RUSH: The biggest controversy at the Super Bowl? It’s hard to say. You got the Ray Lewis deer antler spray thing, and Ray says (summarized), “Nah, that’s the work of the devil. It’s a trick. It’s a trick of the devil, the deer antler spray story.” He says he’s never taken it, never done nothing. Deer antler spray. But that’s got competition. There’s a player for the San Francisco Fort’iners by the name of Chris Culliver, and he was on a syndicated radio program yesterday.

The host of this program asked Chris Culliver of the Fort’iners… (interruption) No. I’ll explain it one more time. When I lived in Sacramento, the 49er radio network lead announcer was a guy by the name of, I think, Don Klein. I know what happened here. The guy had done the 49ers games for so long that he didn’t want to waste all the time it took to say 49ers. So over the course of his career, 49ers just came out sort of jumbled as “Fort’iners.” He was trying to say it too fast and say it as fast as he could.

You know, I’ve always been a mimic. I heard that, and it just struck me. Because nobody seemed to think anything of it. You know, all the hometown radio play-by-play people — baseball, radio — had their own cult following, their own fan base. So whatever they do, the signature things they do, are appreciated. I don’t know if it was a signature thing or not, but it always struck me. I found it humorous.

So I started trying to imitate it, and I just haven’t let go of it. It’s sort of like like my love for people in Rio Linda. I still have it, even though I haven’t been there since 1987. So this play-by-play guy all over their network kept referring to the 49ers as “the Fort’iners.” Sometimes he would say “the Noi’ners,” but other than that it was “the Fort’iners.” It’s like the Reverend Jackson. You know, one day he pronounced Mario Cuomo, Mario the Pious’ name as “Coomo.”

Well, I said, “I better start pronouncing it ‘Coomo’ otherwise people are gonna think I’m making fun of Jesse Jackson,” ’cause if that’s how Jackson thinks you pronounce it, you don’t call attention to the fact that he’s wrong. If he says, ” Coomo,” you just say, Cuomo is “Coomo,” and that’s no different than this. Anyway, Chris Culliver was asked a question by the syndicated radio guy: “What about gay guys? Have any of them approached you? You got any gay guys on the 49ers?”

CULLIVER: I don’t do the gay guys, man. I don’t do that. Nah. Don’t got no gay people on the team. No, they gotta get up outta here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah.

RUSH: (impression) “Nah. Don’t got no gay people on the team. No, they gotta get up outta here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff.” Well, that didn’t sit well with the diversity crowd. That didn’t sit well with the politically correct. I mean, to say that you don’t have any gay guys on the Fort’iners? That led to all kinds of coverage. I mean, the media particularly launched into this poor guy, Chris Culliver. He’s too young to know what he shouldn’t say.

He’s too young to divulge the truth about certain elements of the league. That led to the coach, Jim Harbaugh, this morning in New Orleans at the Superdome, he was asked by a reporter, “When you heard what Chris Culliver said…” That you don’t do the gay guys. (“Don’t got no gay people on the team. No, they gotta get up outta here if they do. Can’t be with that sweet stuff. Nah.”) “Can you walk us through what you thought and what you said to him?”

HARBAUGH: No, uh, I wouldn’t gonna… walk you through it. There wasn’t malice in his heart. He’s not that kind of person. He’s not a[n] ugly person. He’s not a, uh, discriminating person. He regrets that. And, uhhh, that’s not… But that’s not who he is, that’s not what he really believes in. I think, you know, [it] took this incident to, you know, hear those words being said by him and, uh, to see them being written down on paper for him to realize that those were — were hurtful and ugly.

RUSH: Right. It’s the old, “That isn’t me explanation.” (paraphrasing) “That ain’t me! That’s not who I really am. I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know how that happened to be said. I don’t know why I said that, because that ain’t me. That’s not who I am. And when I saw it in print, I said, ‘Whoa, that is really not me.’ They brought me what I said in print, and I said, ‘Whoa, it’s even worse than what I said when I said it!’ Now that I can I read what I said, ‘Ho, man! Now we’re really outta here now. That ain’t me.'”

Now, I’m wondering. This is an opening for Obama. (interruption) You know, Obama weighs in on this kind of stuff. The other day Obama said he wouldn’t let his son, Trayvon, play football because it’s so dangerous. This could be another reason that he wouldn’t want his son playing football, because look at all this prejudice you got going on there in the locker rooms. That’s undercover, not out in the open. (interruption) Don’t tempt me there. Don’t even tempt me.

But I’m telling you, the president’s doing an interview with Scott Pelley. CBS has the Super Bowl this year, and I think during the pregame show at like 4:10 or 4:20 Eastern on Sunday afternoon, there’s a 10- or 12-minute interview with Obama. It’s a golden opportunity here. In fact, Obama can fly down to New Orleans and make a statement of some kind. Because what this means is the NFL cannot police its own. The NFL can’t handle its own. The NFL can’t handle its injuries. The NFL cannot handle its medical issues and so forth.

Obama could push legislation requiring that gays and women be on active rosters now for every team. We are going to have to regulate this game, folks. Look at what’s happening here! When you leave it up to the people who play it, when you leave it up to the people who own a team, when you leave it up to the league people, when you leave it up to the officials, when you leave it up to everybody on their own, look what happens! You got racism, you got sexism, you got bigotry, and now you got homophobia.

You got brain injury, concussions. Again this reminder: A professor here, a scientist of some kind, Mark Wilson (I found this as Gizmodo, which is a gadget tech blog), says there’s nothing you can do to stop concussions in football. The helmet does not do it. What causes brain trauma will continue to happen as long as they play the game the way they play it. There’s no helmet in the world that can stop it. In other words, there’s no helmet that would have saved Junior Seau. That’s what this guy is saying.

I’m gonna tell you: Yesterday on MSNBC in the middle of the day, they had a panel of left-wing activists talking about the need to regulate the NFL.

I don’t want to sit here being “I told you so” all the time, but stand by and get ready. It’s coming.