RUSH: Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports. He’s a well-known, highly respected sports reporter going way, way back. During NPR’s Morning Edition, he did a commentary today about Michael Sam entering the NFL.
DEFORD: Sure, the media will beat the story to death, but we have it on the authority of no less than Rush Limbaugh that, quote, “Sports media,” are, “worse libs than the news media…” So all the bleeding-heart football writers will be rooting for Michael Sam, like most people. Anyway, by the third game of the season, everybody will have lost interest in him and we’ll be back to hearing about injuries and playoff chances and all those poor old heterosexuals whose brains were damaged playing the game. (sarcastically) Oh, those darn distractions!
RUSH: You want to bet that by the third game of the season everybody will have forgotten about him? But, anyway, “Let the guy play, so we can get back to heterosexuals and their injuries and distractions, so forth.” Let’s go back to November 14th of last year. Same place, NPR, Morning Edition, and the same guy, Frank Deford.
DEFORD: An HBO Real Sports Marist College poll shows that the danger of football concussions would make a third of Americans less likely to let their boys play. But now the view that has emerged from the Dolphins’ locker room goes beyond that and suggests that modern football is so violent, even thuggish, that it can damage your soul as well as your brain. How many more parents will keep their sons out of the football locker room under the assumption that there are better ways to learn to be manly?
RUSH: Mr. Deford, why are you so supportive of Sam going into the NFL if it “can damage your soul as well as your brain”? Why isn’t there an alternative way for Sam to be “manly” than to go to the NFL? Last November, it was not cool to go to the NFL; now it is?
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RUSH: Bruce in Jackson, Mississippi. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Yes. Mr. Rush, how are you today?
RUSH: I’m fine and dandy, sir.
CALLER: We just know you’re kind of getting close to the end of the show, but just very quickly, I take care of my mother full time. I’ve been doing so for about 10, 12 years, and we listen to you every day, and I was on the air with you, I was so thrilled. We talked about how I was not going to and my mom, we were not gonna vote for McCain because of all the times he would stick in the eye of the Republicans, and I was really passionate, and you told me, “Bruce, never apologize for being passionate.” And it was so exciting, a couple of days later you said we had that great call from Mississippi and my mom and I looked at each other, and my mom and I said, “How about that, they’re talking about us.” But real quickly, and then I’ll get to the point, my mom wants to ask you if you’ll pray for her. Mom, ask him. Ask Mr. Rush.
CALLER’S MOM: Rush, will you pray for me?
RUSH: Absolutely.
CALLER: We sure appreciate it. She loves you and I love you. We just think the world of you. But real quick, what I wanted to tell you and what Mr. Snerdley, I told him, was when Obama, Mr. and Mrs. Obama and that sports journalist earlier, you know, when they’re encouraging this football player to play in the National Football League, isn’t that really just a form of gay bashing?
RUSH: Why would it be gay bashing? Oh, oh, wait, let me see if I understand. Because football kills, because football maims, because football leads to suicide, now they’re encouraging this young man who’s announced he’s homosexual to go play, when Obama said he wouldn’t even let his own son play.
CALLER: Exactly, and isn’t that just — I mean, I think it’s horrible that those good liberals —
RUSH: Well, you know, it is an interesting point. I mean, on one hand, you’re gonna condemn the game as dangerous and risky, and you wouldn’t let your own kid play. And then here comes a university student, says, “Hey, I’m gay, and I want to play,” and you say, “Go to it, man.” What are we supposed to believe in balancing those two? I mean, I wouldn’t call it gay bashing, but you’ve pointed up a really interesting hypocrisy. You know, which is which? If this game causes suicide, maims, takes your soul away, and hurts you, why are you encouraging anybody to play it, especially after you’ve said you wouldn’t let your own son play? I know what the answer would be. He’s an adult, he can make up his own mind. That’s what they would say.