Limbaugh was working this angle Sunday when he made the comments that cut his football career short. He said that Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, off to a rough start this year, had actually never been that good in the first place. The three time Pro Bowler who was having an MVP type season last year before he got hurt had been overrated by the media in a sort of affirmative action move: think what we had here is a little social concern in the NFL, Limbaugh said. media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn deserve.
It took a few days, but by Wednesday there was a wave of outrage at Limbaugh race baiting. Democratic presidential candidates faxed out their tsk tsks and demands for Limbaugh head, including Howard Dean, who hilariously proclaimed, Limbaugh comment this week about Philadelphia Jets quarterback Donovan McNabb is unacceptable. The governor really kicked a touchdown with that one. Late Wednesday night, Limbaugh announced that he was resigning from the show, saying in a statement that while his comments were not racially motivated, they had discomfort to the crew, which I regret. As dumb and offensive as Limbaugh comments were, suggesting that a successful quarterback has seemed successful only because of racially motivated special media treatment, they didn seem outrageous enough to get Limbaugh fired. They were pretty much run of the mill Rush, exactly the kind of thing ESPN knew it was getting when it signed him up. ESPN wasn after cogent analysis of the Xs and Os when it brought Limbaugh aboard. It was hoping he generate controversy, publicity and ratings. ESPN wanted people with no interest in football to tune in to its Sunday show. Screw the core audience, the football fans. They tune in anyway. And those non fans must have tuned in. The show rating climbed Cheap New Orleans Saints Jerseys In Wholesale Price 10 percent, from 2.0 to 2.2. Considering those robust numbers, it hard to picture the fairly mild media pressure that been applied to ESPN this week being sufficient to oust Limbaugh. I guessing there was significant rank and file anger in Bristol, Conn., the network home, that made his position untenable. He hinted at that in his resignation statement by referring to causing to the crew. (Or perhaps the quick surrender had something to do with the investigation into illegal drug use by Limbaugh that was reported in Thursday New York Daily News.) Perhaps all or some of his fellow panelists, Michael Irvin, Tom Jackson and Steve Young, all former players, the first two African American, refused to work with him anymore. Jackson looked stunned as Limbaugh was saying his piece about McNabb Sunday, though he and Young both argued only with Limbaugh assessment of McNabb as a player, not with the racial element of his comments. ESPN devoted the first several minutes of its post baseball early Thursday morning to pretending to cover the Limbaugh resignation story, anchors Steve Levy and Linda Cohn affecting their best serious newsperson voices. But they neglected to mention anything about the situation in their wholesale packers jerseys own building, where the story was. There were no interviews with Jackson, Irvin or Young, though presumably ESPN shouldn have had trouble gaining access to those fellows. Instead, the report showed a long, long series of clips from McNabb news conference, at which he basically said that Limbaugh comments were sad and disappointing, they bothered him, and he wouldn have much use for an apology. It also quoted, without naming him, a self serving statement from George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports. accept his rRush Limbaugh is still a big fat idiot
The creation of the Rush Limbaugh era was a move of astonishing cynicism by ESPN, a race down the low road in search of a buck or two, middle finger extended out the driver side window at its best customers, hardcore sports fans. Knowing that any publicity is good publicity and that hiring Limbaugh would have tongues wagging, the network hired him knowing he add nothing to viewers enjoyment of the games but plenty to the bottom line as the curious tuned in to see how Rush would try to shape the events on the field to fit his know nothing political agenda.
Time and again in his brief, idiotic tenure Limbaugh returned to one of his favorite themes, the liberal media, sometimes imagined as an unthinking horde marching in lockstep, sometimes as individual reporters, legions of them, all acting in exactly the same way for some reason that obvious to Rush if not to the rest of us.
Bill Parcells reputation as a great coach won suffer even if he fails in Dallas, Limbaugh said, because reporters idolize him and love that he returns their calls. And so on.