There are certain events in this world that make sports seem very insignificant. The actions taken by Jovan Belcher this past weekend fall into that category.
Belcher, a 25-year-old linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, to death early Saturday morning before driving to the Chiefs practice facility, where he then took his own life.
Belcher’s teammates were faced with an unimaginable dilemma—mourn for their lost teammate and his girlfriend, or carry on with their schedule as planned and face off against the Carolina Panthers just over 24 hours after Belcher committed suicide in full view of several Kansas City staffers.
Unanimously, the Chiefs chose to play Sunday, defeating the Panthers 27-21 to earn just their second win of the season.
“None of the options were good,” team captain Ryan Lilja said in an interview with ESPN. “The least worst option was to play. There was no precedent for this, and I don’t know if it was the right or wrong choice. But we chose to do it together.”
Sometimes the best thing a person can do after the loss of a loved one is to keep going with their regular routine. It would not be the same, of course, but it can help keep their mind off a tragic situation like this one.
That is one of the greatest things about sports—they offer an escape from the real world, even if it’s only for a few hours. The Chiefs could have skipped Sunday’s game and nobody would have blamed them for it, but by playing, they brought their team together in a way unlike any other.
They gained a leader. Quarterback Brady Quinn played perhaps the best game of his NFL career, but it was his profound press conference after the game that made the biggest impact.
“The one thing people can hopefully try to take away, I guess, is the relationships they have with people,” Quinn said. “I know when it happened, I was sitting and, in my head, thinking what I could have done differently. When you ask someone how they are doing, do you really mean it? When you answer someone back how you are doing, are you really telling the truth?”
They gained a General. Head coach Romeo Crennel, one of the witnesses to Belcher’s suicide, brought his players together and, in the wake of tragedy, got them to put together their most complete 60 minutes of gameplay this season.
But most importantly, they gained an identity. Sitting at 1-10 before Sunday, the Chiefs were arguably the NFL’s most irrelevant team, but by going through this heartbreak—together—they have endeared themselves in the hearts of fans across the country. They will not make the playoffs this year, but you can rest assured that no team will compete harder through the last month of the regular season than Kansas City.
I won’t say that Belcher’s actions “put things in perspective” (you’re welcome, Bob Costas), but I will say that this tragic event should act as a reminder that sports are just played by people—people who are open to the same problems that you and I face every day. And I think we forget that sometimes.
“Hopefully, people can learn from this and try to actually help if someone is battling something deeper on the inside than what they are revealing on a day-to-day basis,” Quinn said.
We as fans tend to put a barrier between athletes and ourselves. We look at them as supermen who have somehow been placed above the rest of us average folk. Truth is, just because someone is good at football (or any sport), it doesn’t mean their personal life is in order.
That was the case with Belcher. We may never know what set him off that night, but whatever it was, I can be sure that it wasn’t worth ending two lives and orphaning their newborn child.
The families, friends and teammates who loved Belcher or Perkins are now left to pick up the pieces and try to carry on.
Many know that the Dallas Cowboys hold the title of “America’s team,” but for the remainder of the 2012 season, the Kansas City Chiefs should be everybody’s team.
Did you think Kansas City should have played Sunday? What did you think of the Chiefs’ performance? Email Matt at sports@dailycardinal.com.
