Jason Whitlock: Bob Costas Is ‘a Guy Who is Clearly Anti-Football’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
CARLSON: "And Bob Costas appears to be kicked off the Super Bowl pregame slow. He predicted a grim future for football due to concussions is. There a connection? Grayson Whitlock would know. He’s from FS1 and hosts “Speak for yourself.” Do you think there’s a connection between Costas mentioning the CTE problem, the concussion problem and getting booted off the show?"
WHITLOCK: "Yeah. I want to be clear. I have a great deal of respect for Bob Costas. He’s one of the great broad casters of my lifetime. He stated that football kills your brain, and I think NBC has made this absolute right decision in removing him from the Super Bowl. And I think Bob is a great broadcaster. But it’s that platform, the Super Bowl, is for a celebration of a game that I think is great. It is high risk. It is a combat sport. No different than boxing, no different than UFC or mixed martial arts. There’s some risk to it. The players are very well compensated. It’s a great game. It’s not a platform for a guy who is clearly anti-football."
CARLSON: "So you think — you can’t be pro football and concerned about the brain damage?"
WHITLOCK: "You can absolutely be concerned about it. I’m a former college football player. I’m concerned about the brain damage. But I do not think football kills your brain. I do not think that football is so dangerous that we need to be moving away from football. Look, man, life is a game of risks. Football has done many, many things for many, many people like myself. Football is responsible — partially special for moving me from poverty to a college campus to a successful life. Again, I think we’re so caught up in concussions and we’re judging feel in a way that we’re not judging other sports. You can go to a boxing match. When someone gets knocked out, you can stand and cheer. We have turned football, if someone hits hard, we say oh, my God, let’s have a prayer vigil. Let’s quit enjoying the game. Football is what it is. It has nothing to be ashamed of."
