NFL players reportedly say they "wouldn't play for" Limbaugh-owned team due to his "flat-out racist" comments
October 09, 2009 2:14 pm ET by Media Matters staff
From an October 9 New York Daily News article:
Mathias Kiwanuka loves his former defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, but the Giants' defensive end says he will never play for Spagnuolo's Rams if Rush Limbaugh purchases the team.
Kiwanuka and the Jets' Bart Scott made it clear Thursday that they would never play for the Rams or any team owned by the controversial conservative radio host.
"All I know is from the last comment I heard, he said in (President) Obama's America, white kids are getting beat up on the bus while black kids are chanting 'right on,'" Kiwanuka told The Daily News. "I mean, 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."
[...]
Scott says players remember what Limbaugh said, and adds that the NFL would be wise not to allow the nationally syndicated host into the league. "It's an oxymoron that he criticized Donovan McNabb," Scott said. "A lot of us took it as more of a racial-type thing. I can only imagine how his players would feel. I know I wouldn't want to play for him. He's a jerk. He's an ---. What he said (about McNabb) was inappropriate and insensitive, totally off-base. He could offer me whatever he wanted, I wouldn't play for him. ... I wouldn't play for Rush Limbaugh. My principles are greater and I can't be bought."
Limbaugh, who grew up in Missouri about 100 miles south of St. Louis, is an avid sports fan who once said that "the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons."
Kiwanuka cringes at the idea of Limbaugh becoming an NFL owner. "They are flat-out racist," Kiwanuka said of many of Limbaugh's statements. "He jumps on Obama and he jumps on other people for being racist. But a lot of the comments that he said, I feel like they have no place in journalism. It is just an opinion show that should be only be taken for shock value. I liken it to 'South Park' when I am listening to him."
"I love Spags and would play for him in a heartbeat, but under that situation ... obviously trades you have no control over, but if it was a free-agent thing, I wouldn't care if I only had one offer on the table, I would rather stay a free agent."
Previously:
Sports
media
gang-tackle Limbaugh's bid to buy St. Louis Rams
Limbaugh: "[I]n Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering"
The media myth of Obama's "falling poll numbers"
How to annoy Glenn Beck in five minutes or less
Media Matters: In which Glenn Beck hosts talk of tickle fights
Athletes also have to choose to work where they want for a variety of reasons. My guess is that if they really listen to Rush they would find nothing racially offensive about him and gladly have him sign their paycheck.
Having a point of view is fine, but you should make some effort to make a legitimate point instead of throwing out bizarre generalizations and "two wrongs make a right" rationalizations.
Why would black players ever think he was racist after he has said things such as...
As a young broadcaster in the 1970s, Limbaugh once told a black caller: "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back." A decade ago, after becoming nationally syndicated, he mused on the air: "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"
In 1992, on his now-defunct TV show, Limbaugh expressed his ire when Spike Lee urged that black schoolchildren get off from school to see his film Malcolm X: "Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out."
In a similar vein, here is Limbaugh's mocking take on the NAACP, a group with a 90-year commitment to nonviolence: "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."
Right . . . not a single thing racially offensive about him. Wait, that would be the other way around. Rush is the one who finds black people "racially offensive." I do not understand how someone who uses the name "conservative" in his screen name can support this decidedly UN-conservative jerk.
Rush Limbaugh is not a conservative and anyone who agrees with his slop is not a conservative. Believe me, I live in an UBER-conservative area . . . very few people like Rush around here.
Rush has a neocon mentality, no doubt. I suspect that when you said Rush was "un-conservative," Conchobhar may have thought that you were saying Rush was on the left. That, of course, is silly beyond words.
But I do have to take you to task for the comparison you made. Conflating liberalism with fascism is far more egregious than conflating conservatism with racism. Liberalism and fascism are polar opposites. Conservatism and racism, sadly, aren't. I know and love many conservatives, and I certainly wouldn't claim that each one was racist, or even that very many are, but every racist I've ever known was definitely a conservative. It is a serious character flaw that people on the right need to deal with.
until they go on Medicare and Social Security.
