No Rush

You may have heard that Rush Limbaugh, the bombastic radio personality, is in the hunt for an NFL team, specifically, co-ownership of the St. Louis Rams.

Limbaugh, the conservative syndicated blowhard, actually got his start in sports. In the 1970s he served as director of promotions for the Kansas City Royals and had a brief stint with ESPN on its football telecasts in 2003. He was fired for comments he made about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, stating that the athlete was overrated and overhyped because the media wanted a black quarterback to succeed.

So now he wants a team of his own?  Pardon the Interruption reported on its show last Friday that several African American players said they would refuse to play for a Limbaugh-owned franchise. Rev. Al Sharpton sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell in his capacity as president of the National Action Network, urging that Limbaugh not be approved for ownership.

In today’s New York Times, sports columnist George Vecsey wrote:

Limbaugh comes with other weighty history. This is the bloke who, after an ugly brawl in the N.B.A. in 2004, recommended that the league be renamed the Thug Basketball Association. He also likened the two teams to the Crips and the Bloods, two national gangs. Nice. This posture may play well out where car radios are tuned to Limbaugh, but it should not play with N.F.L. owners and the cities they represent.

Opposition is loud and plentiful and coming from all directions: columnists like Vecsey, politicians, civil rights leaders, bloggers, etc. The league executives have all these rules about how players should comport themslves, how their uniforms should, look, whether they can Twitter or not. Let’s hope they have a sense of perspective when it comes to things that really matter.

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Kaplan’s Korner on Jews and Sports © 2009 New Jersey Jewish News

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