Limbaugh Won’t Get His NFL Team
Several groups have now spoken out in opposition to the bid by Rush Limbaugh to buy the St. Louis Rams. First, there’s the player’s union:
NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith on Saturday made a move to solidify the union against a bid by conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh as part of a group that aims to purchase the St. Louis Rams.
In an e-mail to the union’s executive committee on Saturday specifically addressing Limbaugh’s bid, Smith said, “I’ve spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages. But 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.”
I don’t think this is a big surprise. Several players have already spoken out against the idea. Now, at least one owner and the NFL Commissioner have also rejected the idea:
Rush Limbaugh’s bid to buy the St. Louis Rams ran into opposition within the NFL on Tuesday. Colts owner Jim Irsay vowed to vote against him, and commissioner Roger Goodell said the conservative commentator’s “divisive” comments would not be tolerated from any NFL insider.
“I, myself, couldn’t even consider voting for him,” Irsay said at an owners meetings. “When there are comments that have been made that are inappropriate, incendiary and insensitive … our words do damage, and it’s something that we don’t need.”
…
“Divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about,” commissioner Roger Goodell said. “I would not want to see those kind of comments from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL.”
Limbaugh is playing the victim/censorship card, but Media Matters has documented some of Limbaugh’s statements:
*”We are being told that we have to hope [Obama] succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black.”
*”I do believe” Obama is an “angry black guy.”
*”[I]n Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering.”
*”Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”
*Obama is “more African in his roots than he is American” and is “behaving like an African colonial despot.”
*Obama is “Halfrican-American.”
*”Obama has disowned his white half … he’s decided he’s got to go all in on the black side.”
*Sotomayor “a reverse racist” appointed by Obama, “the greatest living example of a reverse racist.”
* Obama “wants us to have the same health care and plan that he had in Kenya” and “wants to be the black FDR.”
*Latching onto LA Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings “Barack, The Magic Negro.”
* “God does not have a birth certificate. Neither does Obama”; Obama “has yet to prove he’s a citizen.”
*Limbaugh on Gates controversy: “Here you have a black president trying to destroy a white policeman.”
* Limbaugh suggests Obama would not have acted on Somali pirates if he’d known they were “actually young, black Muslim teenagers.”
*Limbaugh suggests Democrats, media believe “you can’t criticize the little black man-child.”
Tags: NFL, racism, Rush Limbaugh
I was actually hoping it would go through. I was hoping that the players would simply refuse to play for him and force him to sell the team at a loss, just so that St. Louis would have a team.
Irsay said, “. . . our words do damage, and it’s something that we don’t need.”
For that brilliant statement, I can almost forgive him for moving the Colts out of Baltimore . . . almost.
and the stock market is poised to break 10,000 today. What will be the republican spin?
All that money and he can’t buy some fun. Bwahahahaha!
Irsay still sucks!
All that money and all he can buy is more oxycontin.
I thought you folks were opposed to blacklisting people because of their politics.
I guess you are really only opposed to blacklisting COMMUNISTS and other America-haters because of their politics — conservatives and other American patriots can be banned and banished any time.
RWR – You misunderstand. The free market worked. The players did the same thing to Limbo as Rod Carew did to Calvin Griffin.
Funny — the free market worked when the servants of Moscow were blacklisted, but you still consider that a horrifying injustice. For that matter, you screamed bloody murder when the free market ran the Dixie Chicks off country radio.
You only like blacklists when they are applied to America haters, not American patriots.
Did RwR just call Limbaugh an America hater? I agree!
typo — that should be “You only dislike blacklists when they are applied to America haters, not American patriots.”
The liberal NFL?
No, nitwit. I support American contract law. It is common for business partners to be able to veto who gets to be their business partner. If RWR wanted to be my business partner, I would have a voice in the matter.
On the other hand, only if one rolls back a century of anti-trust law can a few guys in a Dallas office prohibit 1,000 radio stations from playing the Dixie Chicks.
“The liberal NFL?”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Yeah – that is why I have to see military fly-overs, terrible country singers belting out awful patriotic drivel, and all sort of silly propaganda every time there is a big game. Real hotbed of liberalism!
All those filthy rich white owners are the vanguard of the revolution!
It’s official. Limbaugh is dropped from bid.
Yeah, but apparently George Soros, an international criminal who admits to collaborating with the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust is still in the Checketts group. But since he gives big time to Democrats, he’s no doubt just fine by you.
Gee — that George Soros comment went down the memory hole fast enough.
Why not allow an on-topic comment about a prominent liberal in the same potential ownership group as Limbaugh, especially when it provides a link to his own confession of guilt?
Gee, I just don’t understand why a drug-user with a history of racist comments is not an ideal team owner.
The racist comments have been debunked — and if drunks and drug users were banned from the NFL, there would be very few players left.
Take Brett Favre, for example…
The racist comments have been debunked
No they haven’t. The transcripts and links to Limbaugh’s own show and website are documented at the Media Matters link. Apparently there was some quote in some articles that Limbaugh disputed. That quote is not included above. Nice try, though. You need to document your contention that any of the quotes above are false.
I’m opposed to backlisting. As far as COMMUNISTS – my parents were children during this time.
Limbaugh made his own bed. I don’t feel the least bit sorry for him. He decided to appeal to the narrow demographic of angry conservative white guys. The NFL no doubt sees that demographic as a slow-growing one.
Yeah — we’re just the folks who buy the tickets. They don’t need us…
“conservatives and other American patriots can be banned and banished any time.”
Oh pity you, you suffering hero, you!!!
We didn’t know that less than a year of irrelevance could do that to a group of strong, masculine, shouldhavebeen champions.
Conservatives are big group of crybabies with a persecution complex.
“For that brilliant statement, I can almost forgive him for moving the Colts out of Baltimore . . . almost.”
That was his father.