Choke on this, Scumbel…

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Maybe. Either way, I wasn’t a fan of HBO’s Real Sports last week when they took a look into the Bryan Pata murder.

I thought James Brown did a good job with his investigative reporting, but par for the course, that idiot Bryant Gumbel had to get his two cents in after the fact. Those who watch the program know what I mean.

For those who don’t, Gumbel always feels the need to chime in and talk to his reporters about their findings. He oft comes across smug (when doesn’t he?) and very know-it-all, trying to one up the story’s reporter with some info he thought of that they didn’t. It reeks of arrogance and of a guy who thinks he’s above a sports program and should be prime time with his “journalism”.

No sooner does Brown’s segment end, when Gumbel asks about Pata’s character. Implying that there have to be some character issues with a guy who “gets in bar fights”, owns guns and drives a fancy car.

To Brown’s credit, he shut down a few of Gumbel’s accusations. Regarding the bar fights, he explained that is par for the course with a soon-to-be professional athlete. Pata was in a few altercations over a year-plus long span.

Brown also explained that in a city like Miami, a kid who has overcome adversity and escaped the rough neighborhoods – he’s going to get tried by the underachievers who didn’t get out and chose a life of crime. All it takes it scuffing a sneaker or bumping into a neighborhood rival in a club and it’s on.

As for Pata’s Infinity, Brown informed Scumbel that it was all legit. A relative helped him pay for it, which isn’t out of the norm for a kid with NFL aspirations. A future third round pick could easily pay back the payments on an SUV like that.

Two things that Brown left out which I found disappointing; the explanation of the guns as well as what Pata did regarding “summer jobs” to earn that money.

It’s common knowledge and has been reported in several instances that Pata had aspirations of joining the FBI someday when his playing career ended. Both he and former teammate Kareem Brown spoke of joining together. Pata was a gun enthusiast and loved to go shooting.

Does that explain the three (registered) guns in his apartment? I don’t know. But it’s certainly an important detail that HBO, Real Sports and Brown should’ve mentioned. By not doing so, it promotes that “Thug U” images which the University of Miami doesn’t deserve more than any other big time program out there.

As for those summer jobs, Pata was a car enthusiast and took pride in taking an old beater, fixing it up and turning into a work of art. While on the surface, his Infinity SUV may have looked tricked out and expensive to the average eye, Pata’s skills working on cars would more than allow him to do a lot of those upgrades and fixes on his own.

While it was nice to see Pata’s tragic story get some exposure this past week, it’s a shame they missed some key components to this story and it’s sick that a smug jerk like Gumbel got his uninformed two cents in after the fact.

.:Canes305:.

Comments

comments