A SHOCKING ACT: Jovan Belcher, who killed his girlfriend before driving to Arrowhead Stadium and taking his own life, leaves behind many questions about what set the Kansas City linebacker down a violent and tragic path. (
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The first reaction is a simple one: We want an answer. How? Why?
We want to know how this can happen, need to understand how a 25-year-old kid with everything to live for can snap like a brittle twig, can end up with a gun in his hands, can snuff two lives — including his own — on a mild December morning in middle America.
When Jovan Belcher killed his 22-year-old girlfriend — in the presence of his own mother — and then, later, killed himself — in the presence of his own bosses and as police were arriving — he was a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, and that’s why we even know about this, why this murder-suicide was more notable than the 600 that occur in this country every year.
Of course there is more, and so it turns out Belcher was a Long Island kid, out of West Babylon High who also was a terrific scholastic wrestler, a high achiever who earned a full ride to the University of Maine, who made the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent, who according to tweets and statements by his devastated co-workers was a terrific teammate, and according to newspaper clippings and video highlights an engaged member of whatever community he was a part of.
CHIEFS LB FATALLY SHOOTS GIRLFRIEND, KILLS SELF IN FRONT OF COACH & GM
BELCHER MOURNED BY LONG ISLAND HOMETOWN
BELCHER DEATH STUNS CHIEFS, NFL COMMUNITY
“Jovan is an impressive young man. He looks you in the eye. He chooses his words wisely. He’s got an internal confidence,” Maine coach Jack Cosgrove told the Portland Press-Herald in 2008.
And we return to the basics. How? Why?
Because he is a football player, we wonder if — and maybe even hope for — concussions to be a culprit. We have learned so much about the impact of playing a game that so often involves using the skull as a leveraging tool; Ex-Giant Dave Duerson shot himself in the chest two years ago so doctors could study his brain for the damage football had done to it. Junior Seau, a future Hall of Famer, did likewise in May.
But Belcher was only 25. He had just become a father. From all accounts, there were no warning signs, no red flags. Just one awful morning, one horrific decision, two shattered lives — three, if you include, as you must, his 3-month-old daughter. Kansas City is a town that loves and lives for its football team, even in awful seasons as this 1-10 campaign has been. It is hurting today, too. Badly.
“Think about your worst nightmare,” the city’s mayor, Sly James, said yesterday, “and multiply it by five.”
An athlete killed his girlfriend, killed himself, left their child an orphan. And we want to know what’s completely unknowable.
How? Why?