Rush Limbaugh was part of a group of investors led by Dave Checketts to buy the St Louis Rams. Checketts is a major sports investor who, among other things, founded Sports Capital Partners Worldwide, which owns the St Louis Blues hockey team and pro soccer’s Real Salt Lake. Unfortunately, the NFL was less than keen on Limbaugh’s participation in the deal. Limbaugh already has a checkered past with the NFL after he was forced to resign from a broadcast job with ESPN over some on air comments viewed by many as racially insensitive. Put another way – comments like “”The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in (Donovan) McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve.” are not likely to attract black free agents to play for a team owned by Limbaugh, a point made by two former NFL players and several current members of the Rams.
Colts’ owner Jim Irsay went on record as saying he would vote against allowing Limbaugh to purchase the franchise, and league commissioner Roger Goodell expressed reservations of his own. That was enough for Checketts, who asked Limbaugh to withdraw from the group. Limbaugh refused, and so Checketts fired him.
And now my friends, we need to jump back down the rabbit hole.
Who did Limbaugh say was to blame? Surely not himself. He started with the player’s union, who did in fact put the pressure on to have the bid killed. Then he went on to blame the liberal media. And eventually, he got around to President Obama. Through the power of unsubstantiated assertion, Limbaugh has managed to to link his removal from the group to the auto industry bailout and the mess on Wall Street, and tie them all together as part of Obama’s agenda to destroy capitalism.
Orly Taitz, eat your heart out.