RUSH: Let’s talk about the NFL, the latest developments here. A couple of things first. Claire McCaskill. A classic, classic liberal Democrat politician: Moisten the finger, put it in the wind, see which way the wind’s blowing and then get behind it and then start pandering and meandering all over the place without making any sense whatsoever. Claire McCaskill says that “sports leaders put victory over decency.”
Sports leaders put victory over decency. You know, the same thing could be said about the Democrat Party, Senator McCaskill. The Democrat Party puts victory over decency. Let’s conduct a poll, Senator McCaskill, and let’s ask the American people which is the sicker culture: Washington, DC, or the American professional sports leagues. The Democrat Party or the NFL.
Where, really, is there strikingly noticeable corruption, Senator McCaskill? Might it be in the Democrat Party with all the voter fraud and all the extra-constitutional attempts by the president to break the law on amnesty and Obamacare and whatever the hell else? You want to talk about victory over decency? How about the whole War on Women thing that you people have created? An out-and-out lie!
Republican women, Republicans period, are not against sex; they’re not against women having sex lives. It’s absolutely absurd, what they’re trying to get away with here! The entire Democrat Party agenda is sick. It’s made up of baseless, false character assassination, character-destroying accusations about their opponents. The Democrat agenda long ago stopped being about the good things you’re gonna do for the country because there aren’t any.
Six years of evidence has accrued about what the Democrat Party agenda does to this country. Okay, so let’s divert everybody’s attention, and let’s start focusing on the National Football League, where, yeah, all this stuff’s going on is not good. But the incidence of sexual abuse, spouse abuse, all of these criminal acts in the NFL is 13% what it is in the general population.
Yet, the Democrat Party and the sports Drive-Bys are doing everything they can to make you think that the worst examples of all of these social diseases exist in the National Football League. They don’t. They exist in far greater numbers in the general population, but that doesn’t matter because there’s an election coming up here. We were repeatedly lied to about Obamacare, Senator McCaskill.
We were lied to about shovel-ready jobs with the first stimulus. We were lied to about Fast and Furious. We are lied to about Benghazi. We were lied to about the IRS — and the IRS was targeted against us, Senator McCaskill, conservatives! We’ve been lied to repeatedly about the economy and jobs. We’ve been lied to about doctors, supposedly amputating limbs on patients just to get the money when it doesn’t happen.
We’ve been lied to about every damn thing that matters, by this administration and the Democrat Party. You want to conduct a War on Women? The champion of women in this country and the Democrat Party is Bill Clinton and Teddy Kennedy, and you want to talk to us about the War on Women? You celebrate sexual abusers. You celebrate and put ’em at the top of your ladder of prestige sexual adulterers, and you preach to us about the War on Women?
All we do is respect them and try to understand them, and I say that affectionately. That’s one of life’s great pursuits. It is. Oh, can’t say that anymore.! That’s sexist and bigoted, because it implies that women can’t be figured out. Well, okay. Maybe Jay Carney’s figured ’em out. I’ll ask him. Maybe Jay Carney can explain women to me. Maybe Bill Clinton can do it, whoever their heroes are.
We are $17 trillion in debt. The Constitution is threatened every day by the Democrat Party, and Claire McCaskill wants to go out and try to convince you that the culture of sports is what’s tearing the country apart? Sorry. It may not be a pretty sight, but the culture of sports is not what’s tearing this country apart. We’ve seen the facts about criminal behavior in the NFL compared with the rest of society.
The NFL fares far better.
The culture of sports is competition. The culture of sports is meritocracy: Best team wins. The culture of sports is becoming the best you can be! The Democrat Party doesn’t stand for that anywhere, except in electoral politics. The Democrat Party wants to beat up on the NFL. The NFL is about hard work. The NFL’s all about diversity. The NFL’s about definative results, you win or you lose.
In the NFL, there isn’t any affirmative action. Well, there wasn’t. The NFL is about people pursuing their dreams, trying to be the best they can be at a job not everybody can do. They’re all being tarred and feathered now by people like Claire McCaskill who want to come along and tell us that “sports leaders put victory over decency.” Please. You could just as easily be talking about the Democrat Party: Victory over decency.
