On Wednesday controversial broadcaster Rush Limbaugh was knocked out of the ownership group that is hoping to buy the St. Louis Rams. Thank goodness!!!

But on Thursday Limbaugh got up and came out swinging. He loudly blamed everyone but himself for what happened to his potential ownership share.

Limbaugh also took a swing at his former partner in the deal, Dave Checketts, who dropped him from the group. Limbaugh says it was Checketts who sought him out to join the ownership group and assured him that there would be no problems with the NFL about his involvement. Now Limbaugh suggests that Checketts betrayed him in order to keep the deal alive.

But it shouldn’t end there. Ironically, I too have a problem with Dave Checketts.

If in fact Checketts approached Limbaugh, why did he do it? If Limbaugh asked Checketts if he could join the ownership group I wonder why did Checketts say yes? In either case I question Checketts’ judgement, and I now wonder whether Checketts is fit to own the Rams even without Rush Limbaugh.

Limbaugh is a polarizing personality who seems intent on not just advancing his own conservative political views, which is his right, but to demonize, demean and ridicule anyone who dares disagree with him. And that is wrong. Although I am not a conservative, I believe strongly that you can nonetheless be a conservative without being intolerant and cruel.

If and when Limbaugh ever learns this and takes it to heart, then perhaps he can own an NFL team. The same can be said for Dave Checketts, who like his former partner, Limbaugh, also might never own an NFL team. Checketts should have known better than to team up with a loudmouth bigot.

Let’s consider the knockout of Limbaugh and perhaps Dave Checketts a victory for civility.

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Another blow to the pro football ownership hopes of Rush Limbaugh.

Now an NFL owner says he doesn’t want to see the conservative broadcaster in the owners box.

Indianapolis Colts owner, Jim Irsay said Tuesday that there is no way that he would vote to approve the controversial Rush Limbaugh as an owner of an NFL team.

Limbaugh is reportedly a key part of an ownership group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams.

According to a report from the Associated Press, Jim Irsay said, “I, myself, couldn’t even consider voting for him. 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.”

Irsay has earned the credibility to speak out against Limbaugh. He has proudly hired two African-American head coaches in this decade. And Irsay who won the Super Bowl three years ago with the revered Tony Dungy at the helm, now has a high-powered, undefeated team under new head coach Jim Caldwell this season. Some football insiders believe this could be the Colts best team yet.

But Irsay will need at least another 8 owners to join him in opposition to Limbaugh. NFL bylaws require that at least 24 of the league’s 32 owners must vote in favor of an ownership change.

Several NFL players have spoken out against Rush Limbaugh, and they have been joined by the NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith who indicated the other day that he also strongly opposes Limbaugh’s bid.

Sports have long been the place where America has tested its appetite for tolerance. But changes on the playing fields and on the courts did not come without many disappointments, hurts and shame. But more than 60 years ago several significant racial barriers were hurdled.

Joe Louis won the heavyweight championship of the world in the 1930s. Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin in front of Adolph Hitler. And of course Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. Those three athletes transcended their sports and helped change the way America viewed and treated all African-Americans.

Here’s hoping a united front of NFL owners, players and fans speak up strongly against Rush Limbaugh and send an even more powerful message about the kind of progress we’ve made as a nation.

UPDATE

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We learned this week that Rush Limbaugh is part of an ownership group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. But a couple of NFL players are making clear that they are having none of it. Saying they would never play for a team owned by Limbaugh.

Let’s deal with facts. Limbaugh is a race-baiter. His history for fostering racial division is long and distressing. But he is also an extremely well-paid, highly-skilled, professional broadcaster. Which means Limbaugh knows exactly what he is saying on his number-one rated radio show. That makes him especially dangerous.

While I’m not a conservative, I do not for one minute believe that most conservatives are racists. But where are the decent conservatives to straighten out the Limbaugh’s of the world when their discourse turns ugly? Does their silence make them complicit in Limbaugh’s and others’ demeaning rants? I believe it does.

Rush Limbaugh is famous for criticizing what he calls “the drive-by media” or as they are also known – “the mainstream” media.

But the irony is that some of those very same mainstream media companies own many of the radio stations that carry Limbaugh’s show. And not one of them has repudiated the hateful things that Limbaugh has often said, and why should they? Limbaugh is making millions for them.

So why might it fall on the NFL to decide if Rush is acceptable or not. Sadly, millions of Americans think he’s just fine – the ratings certainly say so – and so too do the broadcast companies that profit from him.

This is a deeply polarized time in this country.

It’s a time when President Obama who is bi-racial can be called a racist with very little in the way of protest from anyone. Glenn Beck, the TV host who stupidly called the president a racist, is still allowed to spew his ignorance on the air. And Beck’s network, Fox News Channel, has done nothing so far to reign Beck in. Fox officials simply point to his ratings, which continue to go up.

So while I applaud the players for speaking out against Limbaugh, I am appalled that too many other Americans and corporations for way, way too long have been willing to sit in silence and do virtually nothing about racial hatred broadcast over the air.

I don’t think this is really about the NFL or Rush Limbaugh at all.
It’s really about us and what we are willing to put up with.

UPDATE

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University of Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl is funnier than most coaches. But one of his recent jokes fell victim to political correctness. Resulting in a quick but perhaps unnecessary apology.

The other day Pearl, with perfect comics timing, joked about how he deals with the various cultures of the players he coaches.

“I’ve got a tough job. I’ve got to put these guys from different worlds together, right?” Pearl said. “I’ve got guys from Chicago, Detroit … I’m talking about the ‘hood! And I’ve got guys from Grainger County, where they wear the hood.”

You can clearly hear the laughs. Was the audience wrong for laughing? Or was the joke just painfully funny?

Other questions also come to mind.

Can we joke about the klan? Why should Pearl have to apologize for a joke about racism?

I suppose its all in the context. Had Bruce Pearl been a comedian doing the very same joke in a comedy club in Tennessee he would have gotten huge laughs. Even the father of one of the white players says he didn’t find the joke offensive. He said it was just a joke.

Bruce Pearl is a smooth, glad-handing guy with jewish roots who has worked the south with ease. If anyone knows how to balance the racial and ethnic confusion that we live in it’s Bruce Pearl.

We are far too politically correct these days. Jokes are meant to collide with the truth.

Sometimes the truth needs to be laughed at.

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