CBS NFL Analyst Jay Feely Created Trouble When He Posed With a Gun in His Daughter’s Prom Photo
Former NFL kicker Jay Feely appears to have a bright future at CBS Sports.
Since he made his final kick in 2014, Feely has become a vital part of the network’s NFL coverage. Feely is currently working with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, along with the rest of the No. 1 broadcast team, in the 2020-21 postseason.
As he reports from the sideline and provides insight on kicks, Feely should be grateful that a controversial 2018 photo involving a gun and his daughter didn’t cost him his job.
Jay Feely is an NFL kicker-turned-CBS analyst
Jay Feely had a long and productive kicking career before he picked up a microphone.
Across 14 seasons with six teams, Feely hit 82.6% of his field-goal attempts and 99.3% of his extra points. In nine career playoff games, Feely went 11-of-16 on field goals and a perfect 19-of-19 on extra-point tries.
Feely joined CBS Sports in 2014 and has served in multiple roles. During the regular season, Feely works as a game analyst and occasional sideline reporter.
Feely joins Tracy Wolfson as a sideline reporter for the network’s No. 1 broadcast team during the playoffs each year. CBS also moves Evan Washburn, the No. 2 team’s sideline reporter, to the top team as the postseason moves along.
Feely infamously posed with a gun in his daughter’s prom photo
Jay Feely created a massive stir in the spring of 2018 with a photo and a gun.
With his daughter about to leave for her high school prom, Feely posed for a photo with her and her boyfriend, who served as her date that night.
The picture quickly went viral because Feely held a gun. Feely posted the photo on April 21, 2018, over two months after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla.
Seventeen people, including 14 students and three staff members, died that day.
Feely clarified the photo in a separate tweet.
“The prom picture I posted was obviously intended to be a joke. My Daughter has dated her boyfriend for over a year and they knew I was joking. I take gun safety seriously (the gun was not loaded and had no clip in) and I did not intend to be insensitive to that important issue.”
CBS did not publicly announce if the network disciplined Feely for the incident.
Jay Feely received mixed feedback over the photo
Jay Feely’s controversial photo left many divided over its taste and if he should be punished — or, for some, if social media overreacted.
In an essay for Business Insider, Leah Rocketto criticized Feely for joking about gun violence. Rocketto also wrote about the “message behind Feely’s photo.”
“To many, this photo promotes the idea that women, particularly young ones, are incapable of making decisions that won’t lead to trouble; that they can’t defend themselves and need a man to do it for them — bonus points if it’s done with violence.”
On the other side of the spectrum was ESPN’s Will Cain, who defended Feely on the former’s radio show.
Cain explained how Feely and the gun referenced an “old joke” about fathers using shotguns to warn their daughter’s dates about getting them home on time.
“He shouldn’t apologize,” Cain said of Feely. “It’s not illegal to own a gun in the United States. It is actually a protective right in the United States. It’s not insensitive to own a gun … no one is doing the things that you’re connecting in your brain.”
Feely has had no further social media controversies since the 2018 incident.
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