Gloria Allred. This takes the cake. There’s a story on ESPN. ESPN did a profile of the Chicago Bear wide receiver Brandon Marshall. In 2006 or 2007 I believe it was, Brandon Marshall… He’s bipolar. He’s had some… I don’t want to say “mental issues,” but I don’t know the proper term. “Mental issues” will suffice for now, but he had them dealt with. He went and got help, therapy, a number of things.
But in his past, 2006-2007, was a case of spousal abuse. So ESPN, who’s got their show Behind the Lines, Inside the Lines, Down the Lines, I don’t know what it’s called. They did a profile of Brandon Marshall, and they went back and they said, “It must be fair and it must be thorough.” So, of course, they had to go back and touch on this. Brandon Marshall said, “You know what? They’re lying about me.
“I should have never have agreed to that. They’re telling lies about me.” Brandon, what was your first clue? It’s the media. It’s a profile? What do you think, they’re gonna fawn all over you? At any rate, the woman who was the victim of his abuse in 2006 or 2007… Well, actually I don’t think the woman has it.
Gloria Allred popped up in Atlanta and is now demanding that Goodell resign, “citing the league’s failures in dealing with domestic violence and citing a particular case which dates back more than five years. Speaking at an Atlanta-area news conference, the Los Angeles-based Allred said of Goodell: … ‘I think he should resign because of the way investigations have been conducted in the past.’ …
“On Wednesday, Allred recalled the allegations of Rasheedah Watley against Pro Bowl wide receiver Brandon Marshall in 2006 and 2007. At the time, Marshall lived in Atlanta with Watley. Police reportedly responded to numerous calls by Watley alleging abuse by Marshall, but Marshall never was convicted of any crime (charges were dropped in one instance, Marshall was acquitted in another). And in 2012, Watley’s civil suit against Marshall was dismissed.”
And here comes ESPN reliving all of this as though it’s current. “Marshall was given a three-game suspension in August 2008 for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy following an arrest related to an alleged incident with Watley, but that suspension ultimately was reduced to one game. On Wednesday,” after a whole lot of nothing, “Allred sat at a table, flanked by the self-described best friend of Watley on one side, and Watley’s father Clarence on the other.
“The friend, Kristeena Spivey, recounted incidents of abuse suffered by Rasheedah Watley. Clarence Watley said that the NFL and Marshall’s team at the time, the Denver Broncos, were made aware of the incidents and said they would follow up, but never did.” Rasheedah Watley didn’t show up at her own press conference yesterday. It was Gloria Allred, Rasheedah Watley’s “best friend,” Rasheedah Watley’s father.
“Allred said she has no plans to sue the NFL, but rather wants the league to change its procedures for investigating claims of domestic violence.” So Gloria Allred has a news conference about a woman who didn’t show up and is all fit to be tied now demanding that Goodell resign. Let’s go to the audio sound bites.
I want to take you back, ’cause it’s all starting to pan out now — and I don’t mind. I don’t mind showing you how, when I told you what I predicted was gonna happen is beginning to happen. This August 6th, two years ago, 2012, talking about my theories, predictions on how the NFL would be targeted by people that wanted to go after it.
RUSH: I said yesterday that the defining characteristic of liberalism is force. They use bullying, brute force to get what they want. They don’t mess with the arena of ideas and debate and trying to win the hearts and minds of a majority of Americans, because they know they never will. They are not a majority way of thinking. So they only have one way. They use brute force, they intimidate.
And they literally get people to give up and cow down and give the left what it wants for some peace, some security, some silence, until they get agitated about the next thing, and then they’re off and running. If it’s not 16-ounce sodas, it’s trans fats. It’s global warming and then it becomes tobacco and cigarettes, then Joe Camel, and then all of a sudden that’s become the NFL.
It’s the name of the Redskins. Now it’s Goodell. Now it’s sexual abuse or Ferguson, Missouri. Now we’ve gotta make sure that cop gets convicted or there’s gonna be race riots. That’s been promised in Ferguson, Missouri, by the way. So here’s Gregg Easterbrook. Actually, I gotta take a break ’cause I got more than one Easterbrook sound bite and I can’t squeeze them all in here in this particular segment.
But proof, validation of my most recent contentions coming up.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Gregg Easterbrook. Ah, he’s a good writer. He’s wrong on global warming and climate change, but he’s a great writer. He has a great column on ESPN every Tuesday called TMQ, Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Last night he was on The NewsHour on PBS, and he’s got a new book, The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America. First question, “Gregg, what’s the threshold that has to be crossed where there are serious financial consequences to all of this upheaval in the NFL?”
