there are times when inevitably if tommy smith and john carlos give it this at give it this at the '96mpics. steroids, whatever it may be -- >> there's no separating the two, you say. >> there are times when, when sports becomes not only a place, but at times the place to talk about certain social issues. >> when you deliver that commentary, you chose largely to quote someone else, jason whitlock. why did you do that as opposed to saying here is what i, bob costas, think. >> if i thought what they said was worthwhile. in this case because i had so little time, i thought what whitlock said was worthy, plus, he's from kansas city, although this is not entirely a problem as it relates to football that is connected to african-american players, the large majority of players in the nfl are african-american. jason whitlock is an afric african-american columnist and jovan belcher was african-american. he might have had better insight. the time element was important here. i said this and it was lost on a lot of people. i said that in the aftermath of tragedies in sports, you always hear the min