Sorry Rush

By now the good news (as far as I'm concerned) should be widely known that the bid by a group including Rush Limbaugh to buy the St. Louis Rams has fallen apart. Or to be more clear, the bid has fallen apart as long as Limbaugh is a part of the group. Now there has been much commentary about this story, as late last week there was push back from a number of NFL players who said flat out that they would refuse to ever play on a team owned by Rush Limbaugh. Even the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, Jim Irsay, said that he would never vote for a group owned in part by Limbaugh to own a team.

I have watched some of the commentary on this story, including this video from ESPN. First of all, the initial part of what Scoop Jackson is saying is unbelievably naive. Because Rush Limbaugh has enough money to buy a part of the Rams, he should be able to buy a part of the Rams. That's the strength of the argument. Well sure, this would be a wonderful point of view if Rush Limbaugh was buying a car or a cheeseburger or a video game system (and it appears to owning a team on a Madden video game may be the closest Limbaugh may ever get to actually owning an NFL franchise), but the fact that (a) the other owners of NFL teams have to vote you in as acceptable for ownership and (b) the team depends on the performance of its players to actually generate revenue makes the whole "I have enough money so I can buy whatever I want" argument completely ridiculous.

Rush Limbaugh has dug his own grave in this instance. Whether you believe him to be a racist or not, enough of the players in the NFL (which is apparently 61% African American), as well as the head of the National Football League Players Association union, happen to think old Rush is divisive enough and has been insensitive enough that should he own the Rams, they would not play for the team and/or encourage players not to play for the team. Now of course I've read numerous comments from conservatives on message boards claiming that Limbaugh is being unfairly treated because he is conservative. I know that there is very little I can say to them to dissuade them from this delusion, but I'll give it a go anyway. Rush Limbaugh won't be able to own a team not because he is being treated unfairly, but because he cannot stop himself from saying absolutely stupid crap.