![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/DurbinNFL.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nRUSH: I don\u2019t know how many of you are following the bounty situation, the New Orleans Saints and the National Football League, but it is really getting…what\u2019s the word? It\u2019s not “complicated,” but… It\u2019s “convoluted,” I guess, is the word. The league has released what they say is evidence. Media people looking at it don\u2019t think it\u2019s that slam dunk proving that there was a bounty program offering payment for serious injury being inflicted. The league, however, is insistent. And they\u2019re not backing down from any of the penalties or player suspensions.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s this.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now, there are fundamental changes happening in the National Football League, and I\u2019ve told you this before. I\u2019ve been very open about the fact that I think it\u2019s not gonna be long before… Well, in fact, it\u2019s already happening. There are now people proposing bans on high school football and college football. Now, they\u2019re not big, and they\u2019re not from mainstream types yet. But it\u2019s gaining steam at a much faster clip than I thought. And you\u2019ve got ex-players — Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a Hall of Fame, four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback and others — coming out saying they\u2019d never let their kids play the game now.<\/p>\n
Folks, if you love football, you better enjoy it while you can, because there are fundamental changes coming to this game. They\u2019re gonna forever alter it. If they get half of what they\u2019re trying to get here, it\u2019s not gonna be the game that people have known. It\u2019s the most profitable sports league in the history of the country. People are just sitting around watching this happen in a purely defensive way that has me really surprised. And I saw this story early today.<\/p>\n
Now, keep in mind we\u2019re talking about the National Football League. We are talking about a sport that is regimented in ways that are similar to the military in terms of lifestyle, coaching technique, practice, execution, and mental preparedness. It\u2019s not a lackadaisical sport like baseball or soccer. It is very regimented for the players. And it\u2019s being… I don\u2019t know. “Chickified” is not quite accurate as to what\u2019s happening, but it\u2019s close. “In order to prevent the imposition of bounties on players who complain about bounties, the NFL” is creating an “anonymous bounty tip line.”<\/p>\n
They are looking for whistleblowers among the players who want to let the league know that their team is engaging in the practice of bounties. They\u2019re setting up an anonymous bounty tip line. This is the National Football League! This is not some government agency. This is not some… Well, it is a private sector corporate entity, but they\u2019re football players, the essence of alpha males. You\u2019ve going to turn \u2019em into snitches now? Whistleblowers, anonymous snitches? “In order to prevent the imposition of bounties on players who complain about bounties, the NFL will create a vehicle for the anonymous reporting of the existence of bounties.<\/p>\n
“After Wednesday\u00c2\u2019s meeting between Commissioner Roger Goodell and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)…” You know nothing good can come of this now, when Democrat members of the senate are getting involved here. “After Wednesday\u2019s meeting between Commissioner Roger Goodell and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), [the commissioner] announced that a tip line will be created for anyone who wishes to let the league know about the existence of bounties…<\/p>\n
“‘We\u2019ve taken very strong action to make sure they\u2019re not part of sports going forward,\u2019 Goodell said. ‘And that the integrity of our game and the safety of our players is paramount. And that we\u2019re going to take very aggressive steps to protect that.'” Meanwhile, the players, the Saints, they\u2019re still not satisfied with the evidence that\u2019s been presented by the league that concludes that there was a bounty program. Now, there was, but the evidence that\u2019s being used to suspend these guys, players suspect it\u2019s not all that slam dunk.<\/p>\n
And then the second story is, “Given the confusion regarding the NFL\u00c2\u2019s evidence in the Saints bounty case, it\u00c2\u2019s fitting that there\u00c2\u2019s now confusion regarding the intentions of Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to investigate and combat bounties in pro sports.” Now, you know that\u2019s gonna fix it. You\u2019ve got Senator Durbin and the Democrats being involved to solve the bounty program. You know what happens when the government gets involved in anything: It changes forever. It becomes regulated for the personal aggrandizement of the politicians.<\/p>\n
“After a short Wednesday meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Durbin declared that the league has done enough to clean up its mess regarding bounties, prompting Durbin to abandon his plan to fire a shot across the NFL\u00c2\u2019s bow via a full-blown hearing on bounties.” So Goodell shut that down, but Durbin was gonna have a hearing on this stuff. Now, you see? How many years have they been pursuing Roger Clemens? Roger Clemens can\u2019t lie to Congress.<\/p>\n
If you lie to Congress about taking human growth hormone or whatever, we\u2019re gonna come after you for four years on a process crime, perjury. You can\u2019t lie to Congress! Eric Holder has admitted lying to Congress twice but he doesn\u2019t call it lying. One of the big lies was that Mukasey, the attorney general for George W. Bush, essentially put in play Fast and Furious. The predecessor of that program is called Wide Receiver. Wide Receiver did not have much in common with Fast and Furious at all.<\/p>\n
So Holder, in a moment of testimony some months ago, said, “I — I — I didn\u2019t even know about Fast and Furious. The Bush administration did that! Mukasey did that. I didn\u2019t learn about it for months after I was sworn in as attorney general.” So Darrell Issa and the committee say, “Could you show us some proof?” And there was no proof. And there was no proof. And finally we heard yesterday that Holder <\/a>“recanted” and “changed his testimony.” He lied!<\/p>\n And there are two instances of this. Eric Holder lied to this committee. There was a blatant lie in their February 4th, 2011, letter to Congress that there was no Fast and Furious program. The lies that the Department of Justice has told to this congressional committee… And, by the way, my buddy Andy McCarthy made a great point. He had a post on this yesterday. I was flying out of town and I was reading it on the airplane. It was National Review Online, I think, where he posted it.<\/p>\n It might have been at PJ Media. He posts both places. It was about the whole executive privilege thing. And a lot of people are saying that the administration invoking executive privilege to protect Holder, that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s executive branch. But McCarthy\u2019s point was: Look, did you know there was not a Department of Justice when this nation was founded? There was an attorney general when the nation was founded. Do you know how many years it was…? Snerdley, let me ask you.<\/p>\n How many years was it after the nation was founded, after the Constitution was ratified before we had a Department of Justice? (interruption) One hundred years. One hundred years until we had a Department of Justice. We had an attorney general before that, but he was an adviser. He was simply a legal adviser to the president. Now, McCarthy\u2019s point is that the Congress created the Department of Justice. And the Congress, if they wanted to tomorrow, could eliminate it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not part of the Constitution. The Founders did not create it. Congress did. Congress has total purview of the courts. They determine the circuits and how many courts. They do this. They are the elected representatives of the people. So Andy\u2019s point among many others was that it\u2019s perfectly within Darrell Issa\u2019s purview. Since Congress funds the Department of Justice. Since Congress created it. Now, they put it in the executive branch, but they created it. There is oversight there.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/RushJoinRush247.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>You\u2019ve gotta be very careful on all of this, though, because executive privilege is oftentimes invoked for perfectly good reasons. Congress, by the same token, does not have the right to ride roughshod over the administration. There are many times that presidents have invoked executive privilege for entirely qualified reasons. So it\u2019s not something to be universally attacked, universally assaulted. You have to examine it case by case each time it\u2019s asserted. In this case, it\u2019s so suspicious and it\u2019s so obvious.<\/p>\n