ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown thread (Rush update)

10/05/03 | Andy from Beaverton

[Andy from Beaverton]

Is anybody watching the show? Can you believe what they are saying? Talking about stabing someone in the back!

[twittle]

They said that Rush promised to leave his social commentary on his radio program and only talk football on the show. "He broke that promise."

If this is true, then what are your feelings?

[Joe_October]

Rush could play if he pretended to be Tom Jackson. Sorry, I'm glad they pushed him out. More time for him to speak the truth.

You know when the game is in the late 3rd or 4th quarter and it's over, the commentators have nothing to speak about.

I don't want them to speak about social issues but they are trained not to express a point that may be remotely controversial. Why do we listen?

Rush would never be on MNF. Who is naive now? Miller was not perceived as conservative prior to MNF. An extra character on a minor show on CBS makes your point while Hollywood funds the Left? Did they say in Black Hawk Down that Clinton caused the death of those soldiers? Did they say it first, last, and repeated it often? They couldn't because Hollywood wouldn't let them.

Whether it is business men be practical or idealogues pushing their agenda, I don't know. Because they pander to the Right we think it's not so bad. Was Pearl Harbor really a reasonable movie? What about Thin Red Line starring Nick Nolte? Was Saving Private Ryan really about how brave America is? Was the Patriot really about men fighting to create freedom for the world?

If they were interested in profit, there would be ten movies a year about how great America is. Hollywood is morally bankrupt and they oppose any competion.

How hard did Fox have to fight to get on the air to express even a moderately conservative view?

No, Rush is not on his way to MNF chair. Maybe the guys that follow but not Rush.

[Joe_October]

Saying McNabb is over rated is social. Saying the press is biased is social. See how they define the terms for you?

[samantha]

You are right, Rush put politics or anti political correctness into his essay after he promised not to in his contract. He was also very wrong about Mcnabb. He behaved like a fan that does not have access to all the games. Mcnabb is good,but will be great. He has the guts and determination of 10 players. I did not watch this espn show today,and even though I normally watch from 11-12, I never will again because of the reported gutless,and racist comments made against rush after he was so classy on his show regarding those dirty SOB's. Rush should have been smarter,sometimes he is a bit too gullible.

[twittle]

Rush was not hired on this show to delineate societal differences between blacks and whites.

He got away with it once with the Steve Mariucci issue (quite legitimate, but I was still troubled that he would bring it up in a forum in which he just be talking about football strategies).

Rush screwed up.

[willieroe]

Rush put politics or anti political correctness into his essay after he promised not to in his contract...

I missed that - has the language in Rush's contract with ESPN been disclosed or discussed?

[rambo316]

Pull the whole damn plug on the whole "NAACPNFL". I did along time ago because I think that the majority of players, today, have ruined the game. And Yes, 70% are black an I get sick and tired of every play that these black immature players have to celebrate. These idiots could be losing the game badly and they still celebrate. Rush is right, but he did not go far enough and say that in every sport, the media elite are trying to make heros out of blacks.

What Rush said was not in any way Racist. Think about it for a moment. Think of all the racist comments black players or coaches have made in the past. What was it that Dusty Baker had said about white ball players? He got one little blip in the media for what he said and like what is always said, if it were reversed and a white coach said about a black ball player what Baker said about white ball players, that white coach would have been fired on the spot.

[Let's Roll]

I was talking about Texas' Vince Young - weren't you?

[ATCNavyRetiree]

I sent an e-mail telling them that I will no longer tune in until they discuss, on NFL Countdown, why they will not broach the subject of NFL owners having to interview at least one MINORITY candidate whether they feel they are qualified at not. After all, Donovan himself stated, in his response to Rush's comments, that he "cannot believe that the color of one's skin is still an issue today."
If it isn't, Donovan, why are the NFL owners FINED if they fail to do this, such as Matt Millen was in Detroit?????
I urge all fellow FReepers to use this travesty as a prime example of this double standard as this controversy is debated!

[Stew Padasso]

"If this is true, then what are your feelings?"


If that is the case, then he knew the rules. However, I'm not sure what sort of restrictions he had on him, and if it is even possible to avoid touching on social commentary at some point.

All in all, what he said was stupid, but not racist. But did probably measure up to social commentary.

[Timesink]

This is the Mainstream Media Shenanigans ping list. Please freepmail me to be added or dropped.
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[Timesink]

They can kiss those goodbye ... after today.

I'm not just sick of Sunday Countdown; I'm sick of the whole NFL after this spectacle. I had no desire at all to watch any NFL games today ... I flipped one game on and all I could think is, "Ninety percent of these guys are either racists or too whipped to speak out against the hate."

[discostu]

No Rush could have played if he'd have kept his promise. I think that's the root of what people are mad about, the left turned out to be right. When he got hired all the commentators on the left said he'd be injecting his politics into the show, he said he wouldn't, he did. They were right about him, he couldn't keep his politics out and just talk football for a measely 5 minutes a show.

According to the ratings of sporting events that are blowouts we don't listen.

I think Rush could have been on MNF if he'd have had a successful run on the pre-game show. By sticking his foot in his mouth in just 4 weeks he showed he deserved to lose the MNF spot to Miller and doesn't deserve to ever have another shot at MNF.

Actually they DID say that Clinton wouldn't allow them to have the equipment necessary to run the Somalia mission properly. They didn't repeat it often because it would get boring and distract from the story, movies are supposed to be entertainment first last and always, any kind of message has to get squeezed in around the entertainment.

