Hold That Line: No Rush(ing) in the NFL

So Rush Limbaugh wants to be a National Football League franchise owner! Can’t say we really blame him. The NFL is one of the wealthiest businesses in the world…far and away the most successful professional sports league North America has ever seen…and to be part of that exclusive fraternity would really say something about a guy.

That’s why it wasn’t all that surprising when ‘Java the Hutt’ went public the other day with news that he was partnering with Dave Checketts, owner of the National Hockey League’s St. Louis Blues, in a bid to purchase the NFL’s St. Louis Rams. But to this long-time fan, the idea that the National Football League would actually ever approve Limbaugh as a franchise owner and operator is, in a word, preposterous.

“Why”, you might ask? Well, as has been the case with every other major sports league and organization in America, including the NCAA for those who either can’t or won’t remember, the NFL has worked long and hard, and continues to work incessantly, to bury its racist past and become known as a league of non-discrimination and inclusiveness. So why in the world would they want to flush all that hard-earned progress down the toilet by welcoming an unapologetic bigot like Limbaugh as a partner?

“Prove it”, you say! Alright, consider these quotes, taken mostly from his radio show, a few of which relate directly to the NFL:

“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
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“I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They’re interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think there’s a little hope invested in (Donavan) McNabb and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn’t deserve.”
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“I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”
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“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”
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“They (African Americans) are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
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To an African American caller to his radio show…“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
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“You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray” (the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King). “We miss you, James. Godspeed.”
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How does any of that fit in with the image the NFL is trying to project? To be blunt, it doesn’t… not now and hopefully not ever. Leave America’s ‘Fat Bastard’ (what can we say…today’s the day for movie references!) where he belongs …with his dittoheads. They deserve each other!

Voices of adamant opposition to Limbaugh’s inclusion as an NFL owner are already being heard…perhaps predictably led by activists Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. But there are others, equally if not more significant, the National Football League Players’ Association, at least one team owner, and several individual players among them.

NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith has contacted Commissioner Roger Goodell and written an e-mail to his union’s executive committee trying to rally support against the Limbaugh bid. In it he said in part…“Sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred.”

Speaking as an outside, albeit keenly interested, observer, ESPN Radio’s Mike Greenberg said of the NFL…"They are a machine. They are so overwhelmingly popular. They don't need the additional attention. I don't see there's a whole lot of upside for them and it is obvious what some of the downside could be."

Responding to such a widespread outpouring from those who don’t want to see him become, in any way, part of the NFL, Limbaugh had this to say on his radio show. “They have to go somewhere, find concocted quotes which are now bordering on slander, libel, whatever it is, and I never said, and they believe it.” The problem for him is that these quotes, and many others, are all part of the public record…as is the case with anything that’s said by anyone on radio or television. It can only be considered a ‘concocted quote’ if it’s not on tape for everyone to hear.

In any case, the ball is now in the NFL’s hands. They would undoubtedly risk serious legal repercussions if they didn’t give the Limbaugh/Checketts application due consideration. But those would pale in comparison to the public blowback they would experience if they ever actually accepted this bigoted blowhard into their fraternity.

Limbaugh may not actually be a racist…although from this perspective it would appear fairly obvious that he is…but the fact is that that’s what he plays on the radio. That’s how he has chosen to come across in his public persona…and there should be no place for that in an increasingly more integrated and purportedly inclusive entity like the NFL.

Truth to tell, there should really be no place for Limbaugh’s kind of divisiveness and “hate evangelism” anywhere in the world today. Sadly there’s apparently still a market for it though, because his long-running, syndicated radio show is hugely successful. But that doesn’t make it okay or acceptable. It just means that in spite of the progress we believe we’ve made as a society towards true, all-encompassing tolerance, obviously we’ve still got a very long way to go.


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