The Limbaugh-NFL nonsense

[Tex]

Limbaugh explains today his side of the deal. Pretty interesting read, a few snippets:

[Checketts] came to my home some weeks later, it was either late May or early June for about an hour-and-a-half or two hours, and we sealed the deal and that was that. And I said to him at this meeting, "Are you aware of the firestorm this --" "Oh, yes, totally aware, Rush, and believe me, I wouldn't have approached you if I hadn't taken care of that. I would not have even come and asked you to be part of the group if I had not cleared your involvement with people at the highest levels of the National Football League."

And my mistake at that point was not asking him, "All right, do you really mean it, and who did you speak to?" He gave me a couple of names that are pretty high up and led me to believe that it was all handled and that he was fully prepared for what was going to happen. ...

So when this all started to unravel with the leaking of my being part of the group, the predictable firestorm started, and I said, "Are you guys prepared here? Do you understand what's going on?" "Oh, yeah, we want you to be a partner, don't worry, Rush, I would not have gone this far if I hadn't wired this before I even spoke to you." Now, remember, I did not seek them out, they sought me out. They came here to my home. ...

And the real reason, the real reason -- and there are many, many reasons that are valid, but the real reason -- that pressure was brought upon me by Sharpton and Jackson and DeMaurice Smith and the commissioner is that the Players Association is using my involvement in the Rams and this whole episode as a bit of leverage in their negotiations, the upcoming negotiations with the league and with the owners on a new collective bargaining agreement. That is what's really going on, and the Players Association... I don't know how many players know this, but Mr. Smith has let it be known that if he has to he'll bring the White House into this. He'll bring the Congressional Black Caucus into this.

So Obama's America is quite possibly going to include the National Football League, and pressure from Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus and other places might be brought to bear on the owners. I can't imagine that that's anything they want. ...

But those people who enabled this event -- for their own racial reasons, for their own ratings, their own fundraising, their own face time, their own business reasons -- they're going to be just as unhappy as they were before this happened.

It's a collection of unhappy, angry, agitated people, and that's not going to change. But this kind of stuff: This misreporting; lying; repeating lies while also saying "Limbaugh denies," repeating the made-up quotes, the blind hatred -- and, believe me, the hatred that exists in this is found in the sportswriter community. It's found in the news business. It's found in the race hustler business.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/dai...106.guest.html