EQ Follow-up: Media Pounds On Limbaugh Over NFL Team Bid

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WaPo, Others Gang Up To Stop Rush's NFL Bid







Since news broke early this week that Rush Limbaugh was part of a consortium bidding on the NFL's St Louis Rams, the state-run media's outraged response remains baffling. Why do they care who owns a football team?

And how many NFL fans are liberals, anyway?

Yet, especially from the print media, the reaction has been both immediate and furious. Can they successfully halt Limbaugh's attempt at team ownership?

Perhaps the problem for left-leaning reporters is being forced to confront Rush's continued financial success, not to mention hundreds of failed attempts by the state-run media to bring him down.


Whatever the reason, there's no question their response has moved firmly into unhinged territory. Yesterday, for example, the Washington Post tag-teamed Limbaugh with everything that could be thrown at him, including the kitchen sink:

(Mike Freeman) Limbaugh is a pungent bowl of stark raving bigoted lunacy. He'd be a dream to cover. But for the NFL, Limbaugh as an owner would be as comfortable as a colonoscopy with a periscope. It'd be one of the great nightmares for the sport.

The league has made significant strides in putting its horrid racial past behind it. The NFL isn't perfect on the issues of ethnicity but it tries.

Allowing Limbaugh, who plays the song "Barack the Magic Negro" on his radio show, a seat at the owner's table would instantly undermine everything the NFL has worked decades to accomplish.

And again, this whole thing is very possible.

Limbaugh is a huge sports fan and football follower which is why ESPN hired him in the first place before he torched the place one day.

I'm still wrapping my head around the words "Limbaugh" and "NFL owner" which is like saying the words "Freeman" and "Denzel Washington" in the same sentence.


(Keenan McCardell)
Rush the Racist?

Rush Limbaugh would definitely hurt the St. Louis Rams if he bought the team. I can only judge what he says on the radio - but the way he talks makes me think he's a racist.

The NFL is a dominant black league and it's tough to say that a guy who speaks his mind as much as he does with a locker room that's 60% minority would get players' respect. If I were a free agent it would be really hard for me to want to play for him. He'd have to show me that he's a different person. The coach would also have to convince me that this was about football and not politics.

All the players would remember what he said about Donovan McNabb - what got him fired from ESPN. It's a crazy thing, but it's hard to change what you said once you said it -- hard to get guys to forget and trust again.


(Jason Maloni) The NFL is not short of controversial owners with big personalities and tragic histories. Al Davis has set a new standard of dysfunction in Oakland and Los Angeles and he eats up head coaches like John Madden eats Turduckens. Art Model can't even fly over Northeast Ohio anymore after becoming the most reviled man in Cleveland history for uprooting the Browns in the middle of the night and shifting the franchise to Baltimore.

If Limbaugh does make the leap to the owner's box, he will have to restrain his famous impulse to say the first thing that comes to mind. While there are several examples of shoot-from-the-hip owners who impose their will on their coaches and teams, there are also shining examples of owners who make good hires, who honor the game, and contribute to the legacy of what many consider America's true national pastime.

In other words, it's impossible to "honor the game" and be openly conservative. Brilliant.


And not to be left out of the party, particularly considering his hometown connection, the St Louis Post-Dispatch's Bryan Burwell poured on the vitriol here:

They will all look the other way when it comes to Limbaugh — forgetting his polarizing racial politics, conveniently ignoring (perhaps even quietly agreeing with) all the mean-spirited divisive bile that comes along with his ample financial clout — just like many of you surely will, too. They will look the other way because of his wealth and influence. You will look the other way because to some of you, he is your politically incorrect hero, and the rest might be willing to ignore all of that just as long as he can put enough money on the table to help keep your football team in St. Louis.

I don’t have that luxury.

Though I think it is his right to take a shot at becoming part of a new Rams ownership group, Limbaugh’s American Dream is a potential nightmare waiting to happen for the Rams, the city and the National Football League.

Don't believe for a moment our state-run friends are about to drop this issue and allow Limbaugh to successfully purchase a team.


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