In 2003, Rush Limbaugh resigned from ESPN after creating a controversy with his comments that Donovan McNabb got too much credit because, he said, "The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.'' Limbaugh no longer works as an NFL commentator, but his latest comments about football are sure to get more scrutiny.
Limbaugh's web site includes the following two statements that he made on his Friday show:
"There is a cultural problem in the NFL that has resulted in a total lack of class on the part of professional players. I love the game of football, but after every sack players are acting like they've won the Super Bowl; they're prancing around with these idiotic dances."
and
"Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."
Limbaugh has a fair, legitimate point with his first statement. Limbaugh's "lack of class" comment is quite similar to LaDainian Tomlinson's comments after the Chargers lost to the Patriots, although we should add that Tomlinson's teammate Shawne Merriman is as guilty as anyone when it comes to prancing around with idiotic dances after sacks.
Limbaugh undermines that legitimate point with his second statement, though. To compare NFL players to gang members is to display willful ignorance about the men who play in the league. Which of the top players in tomorrow's game act like gang members on the field? Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison? Tom Brady and Richard Seymour? Drew Brees and Reggie Bush? Thomas Jones and Brian Urlacher? All of those players and nearly all of the 180 or so players on the four teams we'll watch tomorrow are class acts. If Limbaugh doesn't know that, he doesn't know much about football. Which leaves me still scratching my head, three years later, as to why ESPN hired him.
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