RUSH: Malcolm Gladwell was on Fareed Zakaria’s: GPS on Sunday on CNN. He is the author of the book Outliers. He did a study of highly successful people, and the thing that he found that they had in common was that they had spent a minimum of 10,000 hours perfecting their craft, and he cited the Beatles. The Beatles, between 1960 and 1964 in Great Britain and in Germany, played gig after gig after gig, rehearsal after rehearsal.
Before the first Beatles record was heard in the United States, they had put in 10,000 hours, and he mentioned a bunch of others. The reason I mentioned this is that that book has a lot of credibility with people. He’s a British scientist of some kind, but the book has a lot of credibility. It’s a hard-work book. It’s a book that features pathways to success. He’s a journalist, and he has now become an outspoken advocate of banning college football on health grounds. Fareed Zakaria on his show Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN Sunday said to Malcolm Gladwell, “You compare football to dog fighting. Why?”
GLADWELL: This was at the time when Michael Vick was convicted of dog fighting, and to me that was such a kind of — and the whole world got up in arms about this. “How could he use dogs in a violent manner in a way to compromised their health and integrity?” And I was just struck at the time by the unbelievable hypocrisy of people in football, for goodness’ sake, getting up in arms about someone who chose to fight dogs, to pit one dog against each other?
RUSH: So you see, what Gladwell is saying here is that it was kind of humorous to him, kind of curious. It was actually hypocritical. Here you have people really hammering Vick. “How could you be so inhumane, run a dog fighting operation, and those same people applaud dog fighting or its equivalent on Saturday and Sunday: College and professional football.” Gladwell was asking, “What’s the difference? You got a bunch of rich people out there watching lesser beasts fight it out for their entertainment.”
Forbes magazine wrote this up, and they quote Gladwell as pretty much saying what he just said to Fareed Zakaria GPS. But then he added something. He said, “‘In what way is dog fighting any different from football on a certain level, right? I mean you take a young, vulnerable dog who was made vulnerable because of his allegiance to the owner and you ask him to engage in serious sustained physical combat with another dog under the control of another owner, right?
“‘Well, what’s football? We take young boys, essentially, and we have them repeatedly, over the course of the season, smash each other in the head, with known neurological consequences. And why do they do that? Out of an allegiance to their owners and their coaches and a feeling theyÂ’re participating in some grand American spectacle.’ The answer to the problem, according to Gladwell, is that a major university must decide to cancel its football program and set a precedent for others to follow.
“His ideal candidate is Stanford, a school with both serious academic credentials and a high-powered football program. If a school like Harvard or Yale called it quits, that would be a good start, but it will take a major, bowl-winning program like Stanford to draw an acknowledged line in the sand.” I remember, folks, it wasn’t much more than a year ago where I think I predicted something like this, where I warned that this was headed our way.
Just based on the way I saw the media dealing with the concussion stories that were being ramped up, I said, “I know how liberals act, how they think and what they do, and it isn’t gonna be long before somebody of stature suggests the game be banned — and once that is seriously proposed, the game is never gonna be the same.” I still claim… I don’t know what the ultimate fate is gonna be. Like Lem Barney who played for the Detroit Lions back in the seventies has predicted that there will be no NFL in 20 years.
It’ll be flag football or some such thing, but it will not exist as it does right now. Lem Barney, I think he’s in the Hall of Fame. If not, he was close. He was a great player. Lem Barney and Mel Farr, Detroit Lions defensive backs. Barney’s suggesting that football is just all over but the shouting. It’s gonna take 20 years, but it’s gonna be over. It’s too dangerous. Now here’s this Gladwell guy compare it to dog fighting.
Fareed Zakaria, GPS, upon hearing Gladwell make this comparison — dog fighting, Michael Vick, NFL — sat there and stared at Gladwell. He didn’t say anything else, which forced Gladwell to continue.
GLADWELL: Well, what’s football? We take young boys, essentially, and we have them repeatedly, over the course of the season, smash each other in the head, right? With known neurological consequences! And why do they do that? Out of an allegiance to their owners and their coaches and a feeling they’re participating in some grand American spectacle. They’re the same thing. And the idea that as a culture we would be absolutely quick and sure about coming the moral boiling point over the notion that you would do this to dogs, and yet completely blind over the notion you would do this to young men is, to my mind, astonishing. There’s a certain point where I just said, “You know, we have to say, ‘Enough is enough.'”
RUSH: (imitating), “It is to my mind astonishing that people have not drawn the comparison that I have, that I watch football and I see dog fighting! To my mind, it’s astonishing that people don’t see this.” It was December 14th of 2011 that I predicted the left would try to ban football. So it’s about a year and a half.
(interruption)
Yes, Mr. Snerdley? A question from the program observer. Yes?
(interruption)
Do I think it’s astonishing that Britain ever had an empire? (laughing) Yeah, in one day the sun never set on the British empire. Well, they clearly… This current crop Brits gave it away. This current crop of Brits gave away their empire. No. This current crop of Brits, no way. It’s not in their blood. They don’t have the makeup for it. Anyway, this is only going to ratchet up. It’s only going to continue. You add this to the controversy over the Redskins name.
You add that to the controversy over concussions and the 4,000 former players suing the NFL ’cause they didn’t know that the game was dangerous, and they didn’t know that all this could happen. You add to that the do-gooder nature of liberalism, and then add to that that most of the sports media is made up of do-gooder liberal types. Folks, the writing is on the wall.
