RSS
Home
Rush Limbaugh gets bad rap, should have been Rams new owner
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Rush Limbaugh (AP)
Listening to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and several NFL players, you would think that Ted Bundy, and not Rush Limbaugh, tried to buy the St. Louis Rams.
Goodell said that the NFL didn't want someone like Limbaugh as an owner, New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott called Limbaugh "a jerk" and said he'd never play for a team owned by the radio host, and New York Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka repeated rumors that Limbaugh had made disrespectful remarks about Africa-Americans as reasons he couldn't play for him.
Hacks on the left side of the aisle have repeated Limbaugh rumors so often that some take these rumors as fact. If Limbaugh really talked lovingly of slavery, as his detractors claim, don't you think there would be some audio proof, considering Limbaugh is heard by millions every day? Spend a few hours on YouTube some afternoon and you'll learn that not much that goes on in pop culture over the past 25 years goes unrecorded in one form or another. Yes, Limbaugh did say that Donovan McNabb was promoted heavily by the NFL because he was black. I seem to remember that Detroit Piston Isiah Thomas once said that Larry Bird was given similar treatment by the NBA because of his whiteness. I don't agree with Limbaugh or Thomas in those opinions, but they shouldn't be strung up for issuing them.
Let's look at how Limbaugh's life stacks up against several of Scott's and Kiwanuka's fellow footballers.
Limbaugh is a self-made success who dropped out of college, worked for several radio stations as a DJ, with a brief break to work as director of promotions for the Kansas City Royals baseball team, before finding success as a political commentator, and he is now the most influential radio host in the United States. Like many entertainers, Limbaugh has made insensitive statements, including a claim that Michael J. Fox was milking his Parkinson's disease, but Limbaugh has also used his celebrity for good, raising more than $15 million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and millions more for families of police officers and soldiers killed in the line of duty.
While most NFL players are good guys and upstanding citizens, one study finds that one in five have been charged with serious crimes. I wouldn't count on Scott or Kiwanuka complaining if they found themselves on the same team as.....
1. Michael Vick--'nuff said
2. Ray Lewis--my generation's O.J. Simpson.
3. Santonio Holmes--wife beater, drug dealer, Super Bowl MVP
4. Donte Stallworth--killed a man while drunk and stoned. After a short stint on the J.L. (jailed list) he'll be in a stadium near you in 2010!
One last thing. In the history of professional sports, only one player I know of ever signed a contract when another team was offering more money. That player was Andre Dawson, who signed a blank contract with the Chicago Cubs back in 1987. That fact, 400+ homers and multiple Gold Gloves are part of my ongoing argument for Dawson's induction to the Hall of Fame. So, believe me, Mr. Scott and Mr. Kiwanuka would start wearing EIB t-shirts if Limbaugh were offering high signing bonuses. Money talks in the pro sports. Always has, always will.
Related Articles:
Comments
