My Response to Rush: It's the Racism, Stupid

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091026/zirin2

My Response to Rush: It's the Racism, Stupid
By Dave Zirin

October 14, 2009


Yesterday I was referred to on air as "scum" by Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh called me out by name on his radio show because, along with Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press, I challenged Limbaugh's efforts to own a NFL team, saying that his history of racial bombast should count against him.

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The real reason Rush is doing a slow-burn on his show and setting loose his army of Internet trolls to deliver his tough-guy message is that his dream of owning an NFL franchise is going up in smoke. After seven players and the union went public and stood up to Rush getting his mitts around the most powerful cultural and athletic brand in America, commissioner Roger Goodell finally spoke out. Goodell said on Tuesday that Limbaugh's "divisive comments" had no place in the NFL. "I have said many times before, we're all held to a higher standard here," Goodell said to reporters. "I would not want to see those kinds of comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL. No. Absolutely not."

Goodell's statement was complemented by Colts owner Jim Irsay, who said, "I, myself, couldn't even think of voting for him.... I'm very sensitive to know there are scars out there. I think as a nation we need to stop it. Our words do damage, and it's something that we don't need. We need to get to a higher level of humanity, and we have." Other owners issued decidedly lukewarm comments about the possibility of sharing space with Rush.

Some are surprised that ownership isn't welcoming Limbaugh with a passionate embrace because most owners are to the right of Attila the Hun. They are billionaires who have feasted at the public trough of corporate welfare while basking in tax breaks for the rich. In other words, they constitute Limbaugh's base. But his membership in this exclusive fraternity of billionaires would violate the first rule of ownership: protect the bottom line.

The inconvenient truth is that no matter how much he rants and raves, no matter how often he calls columnists like Burwell, Sharp and me "state-run-media scum," it's the commissioner and the owners who believe that his history of ugly vitriol would be just too harmful to the NFL brand. You reap what you sow, and Rush Limbaugh has reaped a whirlwind.

I like what the Colts owner said. Imagine, someone advocating for a higher level of humanity! Maybe we will get this country turned around after all.

Jim Irsay, who said, "I, myself, couldn't even think of voting for him.... I'm very sensitive to know there are scars out there. I think as a nation we need to stop it. Our words do damage, and it's something that we don't need. We need to get to a higher level of humanity, and we have."

The NFL owners realize that racisim is commercial poision. Just look around - these days, bigotry = economic backwater. You simply cannot ignore so many potential customers and succeed in business.

Whoa! The massah can't buy his black boys? Whoa!