RUSH: Folks, I’m gonna tell you, the NFL has never been better. (laughing) You don’t know how much I love saying that. He-he. Really, these games, if this kept up, you’d have ratings skyrocketing through the roof. The unpredictability of these games would cause people that are not even football fans to watch just to listen to the sportscasters go bananas over the referees.
Snerdley, did you watch the game last night? Did you stick with it to the end? Well, there was no question that the refs got it wrong at the end of the game and a lot of people misunderstand replay. What happened, the Packers intercepted that last minute Hail Mary pass, but the Seahawks were given credit for the touchdown, which was the game winner. So they reviewed it, and people don’t understand how the replay works. The replay, the review, does not determine possession. It just determined did the ball hit the ground, everybody in bounds. The call on the field was a touchdown. That’s not reversed, but they’re just making sure that it was a score. It’s just the way the replay rule is written. It’s not to determine possession or any of that. This new rule on every touchdown being reviewed, it’s just to make sure the play was clean. The call on the field stands.
Here’s the thing. Look, folks, you know me. There is no bigger football fan than El Rushbo. You know that. I got up today and I see that the number one subject on Twitter is this game last night. There are more people, for example, talking about this game last night than vote on American Idol. And I got to thinking about it, what’s everybody mad about? The referees are incompetent. Well, as I said yesterday, doesn’t Obama say give everybody a fair shot? Doesn’t Obama say we must be tolerant? Doesn’t Obama, and the left in general, don’t they promote the advancement of the incompetent based on the fact that they’re incompetent? Screw standards in testing. We don’t need to go find the best. That’s unfair, in fact. If somebody’s better than somebody else, we’re gonna penalize ’em. Outcome based education. Remember that? Two plus two is five. It is, if you think so, rather than humiliate you and tell you you’re wrong.
The left has been messing up with standards. They don’t like standards, particularly standards of excellence, because not everybody attains it, and they want equality of outcome. But here’s another thing. How many of you — and I’m serious, now — how many of you are genuinely livid over this? The Seahawks fans are probably a little guilty, but some jubilant. The Packers fans are livid over this, and people who love and revere the NFL game itself are livid over this because of what it’s doing to the integrity of the game. What if the Packers don’t make the playoffs because of one loss and it’s last night? For all my jokes about loving this and so forth, the fact of the matter is the integrity of the game is at stake here. And true football fans understand that, and they’re worried about it.
Why are they upset? Because the referees are not people that know what they’re doing. It doesn’t make any difference. If the referees are cheating or if they’re incompetent, the fact is they’re still getting it wrong and somebody’s ending up with the short end of the stick every game at least one or two times. And driving in this morning, something hit me. You and I and every conservative — and I don’t want to make too big a deal out of this, but I think it’s a good analogy. You and I every day of the week for the last 50 years have dealt with this. You people out there who are livid over the incompetence of these refs, livid over that call last night, welcome to the real world. Now you know how we feel watching the mainstream media every day.
The mainstream media purposely gets things wrong, purposely doesn’t call Obama out on his mistakes, purposely tries to paint Romney or any conservative in a bad light, joins the effort to destroy the careers of conservatives, oftentimes. And there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re told don’t complain because it isn’t manly, it isn’t mature, it’s reality, you gotta deal with it and move on. Well, hello.
(interruption)
How do you explain what to the kids? Well, how do you explain the media to your kids? My point here is that what’s happening in this NFL season and that game last night I believe suffices as a microcosm for what certain people, fans, we conservatives are fans of conservatives, conservatism, we’re cheated against every day, we’re lied about every day. The media gets it wrong on purpose against us every day. Now, I think it’s a good analogy. I just raise it to make a point. I’m not suggesting anything change because of it. For all of you people who are livid over this, what’s happening in the NFL, the integrity of the game. Well, how about the integrity of the presidential election? How about the integrity of the American way of life?
It’s under assault by one particular party in this country, and that assault is aided and abetted by people who are supposed to be nonpartisan arbiters, referees. But the so-called referees with constitutional protection have chosen sides, and it’s not ours. My entire life I’ve had to deal with an unlevel playing field, an unfair stacked deck, and every time we bring it up and talk about it, we’re pooh-poohed. “Oh, come on, there’s no media bias,” or, “get over it.” So we now have our own media, and they’re out there trying to silence that now.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: If you’re a welfare recipient just getting up and joining the program, you probably watched the football game last night. It looks great on your plasma, on your flat screen. You know the controversy. Folks, the NFL has issued a statement: “NFL Supports Decision to Not Overturn Seahawks’ Touchdown.” The NFL’s totally fine with this, on the surface. I am sure that Roger Goodell and everybody in the league office is being hammered today with phone calls from the clubs. I don’t know if coaches will get on the phone or owners, but I guarantee you, these people are totally PR conscious, and this is not good.
