NEWS BLOG (WSAU) If you listen to WSAU you know me as the morning news anchor. That’s my job on the radio. If that’s all you know of me, I’m a caricature.

I love jazz. My ideal night out is a fancy dinner and a live theater performance. I build model trains in my spare time. I write. The Packers are must-see-TV for me. I consider myself a good father to my four children. Yet you probably think of me as just ‘the news guy’.

Bob Costas is like that, too. You and I probably think of him as the sports host. The big football game comes on, and there he is during the pregame and halftime show. ‘Tell us about the game, Bob,’ we think to ourselves.

Well, Bob Costas is no different than me. He has interests, likes, passions and pastimes that are outside of his role on NBC Sunday Night Football. I believe Costas is a news junkie – he’s well-versed on the issues of the day beyond sports and can speak intelligently on those topics. And on Sunday, his interest in sports and news intersected. During his sports commentary he spoke in support of gun control after the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide.

I disagree with Costas. But I also disagree with people who want to put him back in the stereotyped ‘sportscaster’ box. Two of his interests – sports and news/current events – intersected. He voiced his opinion during a segment of the halftime show that’s usually devoted to sports-commentary. His opinion was well-reasoned and intelligently stated, even though it may differ from mine and yours. But today a sportscaster-turned-news-commentator is being lambasted for going over some imaginary line that we’ve created in our minds. In reality, he’s done nothing wrong.

Chris Conley
12/3/12