Right wing conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from the group of investors that want to purchase the St. Louis Rams. Evidently this is some kind of victory for civil rights activists because some of them balked at the idea of someone like Rush Limbaugh, who’s made several racially insensitive comments over the years on his popular radio show, owning a football team.
The difference with Limbaugh and every other rich white guy in his late 50’s is that Limbaugh says what he says in public.
Even though I’m a tree hugging liberal, I’ve always admired Rush Limbaugh. Not because I agree with his politics, because I don’t, but because he’s very good at what he does. If you are a fan of talk radio, you cannot help but notice that he is the best at what he does. There are many other right wing radio talk show hosts on the air, but none are as good at what they do as Limbaugh.
Does Limbaugh say some outrageous stuff that borders on racism? Perhaps, but that’s his job. He’s a conservative talk radio host that talks for a living. He has a massive audience and he knows what they want to hear. Is he a racist? Maybe, but why would a racist want to own a team that plays in a league where most of the players are black? If Limbaugh is a racist, maybe the thing he needs to do is to interact with more black people, something he would easily be able to do if he was a part owner of an NFL team.
Steve
/ October 15, 2009Yeah, I don’t see what the big deal was with this one, either. The only thing that makes Rush any different from the other conservative radio all-stars is that he’s a lot better at it than Hannity or Levin, and not quite as nuts as Beck. If he wanted to buy an NFL team, that’s his business, and if his fellow investors wanted to drop him from the deal to get approval from the league, that’s their business.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about football in the first place, but I find it hard to believe the NFL would have been either better or worse off for having Rush Limbaugh as part-owner of the St. Louis Rams. Pushing Limbaugh out is yet another depressing, pointless non-victory for the civil rights movement.
Lee B.
/ October 15, 2009And who was leading the charge against Rush?
That would be Head Racist and Chief Assbag Al Sharpton.
Yeah, the pot has called the kettle black. That makes the pot a racist. And the wooden spoon, because it knows the pot. And the garlic press, for not sending reparations to the kettle.
Bentcorner
/ October 15, 2009If Al Sharpton has that much power with the NFL, I wonder if he can do anything about getting the Raiders taken away from Al Davis.
Dennis G.
/ October 15, 2009Tree hugging liberal eh? What kind of trees do you hug, thorn trees?
The NFL is a private business as a Football League that makes it’s own rules that everyone in it must abide by and for at least the past three or so years have been coming down on players hard and their on and off field conduct. The owners and coaches are under heavy scrutiny and sometimes comes under heavy fines too for saying or doing things in any other business would be minor and of no consequence but not in the NFL. The have their standards and have had them a long time about who they allowed to own a team.
Some professions exclude people from being an owner as Jerry DeBartolo can tell you when he later got wrapped up in the gambling business and then was tempted and crossed a line then he excluded himself from owning the San Francisco 49ers. Jerry should have known the league does not want owners being involved in gambling.
The league does not like loud mouth owners that criticize officials, the league office or make any kind of controversial statement especially bordering on race. That taboo has weighed heavily on players and coaches and even announcers and commentators as far back as Howard Cosell and Jimmy the Greek Snyder and helped end their careers. The NFL for all practical purposes is show business and has to appeal to a large audience and they do not want to invite trouble into their mist.
Now if the nature of Rush Limbaugh’s business is to be loud, controversial and unappealing to many people and the NFL does not want him it is their right and their business. If he wants to own a NFL team so bad then he can get out of his business he is in then watch his mouth and maybe buy in.
Maybe the NHL would welcome him as an owner because they are almost totally white with a few blacks but I doubt even they would want him.
Jesse Jace
/ October 16, 2009Rush needed this window of opportunity slammed hard on his fingers. Freedom of speech is not the same as a license for irresponsibility. When people like Limbaugh rail against political correctness, it comes across to me as despair at having to face the consequences that result from saying dumb things. I only regret that Rush so seldom feels the repercussions of his own stupidity.
Bentcorner
/ October 16, 2009I guess I’d feel differently if the current NFL owners weren’t such a bunch of asshats.
Judy
/ October 17, 2009The thing about Rush is that none of what they accused him of saying was true. I have listened to him for about 20 years and he has NEVER said a racist thing on the air. It is not in his makeup to make comments that could be considered racist. For heavens sake his 2nd in comand is black (Bo). He is a class act, from a wonderful family that he loves greatly. Some people just can't stand it when someone speaks the truth and it isn't what they are saying. Rush Limbaugh has been proven to be right in everything he says for all these long 20+ years. He is observed by a non-bias group for three month intervals. He's been proven to be 99.5% correc in the most recent report. I only heard two things he got wrong in 20+ years, talking for 3 hours a day, for 5 days a week. And that was when he guessed a Steelers score wrong and he said Hillary wouldn't run for the senate.
Now, who really looks stupid?
Bentcorner
/ October 17, 2009You do Judy. You do.
There’s no denying that Limbaugh has made some raciest comments over the years. Just the other day he was calling for school buses to be segregated. That white kids and black kids should ride to and from school in different buses.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/17/limbaugh-segregated-busing/
A recovering drug addict that calls for racial segregation probably shouldn’t whine and cry when they are barred from owning an NFL team.
tony
/ October 18, 2009No NFL team for Limbass. GOOD.