BRYAN PATA

As you already know, Miami Hurricane defensive tackle Bryan Pata was shot to death last night in the parking lot outside of his apartment building. I never met Bryan Pata and I have not covered a Miami Hurricane game in years. But I am a sportswriter, and Miami is a high-profile program, and it's been especially in the news this season--for all the wrong reasons.

And so here is what I know: I don't know.

Over the course of the 24-hour news cycle, there is tremendous pressure--especially at one high-profile cable network--to opine on all matters related to big-time sports. There's Cold Pizza, where Woody and Skip always have to have an opinion, and there's Mike & Mike, who also have an opinion, and then there's Rome is Burning, and there's Around the Horn, and Pardon the Interruption, and here's what I think: whether or not you're paid to give an opinion, unless you personally knew Bryan Pata, or unless you have some relevant information about his death, then if you're talking about this on TV all you're doing is rubber-necking.

You don't know.

I was 13 years old. It was a quiet Friday night. My teenage sister was out and my older teenage brother, a freshman at Arizona State, was also out. The phone rang, and my dad answered it. In the next 15 to 20 seconds my dad, for the first time in my life, was unrecognizably panicked. I'd never seen him like that before, and I haven't since. My brother had gone to a party and, if you don't mind me omitting the details, was assaulted and nearly died.

When I watched the video of Bryan Pata's mother arriving at the crime scene last night, crying out, "My baby!" and--bizarrely--wearing her son's replica jersey, I am reminded of that Friday night. I am not a parent, and so I cannot even begin to imagine the grief that Pata's mother must be feeling this evening.

But I do know enough to say that his death is a tragedy and not to derive any greater meaning about the state of the Miami football program from it. Today is a very sad and a very trying day for anyone on the Miami football team, for anyone within the Miami family. If you work at a sports outlet and know any of them personally, the best thing that you can do is send your condolences.

If you don't know them, the best thing you can do is zip it. Or, if you're so inclined, say a prayer.

There are journalists in Miami right now who are investigating the story as the murder that it likely is, and they are just doing their jobs. But if you're sitting in a television or radio studio a hundred miles or more from Coral Gables and you haven't been to a Miami practice or game in years, then maybe you can honor the player, his mother, and the team by simply not fulminating about things which you really don't know.

My brother, I am happy to say, is now 45, married, still cannot beat me in basketball, and has three of the most beautiful and smartest daughters you'd ever want to meet. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without him, my sister-in-law and my three nieces. And so I cannot imagine the pain that Ronette Pata, Bryan's mom, must be feeling this evening.

I remember a certain high-profile baseball analyst who was fired by ESPN last summer over an embarrassing alleged transgression. And I remember absolutely no one at ESPN providing a single on-air opinion about what happened. And, whether they like it or not in Bristol, that was news.

As is this. But it's also a far more grave situation. So, maybe this time, instead of opining about how Pata's death relates to any gun-related incidents from last summer, or an on-field fight last month, maybe, unless you have proof that his death is in any way related to those events, maybe you just keep quiet and wish Miami the best.