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The NFL Collides with the PC Media Culture

by Rush Limbaugh - Sep 17,2014

RUSH: The NFL. It didn’t take long, folks. It didn’t take long. Right here my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, here it is. Dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut.

“The Rev. Jesse Jackson criticized the NFL on Tuesday for not including any African-American women when it brought on three domestic violence experts as consultants.” As you know, the NFL “said Monday that Lisa Friel, Jane Randel and Rita Smith would serve as ‘senior advisors.’ NFL director of player engagement and…” For those of you in Rio Linda, it doesn’t mean players getting married.


The NFL director of player engagement is the director of the people who they engage, they come in contact with, they chat with, they tweet. The players. Nobody’s talking marriage here. Anyway, her name is Deana Garner, and she is African-American. She is the director of player engagement and education. She “helps lead the league’s domestic violence program [and] is African-American,” but she isn’t new.

The Reverend Jackson says this effort is incomplete and not diverse enough. “About two-thirds of NFL players are African-American, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. ‘Where is the jury of your peers?’ Jackson said. [He] called the lack of diversity among the senior advisers a ‘shameful insensitivity’ that ‘compounds the credibility crisis.'”

Now you have Anheuser-Busch threatening to pull its advertising because it’s uncomfortable with what’s going on. Yeah, but look, you know… (sigh) We gotta be real, real, real careful here. That’s the problem with this subject. You have to be just real careful. What does Anheuser-Busch make? (interruption) Now, what’s the primary ingredient? (interruption) No. That may not be the proper way to say it.

Barley, hops? (interruption) No, no. But why do people drink it? They don’t drink it because it has the best hops and the best barley. They don’t drink it because it’s the top the choice of the brewers art or whatever. They drink it because of the alcohol, right? (interruption) Okay, well, is there a relationship between alcohol and…? (interruption) I don’t know. (interruption)

Well, I’m just saying asking: Is there a relationship between alcohol and, I don’t know, like nightclubs? Is there relationship with alcohol and…? (interruption) Well, I mean you gotta be real careful here. That’s all I’m saying. In talking about this, in analyzing it, you’ve got to be real, real careful here. Adrian Peterson is gone until the legal system handles his case.

“Sorry, you’re outta here, Adrian. We tried but we just can’t do it.” Radisson Hotels has said they’re not gonna keep sponsoring the Vikings because of all of this. It just keeps coming. There are some new statistics out. I had this in the Stack yesterday. I didn’t get to it; I feel bad about that. But somebody’s run the numbers, the cases in the NFL of spouse abuse, DUI and all that? It’s way below the national average.

It’s way below the national average. The incidence of DUI — driving under the influence, for those of you in Rio Linda — the incidence of spouse abuse, wife beating, is below the national average in other categories. (interruption) Help the who? (interruption) Not gonna help the…? (interruption) Oh, the myth? Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no. Well, the reality doesn’t matter here in that sense.


They’re not gonna say, “Well, you mean the NFL actually does better on spouse abuse and DUI than the population at large?” Yeah! “Well, it’s still happening in the NFL, and the NFL people idolize it and people are addicted to it and so we can’t…” That isn’t gonna matter. It’s not gonna change anybody’s approach to what’s happening.

“Blacks and Hispanics Have Doubts About Media Accuracy.” This is the Associated Press. It’s what it says here. “A new study shows a large majority of African-American and Hispanic news consumers don’t fully trust the media to portray their communities accurately, a statistic that could be troubling for the news industry as the minority population of the United States grows.”

Okay, can I ask…? This is a stupid question. Let me see. Who did the survey? Media Insight Project. Never heard of ’em but we’ll accept it. I’m not putting ’em down when I say never heard of ’em; I’m just being honest. Never heard of ’em, couldn’t care, doesn’t matter. We’ll just accept it. Blacks and Hispanics have doubts about media accuracy what the media is reporting on them.

Well, then why don’t they question everything the media reports on, then? If they question the accuracy about the way the media’s reporting on them and their communities, might they expand on the premise and question the accuracy of the media reporting on, say, Republicans, or the War on Women, or you pick it? The Tea Party?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We’re gonna start with Chris in Philadelphia. I’m glad you called, sir. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush.

RUSH: Have at it.


CALLER: I have a simple point, and I’ll try to put it as succinctly as I can. We know Mr. Peterson, Adrian Peterson has a child, at least two, and maybe others. My point is, with him suspended, with him losing his sponsorships and maybe suffering a loss of his career, who’s going to support these children? Haven’t they suffered and aren’t they going to suffer again?

