Football and “Flush Rush”

Number 4 – November 2009

Even in professional football “race matters.” That’s what makes Dave Zirin’s recent blog so interesting.

Zirin is the author of A PEOPLES’ HISTORY OF SPORTS. He writes weekly about the sports world – usually from a perspective not found in regular media.

For example, on Tuesday, October 6, 2009,Rush Limbaugh made public his intention to team up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checkette to buy the St. Louis Rams. The two men have made a bid and are in the process of completing the acquisition.

The children of former owner Georgia Frontiere own a 60 percent stake in the team and billionaire Stan Kroenke own a 40 percent stake. The Rams went 2 – 14 in the 2008 season. Forbes magazine has valued the Rams’ worth to be $913 million.

Limbaugh’s last venture into the sports world was as a NFL commentator for ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown.” In that role he remarked that “Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback do well in the NFL.” Rush Limbaugh lasted about a month and resigned in a hail of controversy.

But Zirin’s account is not just a description of the potential selling and buying of the Rams, it is an informed challenge to the appropriateness of such a transaction for the National Football League.

Owners of the various football franchises must vote to affirm the sale of a team to prospective buyers. They have the power and responsibility, when circumstances warrant, to deny such actions. Zirin is a strong advocate for the NFL football team owners to veto Limbaugh’s acquisition of the Rams’ franchise.

Limbaugh is a conservative. He is one of the pundits for a very conservative political view and is considered by many to be the voice of the Republican Party.

But it is not his conservatism that disqualifies Limbaugh. Most NFL team owners are conservative and when engaging in politics support the Republican Party.

At stake is Limbaugh’s racist attitudes: He is an “unapologetic racist.”

The National Football League is made up of 70 percent African Americans (Zirin’s statistic). If Limbaugh is confirmed by club owners “the face of one of the most valuable sports property in the world would officially be a person who has a history of brazen contempt for people of African heritage.

Limbaugh’s racism is reflected in his public comments:
-comparing President Obama to a Nazi;
-affirming that slavery built the South and had its merits; and
-knowing that Black people make up 12 percent of the population but says “Who the hell cares?”

Professional football players seldom comment publicly about the ownership of the teams they play for or play against. BUT a number of them are vocal about the possibility of Limbaugh buying the Rams:
-New York Giant Mathias Kiwanuka said, in The New York Daily News,"I don’t want anything to do with a team that he has a part of. He can do what ever he wants; it is a free country. But if it goes through, I can tell you where I’m not going to play.”
-Philadelphia Eagles’ Donovan McNabb said in his weekly press conference, “If he’s rewarded to buy them, congratulations to him. But I won’t be in St. Louis anytime soon.”
-New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott said, “He could offer me whatever he wanted; I wouldn’t play for him.”

So the chant goes out: “Flush Rush!”

Even in professional football “race matters.”



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