I come down a whole bunch of different ways on this. You know I’m a huge football fan, but it’s just football. It’s not gonna raise our taxes or send anybody off to war or — well, it could corrupt the culture. But that’s about it. I love it, as you know. But I do have it over here. It’s avocational for me. So when stuff like this happens, I get a bigger kick out of watching the sports media go bonkers over everything they stand for. The sports media stands for this kind of incompetence elsewhere in society because they’re media. The sports media is all for rigged and stacked decks. They’re all liberals. They don’t see anything wrong with the regular media being a stacked deck, cheating against Romney, showing favoritism to Obama or any Democrat, doing anything it can to destroy any Republican, that’s fine with them, that’s fine with them. But you let their little corner of the world, the National Football League, show up with the same kind of corruption or incompetence that they promote daily by virtue of being liberals, and it’s just funny to me.
I love listening to these people complain. I find it funny. And last night, Jon Gruden, coach, (imitation) “I feel bad. I’m not gonna be able to sleep. I got a bad feeling.” Come on, it’s football. It’s the NFL. I got a bad feeling over where the country’s headed. I got a bad feeling in my stomach. I’m not sleeping ’cause of what Obama is doing to the country and you guys sit around worried about some incompetent referee on a touchdown pass. Now, meanwhile, we’ve got the legacy media in this country doing everything it can to support people who are trying to tear down the institutions and traditions that made this country great, and nobody says a word. As a conservative, we had to put up with this for 50 years. Every day we have to put up with what you guys in the NFL are ticked off here about for three weeks. Imagine every day of your life being like this?
You’re livid, you’re mad, you think the game’s going to hell. You think the game’s losing its integrity. Well, substitute the country for the game and substitute us for you, and you know what every day’s like for us, trying to deal with incompetence, unfairness, rigged, stacked deck in the mainstream media reporting on things that are truly important, not a football game. And what are we told? “Get with it. That’s life. It’s what it is. There’s no bias.” Okay, then you know what? You guys are wrong. Those refs are fine. They’re no different than the regular refs.
In fact, I’ve got in the stack here somewhere, one of the locked out NFL referees, is a guy named Bill Leavy, and he refereed the Seahawks-Steeler Super Bowl earlier this decade that the Seahawks think was given away to the Steelers by bad calls by the refs. Bill Leavy actually apologized to Seahawks fans, said he kicked it on three separate calls and ended up affecting the outcome. You people think this doesn’t happen with the regular referees? It does every week. Does the name Ed Hochuli ring a bell? And the San Diego Chargers-Denver Broncos, what was that, a couple years ago. It happens every week. And when it happens to the regular refs, “Well, we can’t let the referees bother us. We have to fix our game. We have to keep plugging away. Referees are not the reason we lost this game.” And now all of a sudden the referees are the reason we lose.
Well, I got a lot of friends of mine who think the referees, i.e., the media, is a lot of reason why we lose elections. And what are we told? “Grow up. The media is not biased. The media is not unfair. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Well, I’m just telling you, the way you sports media people feel, the way all you football fans feel about your precious game somehow being affected, its integrity under assault, it’s believability, all that, that’s what life as a conservative is like every day, and it has been my whole life, from Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, you name it, doesn’t matter who the media people are. And now it’s worse than it’s ever been with the media picking sides and cheating and ignoring embarrassing or stupid, dumb things Obama says and lying about things Romney doesn’t say.
And if Obama comes out and accuses Romney of being a felon, the media says, “Yep, guess he’s a felon today,” and they go report it. They go talk to Romney, “Why are you a felon? Why do you have money parked offshore?”
“I don’t.”
“Well, Obama says you do, and that’s good enough for us.” Then they run an ad, “You know, Romney’s responsible for a steelworker’s wife’s death.” Is there any questioning of this in the media? Do they think anything is wrong with this? No, they go ahead and report it, and they run out to the Romney campaign and say, “How do you feel about being responsible for that guy’s wife dying?” And we sit here, we watch this, and we ask, have you people no shame? Are you not aware of the damage you’re doing to your own business, your own industry? You’re corrupting journalism. It isn’t even journalism anymore. It’s just Democrats with bylines.
