A missed chance for Limbaugh
ON THE whole, I was glad to see Rush Limbaugh dropped from a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams. The rest of the owners in the 32-team National Football League ultimately decided they would have been nuts to have a race-baiting investor in a business where two-thirds of the players are black and its televised broadcasts are among the top programs that both African-American and white viewers watch.
Given Limbaugh’s political prominence, this was a noteworthy disturbance of the old-boy network. Still, Limbaugh will likely be coddled to his dying day, from broadcast executives willing to profit from syndicated scapegoating to former vice president Dick Cheney, who declared Limbaugh to be a more iconic Republican than Colin Powell. Limbaugh’s buddies have forever been trying to help him get a foot in pro football’s door, including a short stint at ESPN and in this ownership bid.
The NFL set a cultural limit on rewarding crude, hurtful and un-American behavior. Commissioner Roger Goodell criticized Limbaugh’s history of “polarizing comments,’’ most notably Limbaugh’s 2003 statement that the media gave Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles too much credit for victories because it wanted a black quarterback to succeed. Limbaugh’s bid was likely finished off by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, formerly coached by Tony Dungy, the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl.
“There have been comments that have been made that have been inappropriate, incendiary, and insensitive,’’ Irsay said. “It’s bigger than football. We have to watch the words we say. . . . Sometimes privileges in life do get lost. . . . When you see the comments that are out there, I would not be comfortable. I myself couldn’t be in favor of voting for him.’’
I would not have either. But having been through many a diversity seminar, and witnessing antagonists struggle with surprising success to find areas of common ground previously unknown to them, the Limbaugh episode also represents an opportunity lost. This is particularly true for Limbaugh, who spouts off from the safety of his soundproofed studio, with scant exposure to the people he offends. Witness how Michael Vick, as part of his return to football, has gone from brutal dogfighter to saying for the Humane Society, “If you own a pet you need to love him with all your heart.’’
It would have been tantalizing to see Limbaugh, who rarely displays a heart, let alone love toward the people he pillories, walk the sidelines during pregame warm-ups when the Rams play the Baltimore Ravens.
Imagine the conversation he would have with Ray Lewis, one of the league’s most devastating linebackers. The italicized words are Limbaugh’s actual statements of the past.
“Say Ray, how ya’ doin’? I’m Rush Limbaugh, in case you don’t know me. We’d love to trade for you. But first, take that bone out of your nose and call me back.’’
How about the Rams playing the New York Jets and their Mexican-American quarterback Mark Sanchez? “Hombre! ’’ Rush would say. “I think it is truly great to see you, a Mexican-American, at a skill position. You’re so different from the rest of your people. In fact, when I talk about the North American Free Trade Act, I always say, let the unskilled jobs, let the kind of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do - let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.’’
Or the Dallas Cowboys and their Mexican-American quarterback Tony Romo? “Mi amigo, gotta admit, that was one heck of a quarterback scramble last week for your winning touchdown. Did you hear what I said on my radio show about you? I said, ‘I bet an immigration agent chased him the last 10 yards.’ Funny, huh?’’
People like Limbaugh will never learn if they are not forced to have real conversations with the people they pillorize. A good case in point is Vick’s second chance in the NFL being accompanied by his new work with animal rights.
Limbaugh would never have the courage to say his rotten things in person to behemoths who could splatter his vocal chords from end zone to end zone. NFL ownership might have been good for him. He might have shut up long enough for the caricatures in his mind to take human form, long enough for he himself to join the human race.
Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com. 
