The NFL Should Give Limbaugh Bum's Rush

It is refreshing to see so many African-American pro football players stand up for something socially relevant.

Players such as Bart Scott of the Jets and Mathias Kiwanuka and Antonio Pierce of the Giants spoke out forcefully this week against the possibility of race-baiting broadcaster Rush Limbaugh owning a piece of the St. Louis Rams.

Scott, Kiwanuka and Pierce all described Limbaugh as the racial antagonist he is, as someone whose presence as a minority franchise owner would be deeply offensive in a league where 70 percent of the players—and more than 90 percent of the starting players—are African-Americans.

Pierce strongly suggested that a Rams team partly owned by Limbaugh could become the NFL equivalent of Three Mile Island to African-American players—free agents would not sign to play in St. Louis, and those currently on the team would be eager to leave.

In this instance, African-American NFL players did not wait for the head of their players’ association, attorney DeMaurice Smith (also an African-American), to speak out against the Limbaugh proposal.

The players made their objection emphatically and cogently clear.

A country that elected its first African-American president 11 months ago should not have as a part-owner of a franchise in the country’s most popular sports league a man who said he hopes that president fails.

Why would the NFL want to do business with a guttersnipe like Limbaugh, who once wrote on his own Web site that an NFL game reminded him of a fight between Crips and Bloods without weapons?

Limbaugh obviously sees nothing wrong with being a member of the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida—a club that has never had an African-American member.

Even Sammy Davis Jr. and the white member who invited him were once escorted out of the Everglades Club, according to Florida’s New Times.

NFL teams make money. Truckloads of money.

That is the only reason Limbaugh would want to get a piece of the action. He certainly has never shown any regard for the kinds of people whose blood, sweat and talent on the field generates all that income for NFL franchise owners.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay says he would not vote in favor of Limbaugh’s ownership group. (Seventy-five percent of NFL franchise owners, or 24 of 32, would have to vote in favor of Limbaugh.)

Limbaugh routinely uses his three-hour weekday radio show to perpetuate despicable lies such as the one about a white boy beaten by black kids on a school bus while other black kids yelled, “Right on!”

“Well, it could have happened,” was the lame reply from those who enjoy visiting Limbaugh’s toxic island of a radio show five days a week.

Obviously, Limbaugh makes those people warm, fuzzy and nostalgic for the racially oppressive America they once knew—the one where a wise Latina named Sonia Sotomayor could never have dreamed of sitting on the United States Supreme Court, and an African-American named Barack Obama could never have dreamed of having the power to appoint her.

So the Limbaugh crowd believes the lies he tells about school bus beatings, and cheerily sings along to “Barack, the Magic Negro” (set to the tune of “Puff, the Magic Dragon”) for this is the America they remember.

Limbaugh does not like to see African-Americans ascend to high-profile positions, such as U.S. president or quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles.

This is why Limbaugh called Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb “overrated” several years ago and assailed other media members for engaging in “social engineering” by turning McNabb into a star.

Limbaugh served up this rubbish as an NFL commentator for ESPN, a position for which he was never qualified and from which he resigned.

Does the NFL really want to wallow in the gutter with Limbaugh again?

Even if it does, African-American players have made it known that they stand ready to give Limbaugh exactly what he deserves—the bum’s rush.