Well, I maintain that’s exactly what’s happening in the NFL. Just little microcosm of it. But now it’s the libs’ ox being gored. And I’m telling you, it’s pure entertainment to me. I love it. I just love it. Yes, of course, I worry about the integrity of the game, but it’s not the biggest thing to me. Integrity of the country’s first, foremost always, and it’s still entertaining. I guarantee you, if the regular refs stay locked out, if this bunch of refs stays in, I’m gonna tell you, the games are gonna have higher ratings than ever because fans who’ve never watched football — there’s still some of those people out there — are gonna tune in just to see what the next outrage is or what the next blown call is. It’s gonna be like wanting to see a car wreck at a car race. It is entirely unpredictable.
As I say, the cherry on the top for me is to sit back and watch the sports media just pull its hair out, get all exercised because everything going on in the NFL is things they support throughout our culture, tolerance for the incompetent, advancement of the incompetent, relaxing standards for firemen and police so that people who really aren’t qualified can still do it. We need to have courts and elections and legislative bodies that look like America. You know this, folks. Do not argue with me. The last thing the left wants — in fact, the left opposes meritocracy. Meritocracy is discriminatory. And you know why? Because there are some people who are better than others, and that’s not fair.
Everybody should have the same outcome. That’s what’s fair. Nobody should have any advantages over anybody else, nobody should have any greater opportunity than anybody else, and if somebody does, we gotta penalize ’em. We gotta raise their taxes if they have more money. If they’re smarter than other kids in a class, we gotta slow them down so that they don’t humiliate the dumber kids in the class, rather than try to speed up the education of the slower kids. No, no. Bring everybody down to the mediocre level. That’s what liberalism is. Shrink everything to mediocrity. That’s the best and fastest way you get to equal. Because greatness is rare.
Excellence is rare. Being really good at something is rare. Being among the best ever seen is rarer. And that’s not good, ’cause it’s unfair. It’s not fair that some people should have bigger houses than others and it’s not fair that some people should have nicer cars than others. It’s not fair. Liberalism seeks to equalize all this. Well, take it here to the NFL. Everything that they promote in everyday American life, they can’t stand it when it affects what they do.
They just can’t stand it.
We are supposed to sit there and put up with unqualified teachers. We’re supposed to tolerate teachers that can’t do the job and don’t want any accountability. We’re supposed put up with all kinds of incompetence everywhere else because we’re not to be judgmental of people. You know there are countless examples; I could fill the rest of this program with them. Now it’s all sort of coming home to roost in this one little microcosm of three weeks in the NFL.
We’ve got referees who look like America!
That should be good enough.
We got woman referees, we got Hispanic referees, we got black referees. We got white referees. We got brown and green. We’ve got fat, we got one-eyed, we got blind. We’ve got everything in there. The way liberals judge things, it’s all good. We got referees that look like America. We have some that are good at it and some that aren’t, but everybody’s getting a fair shot. (Obama impression) “Nobody’s being denied opportunity becuse of where they came from or what they don’t have.”
I love it.
I just think it’s cool.
See, what it illustrates, in a small way, is that liberals no more want to live under the guidelines, rules, and philosophies they set forth for everybody else than we do. They will exempt themselves from their own rules. Their kids will not go to rundown schools. Their kids will not put up with teachers that can’t teach. No, they’ll get ’em out of there and they’ll move ’em somewhere else. Your kids, though, have to stay so that the teachers union can be mollified and kept happy.
But as I say: Let it happen to them and you see how false and phony liberalism really is. Now the NFL’s come out here. “The following is a statement issued by the NFL regarding Golden Tate’s game-winning touchdown catch at the conclusion of Monday night’s game … In Monday’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks, Seattle faced a 4th-and-10,” and they give the game situation and they go on to justify what happened.
“While the ball is in the air, Tate can be seen shoving Green Bay cornerback Sam Shields to the ground. This should have been a penalty for offensive pass interference, which would have ended the game. It was not called and is not reviewable in instant replay.”
So it shoulda been, but guess what? The refs didn’t call it so it didn’t happen. Isn’t that real life? It’s never always fair, is it? So here’s the NFL standing up for their product. Hey, that game shouldn’ta ended up the way it did. But it did, and it’s over, and that’s it, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
This is going to infuriate the sports media even more.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’re gonna go to a truck driver near Hebron, Kentucky. Jerry, I’m glad you waited, sir. Great to have you on the program.
