NFL QB Facing Massive Backlash After Checking Off Dangerous 'Bucket List' Item
The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson was correct when described nature as “red in tooth and claw.” That’s the hand you’re dealt when you live in a broken world. One would think football fans would know this. Football is a smash mouth sport.
When Super Bowl-winning quarterback Carson Wentz posted a picture on the Wentz Bros Outdoor Instagram account of him kneeling next to a dead black bear, it ignited the ire of would-be animal lovers who presumably follow the NFL.
Wentz killed the bear with a bow and arrow on a hunting trip to Alaska. He said the bear hunt was on his “bucket list,” according to the New York Post.
“Got the opportunity to spot and stalk black bear in one of our new favorite places on earth— Alaska!” Wentz posted. “Incredible trip and an incredible animal!”
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The Wentz brothers, Carson and Zach, are no strangers to hunting. They’ve shared other hunts — including turkeys, deer, and ducks, to the Instagram account. FYI: hunting black bears is legal in Alaska. All you have to do is follow the rules. Nobody is claiming Wentz killed the bear illegally.
Wentz may have been happy with the kill, but not everyone was smiling along with the former Philadelphia Eagle (Wentz last saw action in the Washington Commanders’ Week 17 loss to the Browns).
One Instagram naysayer responded with, “Hope next time bear wins and you lay down.”
Another wrote, “Incredible animal so you kill it?? Makes sense.”
“That’s just awful! I can’t believe you killed a bear for sport. Changed my whole perspective of you,” complained another.
And another: “We know your football career is over, so you have to do another thing for a living. But this is not the way! Respect the animals, the nature. It’s not for your fun.”
And another: “Killing for fun. Glad the Eagles dumped you. Focus on getting better at throwing the ball than your ‘bucket list.’”
One commentator went so far as to post, “christ follower yet ur killing his création for sport.” (Wentz has always proudly worn his Christian faith on his sleeve.)
You get the picture. There’s no way to tell for sure if the angry naysayers were liberals or not, but the safe bet would be they would — at the very least — lean left.
From these kinds of responses, one might think that Carson Wentz had strolled into the Garden of Eden and slaughtered a peace-loving black bear as it cuddled next to sleeping baby elk. It makes one wonder if any of the naysayers have been close enough to a bear to shoot it with a bow. Bears have big teeth, stink and their claws can cut through flesh like a hot knife through lard.
There’s a reason hunting is legal. It’s not allowed so toxic male throwbacks can satisfy some ancient bloodlust.
Hunters are extremely important to the environment, especially predator hunters. Wild predators do not regulate their own populations, so humans do it for them. Predator control helps keep other animals like deer and smaller prey from being decimated. If the predators were allowed to breed and hunt unchecked, they would soon be starving to death themselves for having killed too much of the viable prey.
Speaking of deer, imagine if hunting whitetail was suddenly outlawed. There’s already and overpopulation problem in some parts of the country such as Pennsylvania. Soon enough, there’d be so many of them they’d be starving to death. Disease would run rampant. You could call it a deer holocaust.
The argument could be made if humans just stayed out of it altogether, nature would — after a devastating period of adjustment — balance itself out. This is naïve. Humans — like it or not –are part of nature as well. We can’t just step outside of it. And no — it doesn’t matter what kind of virtual reality glasses you’re wearing.
Humans are here to serve as stewards of nature. Oftentimes we do a really crappy job. Wildlife management, however, protects wildlife by monitoring and controlling their respective populations. Balance is achieved through game management. And it’s not cheap.
Hunters spend millions of dollars on tags and lobbying to help keep hunting areas preserved and free from human development which gives the animals a place to live.
Is it a perfect world? No. It’s a broken world. Wildlife management is a good-faith attempt to make the best of that fact. Hunters are a key part of that balancing act.
I wonder if any of the naysayers have ever hunted and killed an animal? Probably not. In all likelihood, they stroll into the grocery store, go to the packaged meat section and pick out a nice marbled cut. Or maybe they go to a restaurant to have a steak served to them on a sizzling platter. Or, maybe they’re vegetarians.
Whatever the case, the anti-hunting crowd might consider backpacking into the Alaskan wilderness for a time to get a dose of reality. Either that or be a good spectator and order some pepperoni pizza and watch live sports on TV.
Not all the comments on Wentz’s Instagram were negative.
“Holy s*** man! Need a taste of em,” former Commander’s teammate Taylor Heinicke said.
“Well done. Congrats,” former Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler added.
Notice that these comments came from real NFL players, not spectators. That gives them — in most people’s mind anyway — a bit more credibility.
As for Wentz? He’s back from hunting. According to the Post, Wentz, who was released by Washington last February, has been studying film with Jon Gruden.
Maybe hunting will get him ready for an NFL comeback.
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