Rush To Judgment: The Overreaction To Limbaugh’s Interest In The Rams

Conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh is part of a team of investors that may buy the NFL franchise St. Louis Rams, and since the news broke the story has taken on a life of its own.

Active players and the head of the NFL Players union are speaking out against the move, and cable news networks across the board are debating the possibility. But when push comes to shove, is all the uproar just hype?

Last week Stephen A. Smith, formerly of ESPN, was asked by Ed Schultz on MSNBC about whether the owners would oblige a Limbaugh deal. “I don’t think they would hesitate to do it quite honestly,” he said. But what about the players who say they wouldn’t play for him? “They are lying through their teeth, I don’t care what they say,” said Smith. “Money talks louder than anything else, especially when it comes to the players.”

One of those players, Mathias Kiwanuka of the New York Giants, phrased his opposition this way:

I don’t want anything to do with a team that he has any part of. He can do whatever he wants, it is a free country. But if it goes through, I can tell you where I am not going to play.

I am not going to draw a conclusion from a person off of one comment, but when it is time after time after time and there’s a consistent pattern of disrespect and just a complete misunderstanding of an entire culture that I am a part of, I can’t respect him as a man.

NFL Players exec director DeMaurice Smith‘s email Saturday to the union’s executive committee highlighted his point of contention, while urging the players to continue to speak out. “Sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it transcends,” he wrote. “Our sport does exactly that when it overcomes division and rejects discrimination and hatred.”

Then this happened – today, Rev. Al Sharpton sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hoping he blocks the bid.

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