They will kill football.

While listening to Rush today (The radio commentator, not the Canadian rock band. Have I ever said how much I hate Tom Sawyer? Hate it.) I heard about this article in the Chicago Tribune. The writer claims that football will die soon because of the controversy surrounding concussions. Now people, mostly Progressives (or the Left), have been trying to kill football for over one hundred years. Teddy Roosevelt even had to intervene at one point early in the game's history (see: The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football) to keep football alive. Now football is facing major criticism again and, make no mistake, the game's foes will kill it if they can. Keep an eye on this because you're going to be seeing a lot more of the same kind of talk.

Shaken

I think Jay Nordlinger from National Review Online sums up everything I have left to say on Rush and the NFL:

Frankly, I’m so angry about this, I’m not sure I should write about it. I’m even a little shaken, and perhaps you are, too. Let me be blunt: The effort to keep Rush Limbaugh from participating in a bid on a football team was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. For many years now, we have witnessed an attempt to banish Rush to the margins of American life. To make him a pariah in our society, a non-person. In recent times, this effort has been led by the White House itself. The Left at large is portraying Rush as unfit to be part-owner of a football team, or to do much else in American life. This is why I was pleased when he was named, just the other day, a judge in the Miss America contest: It was evidence that the effort to ostracize Rush was failing. The anathematization of him was not complete. But, after this football thing, as I have said, I find myself a little shaken. Like you, quite possibly, I have read newspapers from front to back for many years. And the news — or at least opinion journalism — is my business. It takes a hell of a lot to shake me. Most things are yawny, even when they’re evil. But this Rush-NFL thing has shaken me, just a bit.

Also, it's a shame Wilbon was one of the people attacking Rush, though at least he did admit when he used a fake quote on PTI. It doesn't surprise me at all the Drew Sharp was.

Say Hello To The Bad Guy

Big, bad Rush Limbaugh's declaration that he is part of an ownership group that hopes to buy the Rams has the NFLPA executive director, Al Sharpton, and left wing sportswriters stamping their collective feet at the idea of Rush being a (partial) NFL owner. Here's the reason: Rush is an incredibly popular conservative. That's it. The Left hates Rush, everything else is just window-dressing. Page 2's Jeff MacGregor demonstrates this well as he describes Rush as drawing on "populist anger", "keeping folks preoccupied with their hurts and resentments", and "peddling blame". Which just goes to show that, like most of Rush's critics, he has no clue what he's talking about. Rush is whatever he needs to be so the Left can feel righteous.

Now, the one thing you're going to hear a lot about is the McNabb comment, so here it is to refresh your memory:

Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The 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't deserve. The defense carried this team.

This is interesting because I just heard a commentator say yesterday how important it was the McNabb had a good game, otherwise the fans might clamor for Kevin Kolb to start. If you remember, there was never any real discussion of the actual point made (I'm open to correction on this point, but I certainly don't remember seeing any). ESPN and sportswriters were offended at the suggestion that they aren't impartial arbiters of sport and didn't want to discuss how they might influence the opinions of fans. Plus he said "black", so that set off all the PC meters. You'll notice we don't talk about McNabb being overrated anymore, because he failed to win the Super Bowl and is down the list of "elite" QBs. So, maybe Rush was right.

Like he usually is.