(NewsNation) — Legendary broadcaster Bob Costas believes the rhetoric that New York City shooter Shane Tamura had a “legitimate grudge” against the NFL is absurd.
According to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Tamura was attempting to enter the NFL’s floor inside 345 Park Avenue, where he killed four people, but took the wrong elevator.
Tamura reportedly had a three-page suicide note inside his pocket, which claimed he had a brain injury from a contact sport and blamed the National Football League. Tamura, who played high school football, reportedly wanted his brain studied after his death.
“CTE and football are inseparable, but the idea that this guy had a legitimate grudge against the NFL is ridiculous,” Costas told NewsNation.
“The NFL in the last decade has responded as best they possibly can. Unless you’re going to stop playing football, you can only make it less dangerous. You can’t make it completely safe.
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“But this guy played only high school football. The guy is out of his mind. He had mental health issues, and just because he targeted the NFL shouldn’t make people think that there’s even a scintilla of justification or rationalization for what he did.”
Costas joined “CUOMO” on Tuesday for a discussion about how the age of social media has led to no guardrails for discourse and proliferates false narratives following tragedies such as the Monday shooting in Manhattan.
“There are no guidelines anymore… so-called legacy media, of course, it was flawed. It continues to be flawed. But there are standards, whether they fall short of them, on occasion, is not the point I’m making.
“The point I’m making is that there is some accountability. There are some standards. In the grand morass of the internet, there are no standards,” Costas added.
The 29-time Emmy winner says “angry and vengeful people,” some of whom are the “prototypical loser in his mother’s basement,” are “disproportionately represented” on social media.
“Generally speaking, on the internet, things are binary. Nuance is not only not prized, it gets in the way,” he added.
