Bob Costas is loved by many for his opinions in the world of sports. However, he is coming under a lot of heat after his weekly editorial segment during the halftime show of Sunday Night Football for using the time to turn the tragic murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend, one that left a child orphaned in a matter of moments, into an excuse to preach in favor of stricter gun control laws.

His segment starts out nicely enough, and I thought originally that he was going to turn his argument about putting things in perspective into a thought on how people should cherish their loved ones every single day so as not to require a tragedy such as Belcher's to gain such perspective.

That's when things went downhill.

Costas begins talking about gun control and how handguns do nothing but harm, even quoting an article from sports writer Jason Whitlock speaking to that same end.

Now, before I go any further, let me just disclose that I do not particularly have a strong opinion on either side of the gun control debate, as there are a lot of grey areas on the subject.

With that said, there was no reason for Costas to go there during his segment last night. Using an incident as grim as this to push a political agenda, regardless of which side you agree with, is weak and shouldn't be resorted to by anyone, let alone someone who is generally held in high regard in the field such as Costas.

If he wanted to use his time to try to talk about what could have led to his mental state, something he simply brushed off by saying "who knows?" that would have been fine, because there's nothing divisive about caring about peoples' mental health. But picking the low hanging fruit that he did by going the political route was a huge misfire for Costas, and one that has been received poorly.

More From 104.5 THE TEAM