Hollywood IS about profit, if you want 10 movies a year about how great America is make the ones that show up profitable. That's always has been and always will be the key to Hollywood: they remake the movies that make money. Quentin Tarrentino makes a mint blowing off some guy's head in the back of a car and the next thing you know there's two dozen movies with profanity spewing anti-heroes mimicing the Tarentino style. Blair Witch Project blows the box office away and cheap horror movies are back in force. That's why sequels are so popular in Hollywood, if the first one made money you can garauntee two sequels, if the third one makes money you'll get another trilogy shortly, if they make money your series becomes the next James Bond or Star Trek.

From what I saw Fox didn't fight hard at all. Rupert Murdoch saw an opening and went for it. Don't think for a second Fox is conservative because Murdoch wants that view heard, it's conservative because there was no competition in that verticle market. If CNN and MSNBC fall apart and there gets to be competition in the conservative news market Fox will run left so fast you might actually get to see conservative commentators fired live on TV.

You're damn right Rush isn't now, he screwed up. He might have been but he proved that 15 hours a week isn't enough, he must put forth his politics in even when the forum is inappropriate, even when he promised not to.

[discostu]

I don't think he was wrong about McNabb. He never said McNabb was bad, he said McNabb wasn't as good as he was getting credit for, and one quick look at his stats shows that's true (Eagle's offense under McNabb has never ranked better than 10th, of all active QBs with more than 25 starts McNabb has the second worst completion percentage, never had a QB rating better than 80). He's a big play player, but he doesn't manage the offense and he's shown he's not yet a big game player. McNabb might grow into his rep, or he might not, either way he is not right now the QB the sports press says.

They weren't racist comments, and I don't think they were gutless. Gutless would have been to ignore it and pretend Rush was never on the show. They talked about it, they gave their honest opinions, their honest opinion very well might have been wrong but they put it out there anyway. Most of them blaimed themselves for not handling it right when it happened. Tom Jackson got pretty intense, but you could see by his jaw muscles that he wanted to be a lot more intense. Hopefully next week it'll be behind everybody and we can get back to football, that's what football shows should be about.

[Humbug]

I think you are misreading what Rush meant when he said he wouldn't insert politics. My reading of it is that he meant he wouldn't start throwing in comments about political issues/people that were unrelated to football, such as making snide references to Hillary or joking about PETA or something along those lines - things that are strictly political and have nothing to do with sports. But talking about the sports media and why someone may have been overhyped was certainly within the confines of what he considered to be fair game. Plus he had made mention of another controversial social issue the week before, dealing with the hiring practices of coaches, and yet no one got after him about that since what he said wasn't considered a hanging offense by the PC police.

[discostu]

Two of the favorite topics of conservative commentators are media bias and affirmative action (both official and de facto). How could he not consider talking about de facto affirmative action in the media's biased coverage of McNabb to not be political? As I put in earlier: saying McNabb is overrated is discussing football, getting into why the media gives him a break isn't. He should have just stopped at "McNabb isn't as good as the media says, he gets credit for wins by the defense".

The coach thing in that almost everybody associated with the NFL (including high profile black commentators like James Brown on Fox) thinks the interview rule is stupid. Also Rush approached it differently, discussing how it could turn out badly for black coaches. But having those two discussions back-to-back shows he was pushing the envelope seeing just how political he could get, he shouldn't have been. Should have stuck to pure football, leave every aspect of the politics in the radio booth. It's sad for Rush and for football, I think Rush could have brought a lot to the NFL as a regular commentator, and I think he could have gotten away with stuff if he'd gone through one clean year before poking at the envelope; and I know Rush really wanted to be involved in football and was hoping for the MNF spot and any chance of that is completely lost now.

[AbsoluteJustice]

My letter to ESPN:

I will no longer be watching NFL Countdown on my Sunday mornings. What I saw was disgusting and total BS. Your panel lied in that they said we knew in hiring him (Rush Limbaugh) that we did not want political discussion on our panel but he brought it here. This was not only BS but a total lie. I believe it was you so called panel of "experts" who brought politics in this 3 weeks ago when the show first started. Someone on the panel made a Republican/Democrat comments and Rush totally let it roll off TO NOT BRING POLITICS into the matter. I cannot believe you had this dusgusting tyrade this morning to pile onto Rush. You couldn't just let it go. Your panel of weasels had to jump on the "racial bandwagon" and become the thought police just like the orginazations who make mobey off of this type of pandering do. i.e. NAACP, Jesse Jackson, etc. See what I think ESPN fails to realize is that there are more of us out there whom like Rush and respect his views than there are of NFL Countdown fans. I hope this is a message to you and your weasels on the panel. See when Rush fans ban together they mean it. So much for me tuning into your show any longer and I know hundreds of others who feel the same way.

[nonliberal]

Tom Jackson stepped on his labia today.

That comment might get this yanked.

[Shaka]

I think the word cowardice applies here..how cowardly it was of Tom Jackson to openly ATTACK RUSH...and RUSH had no way of defending himself. What Jackson did was worse than what Rush did. You think anything will happen to Jackson? No.

[jragan2001]

I boycotted MLB after their near-strike last year, and
don't watch either the NHL or the NBA. Now, it looks
like I could add the NFL to my do-not-watch list if
these shenanigans keep up.