Rush to Judgement

Rush Limbaugh’s bid to buy part of the St. Louis Rams has stirred lots of controversy and brought about lots of opinions, and now the Reverend Al Sharpton has joined the mix.

Sharpton sent a letter to NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, urging him to reject Limbaugh’s bid, he also asked for a meeting with Goodell. The letter basically said that the NFL should reject the bid because Limbaugh would be bad for the league.

Goodell was in Boston attending an owner’s meeting when the letter arrived and will respond to it upon his return, league spokesman Greg Aiello, but frankly, I don’t understand why he would take the time to respond.

There have also been several former and current NFL players speaking out against Limbaugh, many saying that they would refuse to play for a team that Limbaugh owned. Roman Oben, a retired NFL player had this to say, “The biggest fear that I share, and a lot of people share with me, is that you just don’t want a guy with these extreme views, who has made a living off those views, getting in the ear of upper management and ownership to create some of these policies.”

What policies? What policies are speaking about, Mr. Oben? The NFL already has a code of conduct and holds their players to high standards, so what policies are you talking about that Limbaugh’s political views could possibly affect?

Also, those players that say they would refuse to play for a team that Limbaugh owned are full of crap. Their job is to play football, if Limbaugh was offering you more money than another owner, you’re telling me that you wouldn’t go to his team? NO. You would.

And as far as politics goes and other league owners, the majority of the owners are conservative, like Limbaugh, and we don’t know them like we know Limbaugh, but if we did, I’m sure there would be some secrets revealed that would be less than pleasing, because people in their position don’t get there without stepping on some people along the way.

My biggest problem with this article, though, is the fact that Sharpton is writing a letter to Goodell and requesting a meeting with him. Why should Goodell even take into consideration what Sharpton has to say? And Sharpton says that Limbaugh will be bad for the league, but we don’t even know who most of the league’s owners are, because they really don’t have that much of an effect on the league. They sign the checks.

It just really bothers me that Sharpton is speaking out against Limbaugh. It’s a free country, Limbaugh has worked himself to a position where he can buy an NFL team, if he wants to, he should at least be fairly considered. What pull does Sharpton have with the NFL? Because I don’t think he should have any.