RUSH: So let me reverse the question on you. Are you suggesting that maybe we should look the other way at his form of discipline in exchange for the kids and his family being set economically?

CALLER: No. What I’m suggesting is that people think about the ramifications of what they’re doing —

RUSH: Oh, come on.

CALLER: — before we have these knee-jerk reactions.

RUSH: That isn’t gonna happen. You’re right, don’t misunderstand. That isn’t gonna happen. Look, what is the saying, the train’s left the station on this. Adrian Peterson may not know it yet, but he may never play in the NFL again. Ditto, Ray Rice. I mean, the die is cast here. These guys are now the embodiment of evil, because these guys represent, they are symbols of a political agenda that has been given a big bunch of juice here with these incidents.

CALLER: Exactly. And so children are going to suffer again because he can no longer support them.

RUSH: No. No. What you will be told, the children will be safer than ever with him not in their lives. With him being punished for brutalizing them the way he did, they are gonna be much better off. It has nothing to do with economics, they’re gonna say. It has nothing to do with depriving him of earning a living. Look, remember when Goodell changed the policy from two games suspended to six for spouse abuse, a woman called here, said, “You know what, Rush? That’s too much because the women aren’t gonna report it now because they don’t want to be without the paycheck. And if their husband earns the paycheck and gets cut, fired, suspended because he hit her, they’re not gonna report it because they want the paycheck coming in. It’s why they married the guys.”

And you could almost extrapolate that here, in a way. I think the woman had a point that at a such a lengthy suspension, some of the women who are abused might now actually choose not to report it in order to protect the paycheck and their economics. And if there are other players who happen to discipline their children in too harsh a way that’s not approved, maybe the mothers will not report it anymore if this is gonna happen.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: Now, your point’s valid, but nobody’s thinking about that. I want to add one thing about this. I don’t know how long, but it’s been a while, that I have — I hate to keep saying, “I told you I said this,” but I feel the need to remind you. You’ve heard the old saw that there’s nothing really new that’s going on out there. I mean, since Genesis there’s nothing new. It’s just that with the media the way it is we know about more incidents of bad thing happening that we used to.


A point of illustration would be the Ray Rice circumstance. Okay, we see the video of him dragging his finance out of the elevator. “Okay, two games. Boy, you’re a mean guy, don’t ever do it again.” Then the video of him actually clocking her, and that’s it, that’s the end of everything. Now we see it, the incidents have always happened, but when we didn’t see it, it wasn’t as big a deal as when we do see it.

Now, how many people, how many millions of Americans are on social media seeking fame and wanting everybody to know everything they can about them? Well, this is what you get. This is what you get. (interruption) I’m not… (interruption) No, no, no! Now, do not misunderstand. I’m not in any way defending Adrian Peterson. That’s not the point here. The point is, it happens a lot. There’s nothing new.

There are people that discipline their children in ways that you don’t know because you don’t see it and you don’t hear about it. But look what happens to people when it is discovered. Amidst all of this, we got a subset of our population desperately seeking fame, notoriety, and so forth with tweets and social media and all of this. This is one of the prices you’re gonna pay.

If you want everybody to know everything about you, at some point the warts are gonna be known, too. And things that you never dreamed anybody would ever see will be seen. Things that you never conceived people would know will not only be known, they’ll be seen. So you’ve gotta be really guarded about this. You have to be really guarded about your privacy of things.

I guarantee you Adrian Peterson, this is the last thing I’ll bet you he ever expected to come his way in his life. Of all… You know, everybody imagines pitfalls. Everybody. Whatever degree of success anybody has, they always think, “Oh, what could go wrong? What do I have to prepare for?” I’ll guarantee you, this is the last thing, otherwise he would have come up with a different way of meting out the discipline.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: As to our previous caller, Chris in Philadelphia, I felt like I gave short shrift. I didn’t intend to do that. The train has left the station. The fact that children of Adrian Peterson — and there may be seven of ’em. I mean, he’s in a contest here with Ray Lewis: Who has the most kids by the most women? I think there are four. Ray Lewis has maybe five kids with five women.

Adrian Peterson, I think I just saw, has seven kids with four women, and last year about this time, one of his kids that he did not know was his was killed by the boy’s stepfather. It’s horrible. I mean, you can’t talk about it, but it’s horrible. Now, Congress has the answer. This is Chris in Philadelphia who wanted to know, “Okay, what about Adrian Peterson’s kids?

