn't talk about Vladimir Putin and unlikely you'd talk about controversies surrounding the French because they're not that overwhelming internationally. I don't know how you can do an Olympics in Sochi and not talk about the specter of Vladimir Putin.
