On the April 15 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio, host John Andrews and his guest, actor and conservative columnist Joseph C. Phillips, said that the Rutgers University women's basketball team "[took] on the victim role" in responding to media personality Don Imus' reference to them as “nappy-headed hos.” In further disparaging the team, Andrews and Phillips repeated a line of commentary that Media Matters for America has noted among national conservative pundits, and repeated a pattern Colorado Media Matters has noted among Colorado conservative radio talk shows, of attempting to deflect the controversy from Imus.

As Media Matters first noted, Imus called the Rutgers players “nappy-headed hos” on the April 4 broadcast of his nationally syndicated show. On April 11, NBC News announced that MSNBC, which simulcast Imus in the Morning, was dropping the program. The following day, the show's producer, CBS Radio, fired Imus.

Speaking of the Rutgers players, who he noted had reached the finals of the NCAA women's basketball tournament, Andrews asked, “Did they have to take on the victim role, Joseph?” Apparently referencing comments some members of the team made during an April 10 press conference, Phillips stated that “the lure of ... white racism, the lure of victimhood was too great” for the players to resist, as some said that the incident had ruined their season and one said she felt “scarred for life.”

Phillips and Andrews, former Colorado Senate president, also attempted to deflect some of the criticism of Imus onto Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson, who Andrews implied were “race hustlers.”

From the April 15 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio:

PHILLIPS: The reason he [Sharpton] still has some, is able to comment on issues of race -- the reason Jesse Jackson is still able to comment on issues of race is because their blackness acts as Teflon against charges of racism. It is only the, the guilt of, of, of white folk that gives them power.

[KRISTA] KAFER [co-host]: Can I ask you --

PHILLIPS: And then the corresponding victimhood of the, you know, the, the acting out of being, of being victims of white racism -- that's what we've seen here. This is the shadow play that, that has been going on all week with Don Imus.

ANDREWS: People took up their assigned roles, in other words. They didn't have to take them up but they, but they took them up. What about the Rutgers basketball players? Very nearly had a national championship. When you see them and their coach on television they carry themselves with dignity. They're, they're well spoken. They're going to make great contributions, a lot of them, as American citizens in their chosen path of life. Did they have to take on the victim role, Joseph?

PHILLIPS: Well, I don't -- no, they didn't. And I think that would have been -- that would have been death to, to Sharpton and Jackson. And to be clear, I mean, they -- I'm, I have not given it as much thought as to what happened with them. But I'll tell you what I told my wife, and if you'll bear with me, it's very short. Years ago when I was, when I was a boy I had to -- I was engaged in some nasty business in the bathroom. And I didn't want to clean up and I tried as best I could not to touch anything, and my father grew very frustrated and he finally blasted out at me, “Boy, you are going to touch far worse in your life than this.” And you know what? He was right. I've touched far worse. And that would be my response to the, the women of Rutgers. You are going to hear much worse. You are going to experience much worse in your life than this. So, perspective, please. To hear them on television talking about seasons ruined and scarred for life. They -- clearly things are out of whack. There's some perspective --

ANDREWS: Well, Joseph, as you, as you wrote to me in an email when we, when we were going back and forth earlier today getting ready for this discussion, you said it's conceivable that the team could have issued a statement saying, “We don't know who this clown is. But we're not going to allow his ugliness to distract from the beautiful women that we are and the positive things we're doing.” And boy, wouldn't that have taken the air out of the race hustlers?

PHILLIPS: Oh, you know, you can hear -- that, that whistling sound you hear is the air coming out of the game. But I think the lure of, of, of white racism, the lure of victimhood was too great. And, and then -- you know, suddenly you have press conferences and people lining up and --

KAFER: Joseph, can I --

PHILLIPS: -- having to defend themselves. And it just, it got to be ridiculous. But that is the game. That's what was going on.