After NFL players, NFL owners, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell all came out publicly against Rush Limbaugh owning an NFL team, the conservative radio host lost his bid for the St. Louis Rams.
Limbaugh was making headlines this week when he and an investment group bid for the team. "Rush was to be a limited partner -- as such, he would have had no say in the direction of the club or in any decisions regarding personnel or operations," said St. Louis Blues Chairman Dave Checketts, who headed the group, in a statement.
"This was a role he enthusiastically embraced. However, it has become clear that his involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions, endangering our bid to keep the team in St. Louis. As such, we have decided to move forward without him and hope it will eventually lead us to a successful conclusion."
After the announcement was made on Wednesday, Sharpton didn't hide his satisfaction.
"It is a moral victory for all Americans, especially the players that have been unfairly castigated by Rush Limbaugh," Sharpton said in a statement. "This decision will also uphold the unifying standards of major sports."
Limbaugh took to the airwaves Thursday morning and blamed everyone else for his ouster. In the first 15 minutes of his show, he shared the entire story of how he was asked to join the investment group by Checketts himself.
"I said to him at this meeting, 'Are you aware of the firestorm?' " Limbaugh said on his show. "He said, 'Believe me, I wouldn't have approached you if I hadn't taken care of that, if I had not cleared your involvement with people at the highest levels of the National Football League.' He gave me a couple of names, pretty high up, led me to believe it was all handled, and he was fully prepared for what was going to happen."
Shortly after Goodell shared his thoughts on that possibility, though, Checketts contacted Limbaugh and said that the group had to move on without him. Limbaugh went on to say that this was a power move by the NFL Players Association to get the attention of the NFL owners before they enter negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement, which is part of the reason Sharpton and Jackson got involved as well. He ended the commentary by saying that the entire situation was "Obama's America on full display."
Comments: (35)
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By: Greg D. on 10/15/2009 7:02PM
Rush is free to believe what he wants to believe & say what he wants to say. I would defend to the death his right to do so. However, that freedom that he may or may not exercise does not mean freedom from consequence. I happen to believe Rush is a racist. He and those who defend his positions can dress his comments up in any suit they want but it won't change what it is. I pray that racism is never again "main streamed" as it once was. Rejection of this type of person and his views is important in keeping racist on the fringes where they belong.
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By: T Kennedy on 10/15/2009 7:27PM
Amen my brother!
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By: lacam31 on 10/15/2009 10:15PM
I agree with you .Rush is totally a racist in every make up of one.You can also put Mr. Pat Buchanan on board with him.Pat Buchanan is truly a racist and he don't think he is.As those most white racist. They really think they can say or do anything they want when it comes to dealing with a black man or even women.These two men are pitiful.
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By: Dan on 10/16/2009 5:47AM
You know, show me a person that isn't the slightest bit racist about something or someone. I think the black race has played this card so many times that it has lost it's meaning, it's impact. It is getting to the point that the word means nothing. Kinda like, well they are going to think I'm a racist anyway so.........I'm betting that white people are far less racists than you assume. It's just the way you guys want to keep it.
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By: Kurt on 10/22/2009 11:02AM
What makes you think and feel that he is a racist? Saying anything negative about an ethnic group does not make a person a racist. For example blacks think, no believe, that our legal system is racist. However, how do you explain that the majority of blacks that are in prison are there because they committed a crime against another black person. Sometimes the truth hurts and hurt causes unjustified and substantiated reactions. I suppose that whites hold the gun that blacks use when they kill each other in record numbers! Why not try to solve why blacks are only about 13% of the population but commit over 64% of the crimes (and mostly against other blacks). Read the Department of Justice statistics on crimes and who commits them and maybe you will wake up to reality and not rationalizations that blame someone else for one's problems.
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By: RENEE' on 10/15/2009 7:24PM
Yeah Rush is so upset....He gets to keep his twenty some odd millions that he was going to invest. That was not all of his money...He rails on those who do not agree with him, no matter what color. Just be real..He was invited to join this group, he did not ask to join, and it was cleared with the higher-ups. I wonder what they say behind closed doors. Rev. Jesse Jackson actually called our President the N- word, and said he wanted to cut his nu-s off, before he discovered the microphone was still on in an interview during the campaign...But I guess that was okay? Wrong is Wrong and color-blind.
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By: duke of decatur,ga. on 10/15/2009 7:46PM
Well, Mr Rush L. caused his own problems. He once associated the N.F.L. teams and/or members with the Cribs and Bloods which are La,Ca. street gangs. The vast majority, 99.99 per cent of N.F.L. fan base do not feel that way!...That kind of mind set do not belong in the N.F.L. or elsewhere!...Good team work N.F.L. owners, players and two social reformers. Good point, RENEE a former presidental canidate did make that remark about our sitting president!..Wrong is Wrong!
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By: Greg D. on 10/16/2009 9:57AM
Why are some folks so quick to mention Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson when defending people like Rush?
Jesse and Al are not, nor have they ever been, the spokespersons for Black America. It's intellectually and professionally lazy to go after them whenever you've got a message for or want to hear from "Black America". Black people are not monolithic in thought. But I digress.
Even the slightest knowledge of history would tell you that a black person with racial bias and a white racist are not morally or practically equivalent.
You notice I didn't use racist to describe the black person. Racist, though it's used as a noun is actually a verb. Racist is someone who has racial biases and the power to act on it. History has no record of whites being systematically exploited, abused and murdered by blacks. Until very recently, few blacks have been in positions were their racial biases could be acted upon to possibly affect large numbers of whites. So, even if a black person was prejudiced he or she couldn't do much about it.
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By: mack on 10/19/2009 12:34AM
soooooo tired of hearing your definition of racism to whitewash (sorry the pun) black racism. in your words, some poor southern dirt farmer cracker has the power to enforce his will on you? please.
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By: David Schroeder on 10/15/2009 8:37PM
Go to this website for a refreshing perspective on stuff black people don't like, lol:
http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/
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