(interruption)
That’s a good question: “What are the sportswriters going to do for a living if they preside over the end of the sport that supports them?” I don’t know. By that time they’ll be ready for the great retirement home touchdown in the sky, and they’ll be celebrating the great contribution they made to society and culture by getting the game banned, is what I suspect will happen. I have some other football news here. Art Monk, former great wide receiver for the Washington Redskins was on the radio in Washington yesterday. He finally made the NFL Hall of Fame. He said this.
MONK: Native Americans feel like Redskins or the Chiefs, or what other name is offensive to them, then who are we to say, “No, it’s not”?
RUSH: And Darrell Green, another great defensive back for the Washington, DC, also on the radio in Washington yesterday…
GREEN: It deserves and warrants conversation because somebody is saying, “Hey, you know, this offends me.”
RUSH: So, you see?
Look, folks, I hate to say, “See, I Told You So,” but now these two men have been swallowed up by the whole notion of if it offends somebody, it’s gotta stop. If it offends somebody, it has to stop. The Offended! The Offended are always a minority. Well, not always, but for the most part they are, and they get to dictate now. If your speech offends them, you must shut up. If your behavior offends them, you must change. If the name of your possible team offends them, you must change it, simply because somebody’s offended.
In the meantime: “In the wake of [former tight end for the New England Patriots] Aaron Hernandez’s first-degree murder charge, National League Football teams might take a closer look at the tattoos of prospects entering the NFL draft. CBS Sports reports that teams may have police experts look at NFL hopefuls’ tattoos” to see if they can spot allegiance to gangs tattooed on the players’ bodies. This as a result of news stories that Aaron Hernandez has tattoos that glorify gang membership.
“‘Spoke (with) longtime NFL personnel man who said in wake of Aaron Hernandez teams may use police experts to check prospects tattoos,’ CBS Sports columnist Bruce Feldman posted on Twitter.” Meanwhile, the owner of the Cincinnati Bengals said that there’s no proof that concussions led to dementia. There’s no proof that concussions lead to anything bad like this. It’s all speculation.
That would be Mike Brown.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The owner of the Cincinnati Bengals is Mike Brown. He says that linking concussions and dementia is speculation. “More than 4,000 former NFL players are suing the league, claiming that the NFL withheld information about the long-term effects of playing football. They say that repeated hits and concussions can lead to dementia and other brain injuries,” like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Well, the owner of the Bengals isn’t convinced.
Well, that’s one thing, but to publicly say this. “He says he isnÂ’t sure there is a link between concussions and dementia because there isnÂ’t enough research to draw that conclusion that football causes brain damage when players get older. ‘No one really knows what concussions mean, especially as you grow older,’ Brown said Tuesday to the Cincinnati Enquirer. ‘ItÂ’s not only not proven, itÂ’s merely speculation that this is something that creates some form of dementia late in life. Our statistics — the ones IÂ’ve seen anyway — donÂ’t show that. I’m not convinced that anybody really knows what concussions bring, what they mean later in life, if anything.'”
Folks, this is like saying that the earth is flat to these people. The conventional wisdom is that concussions cause all these things and there’s no argument. You don’t argue. It’s like there’s global warming and if you say there isn’t, you are a denier. Why not link steroids and dementia? You see dementia in a lot of weightlifters who have never had concussions. Why don’t we link steroids to it? Why don’t we link human growth hormone? I mean, this stuff never, ever ends. The thing about Paul Brown, he’s right. I mean, they’re studying concussions, but it’s absurd. I’ll tell you, it really is absurd. I get in trouble for this all along because I don’t go along with conventional wisdom. I simply don’t buy it.
In fact, I reject most conventional wisdom. Most conventional wisdom is popular culture, and it’s now popular to believe that concussions lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s. In fact, if you believe that, it means you’re a compassionate, understanding person. If you don’t believe it you’re a cold-hearted, mean-spirited SOB and you want to continue the brutality. So Mike Brown has really stepped in it here. And what’s gonna happen is a bunch of sportswriters — he’s not that popular anyway because he’s considered to be a tightwad owner. So a bunch of sportswriters, just give it a couple of days and they’re gonna be all over this guy as a Neanderthal, as an idiot, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And they’ll cite doctors at Boston University, Mass General Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. All kinds of concussion research is going on where they claim to have irrefutable proof.
He’s gonna be mocked and laughed at and made fun of. He’ll be Zimmermaned before it’s all over. You watch. It’s going to happen. I mean, Junior Seau commits suicide. What’s the first thing? Concussion. It’s just how this stuff begins. It’s kind of frustrating actually because it’s just, you know, follow me, follow me. Popular culture crowd says something and everybody gets on board with it and assumes that it’s happening, like global warming, like all this medical stuff turned out to be untrue, like salt, trans fats, and all this is supposedly gonna kill you.
Since it’s all being done by liberals, it’s all politicized. There are people who don’t like football who are trying to end the game and they’re trying to do so by saying that people who play it are all going to get these late-in-life ramifications, and even Malcolm Gladwell joined the fray. So Mike Brown coming out now and saying this, you just watch. It isn’t gonna be long before he’s gonna be mocked and made fun of. He’ll be portrayed as somebody dangerous for perhaps not recognizing the true dangers, the threats and the peril that exists, and as such, he’ll be somebody that’s shortsighted, stupid, dumb, unserious, you name it.
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