CALLER: (garbled cell) Well, thanks so much, Maha Rushie. Mega truck driver dittos for the professor, Maha Rushie. I appreciate you taking my phone call.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: A point that I have not heard expressed about this referee issue.
RUSH: Wait a minute, Jerry. Wait. Wait a minute. There isn’t anything else left to be said about that. I just said it. This is the problem.
CALLER: This is a different angle. It’s a different angle.
RUSH: Okay, go for it. (laughing)
CALLER: Okay, my angle is the media. They’re all about the 99%, Occupy Wall Street, right? What are they against? Corporate America. Football owners, they’re the billionaires. They’re the corporate owners. They’re the evil people. What do the referees represent? Unions! Unions are just these poor people just trying to make a living. We have to stick together. We’ve got to hand it to corporate America. That is a big issue.
RUSH: Well, that is —
CALLER: I think that is why they’re lining up the way they are.
RUSH: That is interesting. In your analogy, the referees are the 99%, and everybody’s dumping on ’em.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And —
CALLER: And they gotta hand it to corporate America. Corporate America! That’s what these owners are. They’re the billionaires. What are the billionaires? They’re the evil people. They’re the ones that are hogging all the money.
RUSH: Right, and the sports media is lined up with the corporate billionaires and against the 99%?
CALLER: No. The sports media’s lining up with the 99%. That’s what the media is.
RUSH: No, they’re not. The sports media wants to kill these refs! The sport media thinks the refs, the incompetent refs are killing the game. They’re siding with the owners.
CALLER: No, I’m… They’re — they’re… I’m talking about the unionized refs that are locked out. That’s who they’re fighting for —
RUSH: Oh, oh, oh, oh.
CALLER: — and against the corporate America.
RUSH: They’re “siding with the unionized refs against –“
CALLER: Yes!
RUSH: “– corporate America, the owners.”
CALLER: Yes. Exactly. It’s all… We got —
RUSH: Well, I see why I didn’t think of that. It’s not that good.
CALLER: Oh, boy.
RUSH: Jerry, I’m just kidding.
CALLER: (laughing) I’m just in a kind of a jocular mood here for the first time in a long time and I’m enjoying it. You know, I’m actually enjoying being in a good mood here! So don’t take it personally. It was just a Madonna moment.
CALLER: I’m not taking it personally. I love you. You’re a wonderful show host and I listen to you. I’m glad I’m in the school of Maha Rushie.
RUSH: Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, so the point is the unionized refs locked out and the media’s supporting them, right? And they’re anti- the corporate guys, the owners and so forth. That’s why they’re really lining up here ’cause they’re standing with the unionized refs. That sounds good, but I don’t think that’s the motivation. I don’t think so. I think these sports media guys really want this game to be great and they want the best playing it, but not anywhere else in society can we have this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, there was a referee last night who got the call right in that game. He was the black referee who he gave the signal for, “That’s it, time-out, game over.” That meant “interception.” He was overruled by the old white referee. The old white referee came up and ruled touchdown. Once somebody rules “touchdown,” that’s it. When the old white referee goes over there and rules touchdown, and I saw what I thought was a little hesitation.
I think he mighta gotten confused over which team was which, ’cause you look at the replay and this guy is standing right there. There’s no way that the Seahawks receiver caught that pass. Forget pass interference. There’s no way. The Packers intercepted that pass. It’s as clear as a bell. That’s another thing I love about it. (laughing) It’s just perfect for my analogy, and that is the NFL is the country and the substitute refs are the Drive-By Media. And the country’s integrity is shot to hell.
The only difference is that the refs here are just incompetent. They’re not purposely cheating. The Drive-Bys purposely cheat. The American media has chosen sides. There is nothing incompetent about what they do. These refs, obviously they’re not qualified to be doing what they’re doing. But it’s interesting. So you have racism on top of this, ’cause the black referee got it right but he’s overruled by the old white guy. What woulda happened if a female referee had signaled touchdown?
Whoa!
I shudder to think. You start throwing other liberal factors into this, the way they judge people and who deserves a break and who deserves an advantage and who doesn’t. You know, who deserves to be discriminated against because of the color of their skin or because their sexual orientation or whatever. That’s the way they do things.
What if we learn that the black referee was gay and is Muslim, and he got the call right but he got discriminated against? Oh, my gosh, folks! Whew! It could be bad, the way libs look at things. But see, now they’re confronted — now they’re forced to look at things — only on merit, which they refuse to permit throughout the rest of culture and society. I love it. I just love it. They’re being gored by their own ox.