JAVON BELCHER SHOULD BE FORGOTTEN

When I saw a picture of the shrine the Kansas City Chiefs made to Javon Belcher
inside their locker room, I realized, more than ever, that professional athletes just
don't get it. They live inside a vacuum and a world that has no sense of reality.
Nobody can be like them, because in their world, they are more gifted than the
rest of us.

Belcher's jersey is prominently displayed in his locker, as if he was some kind of
hero who died while saving a life instead of selfishly taking one. His helmet rests
on a bolt like he was a highly-respected warrior in a football tribe, instead of
the despicable beast he was, one who went on a jealously-fueled rage and snuffed
out the life of the mother of his child.

We heard from players who said Belcher was "a great teammate", even though
he cared nothing about them as he stayed out all night before an upcoming game.
In fact, Belcher was so committed to his team, not to mention his family, that he
was out partying with another woman and slept in his Bentley outside of her
apartment shortly before killing Kasandra Perkins.

And what about Kasandra Perkins, the mother of Belcher's three-month old
daughter? Nobody is making a shrine to her. She only spent 22 years on this
planet before Belcher pumped five bullets into her, ending her life.

Nobody is talking much about Perkins because she was just a regular person
trying to raise a child and find her way in life. She wasn't a football star, who
played on television while making millions of dollars. She wasn't a celebrity
like Belcher, so somehow, people don't seem to value her life as much as a
man who tackled people for a living.

Belcher's uniform shouldn't be left hanging in the Chiefs locker room. It should
be boxed and buried somewhere. He didn't value the life of the mother of his
child, nor his own. He sold out his teammates, coaches, and and organization
who took a chance on him and paid him millions of dollars. They shouldn't pay
tribute to Belcher, instead, they should just try to forget about the person he
really was.

Javon Belcher was a murderer. If a person who wasn't an NFL star did the
same thing, killing a defenseless woman, nobody would think very highly of
them, which is how people should be thinking of Belcher, no matter how good
a football player he was.