Bob Costas, Adrian Peterson, and Half-Assed Reporting
Hey Bob, thanks for the halftime lecture. I’m sure Redskins fan everywhere appreciated the insinuation that they’re racist for sporting the team logo. All that whining, even after you pointed out that pretty much no one, including Native Americans, are offended? Really? Way to go, Mr. Costas. I’m so glad you took the opportunity to run from a very real, very sad issue to take up one no one gives a d*mn about.
Meanwhile back in South Dakota, funeral plans are underway for two year old Tyrese Robert Ruffin. His tale is a familiar one. Mama moves the boyfriend in. Boyfriend is left in charge of a child he doesn’t give a d*mn about. Hours later he’s in a coma. No one, except perhaps Mama, is surprised to hear about boyfriend’s criminal past.
Joseph Patterson had a substantial arrest record before he beat Tyrese to death. Several assaults that included a woman and her three year old would raise red flags with most people. That he got near another child is criminal. Most of the time we hear these cases and our first reaction is, “what the hell was the mother thinking,” quickly followed by, “where the hell was this kid’s dad?”
Apparently he was in Minnesota, preparing for a football game.
The real tragedy is we wouldn’t even KNOW Tyrese were it not for his famous sperm donor “father” Adrian Peterson. The media, of course, ate it up. USA Today ran a story that mentioned Peterson in the first paragraph. They didn’t get around to naming the victim until the fourth. CNN ran a story headlined “Adrian Peterson plays through the pain of son’s death.” The AP, Reuters, Fox … they all ran stories about “Adrian Peterson’s son.” The sympathy poured in from every source possible.
At first I was horrified that Peterson chose to play so soon after the death of his son. But I reasoned it. It’s his way of coping, right? Everyone grieves differently. Still, burrowed in my mind was the fact that Tyrese essentially died alone. The only person to give him comfort was his mother. And she’s the one that invited a monster into his world, destroying it. It was as if Peterson had no emotional connection to him.
Oh, that’s right, he didn’t. The first time Peterson met Tyrese was last week. When he was in a coma. He didn’t even know he WAS the father until a couple of months ago. The man that raised Tyrese, Bobby Ruffin, had some choice words for AP. He took to Facebook, posting the following:
So tired of this poor Adrian Peterson sh*t. Let me blow all your minds. The boy who died was my son. Yes A.P. he was the biological father but I raised him and he carried my name. Tyrese Robert Ruffin. I don’t blame AP for not really caring cuz him and I both found out recently who the biological father was. AP met my son for the first time yesterday when my son was already in coma. I was here today when we pulled the plug, not him. He was happily practicing and has no problem playing on Sunday. So yea this isn’t all out yet but I’m sick of the poor AP sh*t. He didn’t know or even meet my son. Sorry for the outburst but put yourself in my place.
The media made the choice to run with the “Poor Adrian” story, completely ignoring the man that really had an emotional connection to this child. A man whose life was turned upside down. First finding out that his son wasn’t really his and then losing him at the hands of yet another man mere months later.
The media ignored the truth in exchange for the BS that sells papers. Peterson is just another famous athlete with too much time and too few condoms during the off season. As long as these guys are scoring touchdowns or making baskets it doesn’t matter how many children they leave in their wake. And the women that indulge them are no better. What are you hoping for? A ring? Real, honest love isn’t found in the back of a limo or the VIP room of the latest club.
Tyrese died because the adults in his life were selfish b*st*rds, only concerned with their own needs. A fling. A meal ticket. A little fame. Different reasons born of the same inward-looking attitude.
Bob, maybe next week instead of lecturing the fans you could ask the players to start acting like the men they pretend to be for the cameras.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arvee50/6149066241/sizes/l/in/photostream/; author: Arvee5.0; Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
Links:
http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2013/10/13/bob-costas-halftime-essay-on-redskins-name/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/us/adrian-peterson-son-death/
http://globalgrind.com/2013/10/12/everything-we-know-about-joseph-joey-patterson-the-man-who-killed-adrian-petersons-son-photos/
http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/10/14/adrian-peterson-not-father-son-killed/
