Several groups have now spoken out in opposition to the bid by Rush Limbaugh to buy the St. Louis Rams. First, there’s the player’s union:
NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith on Saturday made a move to solidify the union against a bid by conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh as part of a group that aims to purchase the St. Louis Rams.
In an e-mail to the union’s executive committee on Saturday specifically addressing Limbaugh’s bid, Smith said, “I’ve spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages. But sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends. Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred.”
I don’t think this is a big surprise. Several players have already spoken out against the idea. Now, at least one owner and the NFL Commissioner have also rejected the idea:
Rush Limbaugh’s bid to buy the St. Louis Rams ran into opposition within the NFL on Tuesday. Colts owner Jim Irsay vowed to vote against him, and commissioner Roger Goodell said the conservative commentator’s “divisive” comments would not be tolerated from any NFL insider.
“I, myself, couldn’t even consider voting for him,” Irsay said at an owners meetings. “When there are comments that have been made that are inappropriate, incendiary and insensitive … our words do damage, and it’s something that we don’t need.”
…
“Divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about,” commissioner Roger Goodell said. “I would not want to see those kind of comments from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL.”
Limbaugh is playing the victim/censorship card, but Media Matters has documented some of Limbaugh’s statements:
*”We are being told that we have to hope [Obama] succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black.”
*”I do believe” Obama is an “angry black guy.”
*”[I]n Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering.”
*”Obama’s entire economic program is reparations.”
*Obama is “more African in his roots than he is American” and is “behaving like an African colonial despot.”
*Obama is “Halfrican-American.”
*”Obama has disowned his white half … he’s decided he’s got to go all in on the black side.”
*Sotomayor “a reverse racist” appointed by Obama, “the greatest living example of a reverse racist.”
* Obama “wants us to have the same health care and plan that he had in Kenya” and “wants to be the black FDR.”
*Latching onto LA Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings “Barack, The Magic Negro.”
* “God does not have a birth certificate. Neither does Obama”; Obama “has yet to prove he’s a citizen.”
*Limbaugh on Gates controversy: “Here you have a black president trying to destroy a white policeman.”
* Limbaugh suggests Obama would not have acted on Somali pirates if he’d known they were “actually young, black Muslim teenagers.”
*Limbaugh suggests Democrats, media believe “you can’t criticize the little black man-child.”