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| Ubiquitous... |
 Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:42 am |
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The National Football League, in which each Sunday men weighing 365 pounds
slam headlong into men weighing 245 pounds, has decided it can't handle Rush
Limbaugh, talk-show host, age 58. C'mon guys, show some guts.
What began as a normal business deal—Mr. Limbaugh's participation in a group
bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams NFL franchise—has degenerated into an
unfortunate flap whose repercussions could extend well past Sunday afternoon
football.
We suspect Mr. Limbaugh during his broadcast yesterday put his finger exactly
on what is going on here. He said that NFL Players Association head DeMaurice
Smith was using Mr. Limbaugh's controversial status as leverage against the
league owners in the union's difficult negotiations over a
collective-bargaining agreement.
Earlier this year, the NFLPA's Mr. Smith and several player reps visited our
offices and made clear their determination to win the negotiation with the
league's owners. Fair enough. The group made a strong and businesslike case
for their position. Mr. Smith was wrong, though, to send an email to the
league's players earlier in the week, urging them to speak out on the Limbaugh
bid, arguing that football "rejects discrimination and hatred."
After this, opposition to Mr. Limbaugh emerged from Indianapolis Colts owner
Jim Irsay and, most disappointing of all, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Mr.
Goodell implied in a statement that Mr. Limbaugh's off-the-cuff comment in
2003 about quarterback Donovan McNabb (that the media wanted a black
quarterback to do well) violated the league's "high standard."
We suspect Mr. Limbaugh would be happy to withdraw the 2003 remark, but to
elevate it to racism, hatred and disqualification from doing business with the
saintly NFL beggars belief. On the evidence, the NFL is the most forgiving
league in sports. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, just for
starters, must be thankful Mr. Goodell's "high standard" doesn't mean a
lifetime ban from the NFL.
What happened here, and is happening elsewhere in American life, is that Mr.
Limbaugh's outspoken political conservatism is being deemed sufficient reason
to ostracize him from polite society. By contrast, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann,
who fires off his own brand of high-velocity, left-wing political commentary
but lacks Mr. Limbaugh's sense of humor, appears weekly as co-host of NBC's
"Football Night in America." We haven't heard anyone on the right say Mr.
Olbermann's nightly ad-hominem rants should disqualify him from hanging around
the NFL. Al Franken made it all the way to the U.S. Senate on a river of
political vitriol.
But Rush Limbaugh gets hung out to dry by someone of Roger Goodell's
establishment prominence, and barely a soul from that same fastidious
establishment has the courage to step forward to criticize it.
It is no secret that this country's politics has become intense across the
ideological spectrum. Rush Limbaugh lets his listeners blow off steam and then
get on with the rest of their day. But if the people who claim to worry about
such things want to see a truly angry right develop in this country, they
should continue to remain silent while the left tries to drive Rush Limbaugh
and others out of American political life. If that happens, the NFL by
comparison will look like an afternoon tea.
--
Yes, we can!
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1217081mugyear20.html |
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