And if you can really provide private school education to everyone, then the funding that goes towards that could transform the public school system. How does a dollar spent at a private school magically make teachers care, where it doesn't if it's spent at a public school?
I find the argument that there should be vouchers pretty funny from someone who cries about people wanting "handouts", also. If they can't afford it, then they should work harder, right? Where's their work ethic?
Oh yeah!
Mike Duvall, a Republican politician and a former member of the California State Assembly, resigned after his sex comments were broadcast. In the video, the married family-values crusader from Yorba Linda talks in graphic detail about women he said he slept with -- at least one of whom appeared to be a lobbyist with business before the utilities committee on which Duvall sat as vice chairman.
Paul Stanley, Republican former member of the Tennessee Sen., resigned from the state Senate effective Aug. 10, after his affair with a 22-year-old intern and a subsequent extortion attempt was revealed to the public.
Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, disappears during Father's Day weekend, returning to confess an extramarital affair in Argentina.
John Ensign, Senator from Nevada, refuses to resign after confessing to an extramarital affair with a married staffer, claiming she was trying to extort him.
Alan David Berlin in all his gloryAlan David Berlin, He is an aide for Senator Jane Orie of Pennsylvania. He is also a furry who contacted a fifteen year old boy over the internet, and offered to "yiff" the boy in a panda outfit, while his parents weren't home. The parents discovered the graphic emails on the boy's computer and called the attorney general's child predator unit sometime in May. Police raided his home and discovered various furry outfits such as a wolf costume, as well as a cat outfit; all complete with two holes cut out at the undersides of the costumes. He is now arraigned in Dauphin County jail on a $250,000 bail.
Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a juvenile.
Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl
Really?
The Cheney clan has had a busy year: As the former veep's first daughter, Elizabeth, works on her new political career, second daughter Mary is expecting her second child, reports blog True/Slant. Mary confirmed that she and long-term partner Heather Poe will welcome a second child to their family in mid- to late-November. Their first child, son Samuel David Cheney.
Oh yeah!
The 22-year-old son of Sen. Rod Grams is facing charges of theft and eluding arrest after police caught him, a runaway and another friend with a stolen car loaded with silver, antique coins and a gun, authorities said.
David Huckabee, a son of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, was arrested at an Arkansas airport Thursday after a federal X-ray technician detected a loaded Glock pistol in his carry-on luggage.
The son of Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour was arrested and charged with public drunkenness in Starkville this weekend.
Barbour's twenty-four-year-old son Reeves, was arrested after Saturday's Oregon-Mississippi State football game. Two years ago Barbour's son received professional counseling for alcohol problems.
Oh yeah!
Senior Republican congressman Tom DeLay was yesterday re-indicted on money laundering charges by a grand jury in Texas.
Mr DeLay, a close ally of the US president George Bush, is already facing separate corruption charges in Texas over claims he misused political donations.
Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in Arizona.
Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) pleaded guilty yesterday to corruption charges arising from the influence-peddling investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) resigned from Congress yesterday after tearfully confessing to evading taxes and conspiring to pocket $2.4 million in bribes, including a Rolls-Royce, a yacht and a 19th-century Louis-Philippe commode.
Oh boy, RICHARD NIXON!!!!! Need I say more!
You say that as you have some knowledge that our military would all quit, because of Obama, if it wasn't for their sense of commitment.
What a load of crap, and you base this crazy statement on the actions of one or two soldiers or statements from the right wing noise machine.
They took an oath when they enlisted to serve their country, defend the constitution and obey the orders of the President of the United States.
To not follow the orders of the president is considered a crime under the UCMJ.
I've never seen such disrespect for our military as the musings on the right of late imagining that could be a military coup.
Our military personnel are and have always been loyal.
And scum on the right have been portraying them as treasonous when they suggest they might not follow legal orders from their Commander in Chief.
Actually, if they really listen to him they WILL be offended because of the racially offensive comments made. See Old Benjamin above; that is the short list.
talk about "political football," Limbo would now be also be on the sports pages as well as the airwaves. All commentary would carry some innuendo distracting from the game, the team itself would become divided along political/racial lines. A real good investment strategy, but if you had money to burn and an agenda, you wouldn't care, Rush, would you.