“I mean, if he gets suspended and can’t play and doesn’t earn the money and Nike doesn’t come back, what about his kids now?” Chris, what I was gonna tell you is that Congress has the answer. As always, the federal government is the answer to all of these economic problems. Cory Booker wants to take away the NFL’s tax-exempt status and give the money to the victims of domestic violence.

Do you know the NFL is a nonprofit, the way it’s structured? People are stunned when they learn this, but it’s structured as a nonprofit. It’s an enterprise worth $9 billion, but it is structured as a nonprofit for tax purposes. So Cory Booker has come along. He wants to strip the NFL of that tax-exempt status and then take the money that they would then have to pay in taxes and give that to the victims of domestic violence.

That is how Cory Booker and Congress want Adrian Peterson’s kids to be taken care of. (interruption) Ray Lewis has six children with four women. That’s what it is. Six children, four women. And you know what? I read a story. Ray Lewis, Baltimore Ravens, now a star commentator on ESPN, was asked once:

“What’s the best advice you gave young players coming into the league?” He said, “Wear a condom.” I’m not kidding. That was his number one piece of advice: Use a condom. Well, I’ll Google it. Reggie Bush. Reggie Bush out of USC. Reggie Bush and the New Orleans Saints. Reggie Bush with the Detroit Lions. He was on the radio today talking about corporal punishment of children and the Adrian Peterson circumstance.


BUSH: I got what we call “whoopin’s,” you know, whooped with belts and stuff like that. For me growing up, it was normal. I’ll most definitely discipline my daughter. I have a one-year-old daughter. I definitely w-will try to, obviously, not leave bruises or anything like that like on her. But, um, I definitely will discipline her harshly, you know, depending on what — you know, again what the situation is.

RUSH: Okay. So now Reggie Bush has just painted a bull’s-eye on himself. He’s now become a target. All the interest groups focused on this are now gonna be keeping a sharp eye on Reggie Bush every day, and they’re gonna have people doing a body watch on his daughter, when she gets old enough to leave the house on her own. Mark my words.

Now, some people might say, “Hey, Rush, what this is, the players are starting to push back.” Yesterday we had the sound bite of Michael Wilbon who was on the radio Monday saying (paraphrased), “Hey, we need more of these whoopings like Adrian Peterson was handing out. I got whooped. I had to cut my own switch. There was a lot of that going on when we were kids.

“It’s how we were kept in line, and the fact that there’s no discipline among young people anymore is because they’re not getting whooped.” Now, he can say it. Very few other people could. Here comes Reggie Bush saying, “I got whooped like this, and I’m gonna discipline my daughter.” Now, I am not gonna bruise her or anything. He said, “I’m not gonna leave any bruises, meaning you’ll never know, but I’m gonna discipline her harshly.”

I guarantee you, there are people who’ve heard this already and are already making plans to spy on everything about Reggie Bush’s family and home life now because he’s made himself a target. It’s like Gary Hart(pence) when he was having the affair out there on the island of Bimini, challenged the media. “Okay, you think I’m having an affair? I dare you to prove it!”

(chuckling) So they did, and he was. Jameis Winston, star quarterback for the Florida State Seminoles. That name’s gonna have to change. It’s offensive. They do a tomahawk chop, too. They’re one of 2900 sports teams, universities and so forth with Native-American mascot names. Anyway, they got Clemson coming up this weekend. Jameis was Winston suspended for the first two quarters of the upcoming game against Clemson.


He was suspended for the first half because… What was it? He was observed shouting an obscenity on campus, a sexual obscenity. (interruption). Okay, well, I haven’t had a chance to read the article. I’ll have a chance to read it during the break, but he was shouting sexual obscenities on campus. At anybody? Or just shouting them out for any… (interruption)

Okay, shouting at somebody, but it was overheard because he was shouting. Somebody reported him, probably to the head coach, probably to the media. “Hey, our star quarterback’s out there calling somebody whatever,” and he’s suspended for the first half. They don’t want to lose the game against Clemson. They figure he can win it if they get behind in the second half. But they nevertheless, everybody’s gotta get in on this.

It’s getting absurd. It’s been absurd for a long time. The point is it’s been absurd for a long time. And I don’t know. I keep waiting for all of this stuff to bottom out and common sense to finally surface and rear its head and shame all of this insanity, and it doesn’t happen. We keep descending even lower with political correctness, even though I can’t find anybody who believes in it!

I don’t know a soul who believes and supports political correctness, and yet it wins every damn time.


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