RUSH LIMBAUGH IS SALTY!!!

If conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh ever had much of a chance to be a minority owner in a successful bid to buy the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, it is now over, two league sources have confirmed to SI.com.

In a statement released Wednesday evening by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts — who is heading the group that hopes to buy the Rams — he announced Limbaugh’s official exit from the bid. It is believed that Limbaugh’s controversial participation would have doomed the group’s effort in the eyes of NFL owners. League sources told SI.com that Limbaugh’s candidacy in any Rams bid had “zero chance” of being approved by the league’s owners. In his statement, Checketts said Limbaugh’s participation had become “a complication and a distraction” to the group’s efforts.



According to league sources, Limbaugh comes with too much troubling baggage in terms of his outspoken views that often intersect the divisive issues of politics and race in America. In a time when the NFL is hoping to have complete uniformity among its team owners in anticipation of the tough collective bargaining negotiations to come with the players union, there was little interest within the league to associate with an owner who is paid to give his highly charged opinions on the radio for hours each week.



“The league would be on pins and needles for three hours a day, five days a week,” one league source said. “The NFL isn’t interested in having its own Mark Cuban situation, where [the Dallas Mavericks owner] is fined for something he said, but then pays the fine, moves on and doesn’t care what he says the next time either. The league wants the focus to always be on the game, not the opinions of any particular owner.”



One league source told SI.com that Checketts group was never completely configured any way, and that Limbaugh’s participation was never set in stone. In that sense, when word surfaced that he would potentially hold minority ownership in the Rams, it was viewed as a trial balloon of sorts that never advanced much past the potential stage. Checketts is said to be seeking to replace Limbaugh’s financial participation with other interested parties.



There was swift reaction to the idea of Limbaugh being involved in NFL ownership, and much of it was not favorable. NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith last weekend sent a letter to the group’s board urging players to voice their opinion of Limbaugh’s participation. And on Tuesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear that Limbaugh would face a high bar regarding approval of his potential stake in the Rams.



“Divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about,” Goodell said at a two-day NFL owners meeting in Boston. “I’ve said many times before, we’re all held to a high standard here. I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL — absolutely not.”



Goodell’s strong comments were not just a message of sensitivity to the players in regards to Limbaugh’s controversial reputation. One league source said it was a message to the league’s entire customer base that the NFL would not be welcoming to a multi-platformed media figure who has a history of troubling and at times racially inflaming comments.



Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay on Tuesday predicted that Limbaugh’s potential ownership would face stiff opposition within the league, and said he could never vote to approve such a group. A league source went even further Wednesday, telling SI.com that even with Limbaugh no longer involved, Checketts’ ownership group from here on out would face questions regarding the wisdom of having associated itself with such a divisive presence in the first place. The source said Limbaugh within the league was seen as “a drain on anyone else in the group who might have legitimacy.”



Another league source voiced puzzlement over Checketts not discerning the potential backlash of Limbaugh’s participation in his group in advance of the news becoming public. “I would have assumed he would have run it up the flagpole with the league before it became known,” a league source said. “Then a tepid response would have told him where things stood.”



Others within the league believe that Limbaugh may have viewed his participation in Checketts group as nothing more than a dose of free publicity for the radio host, no matter the outcome or the response to his involvement. “There was no downside in any of this for him,” a league source said. “He gets a week of free publicity, and in the end, he’ll frame his rejection to his benefit.”



We are NOT fans of RACIST PEOPLE or ANYONE WHO HATES like Limbaugh does. But wait here’s what Limbaugh has to say:



NYC Daily reports:



Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh on Thursday blamed the NFL players’ union among numerous others for blocking his attempt to secure partial ownership of the St. Louis Rams, but the NFL disputed Limbaugh’s comments.



“The players association is using my involvement with the Rams and this whole episode as a bit of leverage in their negotiations, their upcoming negotiations, with the league and with the owners on a new collective bargaining agreement,” Limbaugh said. “That is what is really going on.”



Limbaugh was dropped on Wednesday from a bid spearheaded by sports executive Dave Checketts. On his radio program Thursday morning Limbaugh said he always knew his participation in the bid would be controversial, but said Checketts had visited him earlier this year with assurances that Limbaugh’s involvement had been vetted by the NFL.



“I said to him at this meeting, ‘Are you aware of the firestorm (this will lead to)?’ He said, ‘We wouldn’t have approached you if we hadn’t taken care of that,’” Limbaugh said, adding that Checketts told him the green light had come from the “highest levels” of the league.



“We do not ‘pre-approve’ prospective owners of NFL clubs and did not do so in Mr. Limbaugh’s case,” said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. “At all times we have been clear with prospective purchasers of the Rams or any other club that approval of an owner could only be granted by a vote of the 32 clubs after complete financial and personal due diligence, which obviously has not taken place here.”



Even though NFL commissioner Roger Goodell this week expressed misgivings about Limbaugh’s potential involvement, Limbaugh said he still loved the NFL and would likely be “the biggest non-paid promoter of the sport.”



Last week, the Daily News reported the opposition among players to Limbaugh’s involvement with the NFL. Limbaugh said Checketts called him on Tuesday and asked him to withdraw from the bidding group. Limbaugh claimed he refused, forcing Checketts to go public and fire him.



In 2003, Limbaugh was forced to resign from a football broadcast job with ESPN after a remark about Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb drew criticism as racially insensitive. “I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL,” said Limbaugh. “The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.”



Comments like that one are what led Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka and Jets linebacker Bart Scott to tell The News last week that they wouldn’t want to play for a team owned by Limbaugh.



“I don’t want anything to do with a team that he has any part of,” Kiwanuka said. “He can do whatever he wants, it is a free country. But if it goes through, I can tell you where I am not going to play.”



Limbaugh, an ardent enemy of the Democratic party and liberal groups, said the flap over his potential ownership of an NFL reflected his misgivings about the direction of the country under the presidency of Barack Obama.



“What is happening to the National Football League, what is about to happen to it, has already happened to Wall Street, has already happened to the automobile business,” Limbaugh said, claiming he had been done in by the media’s “blind hatred.”



In 2002, Limbaugh was among the chorus of critics of Martha Burk, who fought an unsuccessful battle to compel Augusta National, a private club and home of the Masters, to admit women to its ranks of members.



“I loved what Hootie Johnson and the membership did,” Limbaugh told Golf Digest after Johnson, then the club’s chairman, refused to discuss the issue of women members with Burk. “Most clubs would have cowed in fear and called a meeting to reach a ‘common goal’ and all that. Not Augusta National.”


SOURCE: SI