Right off the top, under no circumstances should the NFL allow the Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs to play a football game following the murder/suicide incident involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher on Saturday morning.

The fourth-year linebacker killed his girlfriend on Saturday, drove to Kansas City’s team facility, reportedly thanked general manager Scott Pioli and head coach Romeo Crennel, and then shot himself moments later.

I’m not sure how a community can go into a stadium and get their minds centered on football so soon after such an event.

However, based off of early reports, it appears the NFL is going forward with plans for Carolina to take on Kansas City on Sunday afternoon.

I’m sure there will be plenty of outrage over this decision from a few aspects:

1. What matters more? Someone’s life or football? 
2. The murder/suicide took place in the same city that a game will take place on Sunday. It seems like a a rather shallow concept to play a football game.

Those points could be ones that echo for narrative from sports scribes over the next 24 hours when delving into whether the game should be played.

Unfortunately, the NFL is closer to the professional wrestling thought process of “the show must go on concept”.

When professional wrestler Owen Hart died in-ring during a pay-per-view back in May 1999, WWE head honcho Vince McMahon let the show continue.

One of the few times the show did not go on happened in June 2007 when wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife, son, and himself within hours of a WWE pay-per-view and the company’s Monday Night Raw program.

McMahon decided to cancel Raw instead of piling folks into an arena.

While few high-profile murder cases in American history top the grisly nature of the Benoit story, Belcher’s case should be handled by the NFL in a similar fashion.

The show doesn’t need to go on at Arrowhead tomorrow.

Unfortunately, history suggests otherwise.

Outside of work stoppages and weather issues, the NFL doesn’t cancel games.

Postpone them? Yes.

Canceling them altogether? Nope.

Days after the assassination of the President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the NFL played instead of postponing or canceling action altogether.

Meanwhile, the rival American Football League opted to reschedule their games for a later date.

When the 9/11 attacks occurred in 2001, the league went dark for a week but eventually readjusted their schedule to get all 16 games in while granting just a regular week of rest between the conference championship games.

While the NFL appears at times to be sensitivity to the human condition, they are also sensitive about another thing.

Money.

Any effort to play this game on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, reeks of somebody trying to collect a payday. I’d hope that the NFL realizes that a game that ultimately has little football relevancy (outside of who might pick first in the 2013 NFL Draft), doesn’t need to take place under these circumstances.

This game should be canceled and not rescheduled at all.

Forcing the Panthers and Chiefs to play a game at any point in the next few days shows a lack of common sense and a lack of respect to those involved.

Tomorrow is not the time to worry about ratings, attendance, and revenue in Kansas City.

Losing a life matters far more than a football game.