EASTERBROOK: If people begin to say that football is the new cigarettes — and you’re starting to hear that. If football becomes perceived as a woman’s issue — nobody saw that coming — and especially if football —
RUSH: What do you mean nobody? Hold it a second! Stop the tape! Take it back to the top. What do you mean, “[N]obody saw that coming”? This is my exact point. I did see it coming, and when everybody was calling me crazy for warning about it, that’s how long I have been. You just heard the sound bite I played two years ago comparing it to the way they went after tobacco. Woman’s issue? Nobody saw that coming? Here’s the whole bite now. I will not interrupt.
EASTERBROOK: If people begin to is that football is the new cigarettes — and you’re starting to hear that. If football becomes perceived as a woman’s issue — nobody saw that coming — and especially if football, people turn their attention to the fact that the vast majority of football is played at the youth and high school level by people who legally are children, that’s where the health harm of football is done. If public high schools begin to drop out of playing football — and there’s some indication they will — that, over a period of years, could change the NFL’s economics very radically.
RUSH: And then he added a new angle to all of this, and that is class warfare.
EASTERBROOK: It’s the perfect game for the United States. I call it the king of sports because it expresses what we are as a nation: It’s too loud, it’s too crazy, it’s too violent. It’s the perfect game, and it’s a fascinating game to watch. I love it. But when you add the sociological impact — the distorting effect that it has on high school education, the fact that NCAA football has at the big public universities — and then add in that the public subsidizes the production of NFL profit. Roughly a billion dollars a year goes to subsidize the construction and operation of NFL stadiums, where almost all the revenue generated is kept by the super rich. You have these sociological impacts, and suddenly the fact that the game is a fabulous game doesn’t seem so great anymore.
RUSH: Yes, and they say nobody saw this coming. But a perfect game, perfect game for the US: Loud, crazy, violent. Perfect game. Actually he’s got a point there. I also think that there’s a factor in that that has made it a target of the left, that it is, in fact, too American for many of the people on the left.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I still have a roster of really interesting/funny/provocative audio sound bites about the latest upheaval in the NFL. Another domestic violence case: Jonathan Dwyer, Arizona Cardinals, played the past four years in the Steelers. He is a running back. His case is from back in June, but it has serviced. Adrian Peterson has gone from the team indefinitely ’til his case has been adjudicated in the legal system.
The Panthers and Greg Hardy, the 49ers and Ray McDonald, and whatever else is waiting to pop. Gloria Allred is demanding that the commissioner resign. So here’s Leigh Steinberg. Leigh Steinberg’s a famous, famous sports agent. You all know the Jerry Maguire story. He’s the formative character, the model character there. He was on CNN last night with Don Lemon.
We got some interesting Don Lemon sound bites coming up. Leigh Steinberg, a well known agent. His first client, by the way, Steve Bartkowski, who was a quarterback at UC, University of California Berkeley, and after that successful venture, Steinberg built up a huge, huge stable of clients. It was Steinberg, in fact… I remember it was a Rush to Excellence Tour in Houston back in the early nineties when the Oilers were still there, and I happened…
It was a Saturday night appearance. I stayed over because the Oilers were playing the 49ers. This was during the Joe Montana/Dwight Clark era. And I had not met Steinberg. He was in the press box, and he came up and introduced himself to me. He was as nice as he could be. He just sat down. We were watching the game, and the Oilers had built up a huge first-half lead on the 49ers.
Steinberg said, “Don’t sweat it, they’ve got it all under control. You’re gonna see a second-half comeback that you’re gonna be talking about forever,” and he was right. The 49ers just looked like a different team the second half. Anyway, there was a really hard hit pretty serious injury, and Steinberg turned to me and said, “You know, these guys? These guys are so tough.” He says, “You know, you and I, we wouldn’t last.
“We wouldn’t last a play out there, especially if we’re on the offensive line.” Now, it’s something you know instinctively, but you don’t stop to think about it.” When he said that, I actually stopped and thought about, ’cause I did play one year of organized football, junior year in high school. No. Was my senior year? Sophomore year. I mean, that’s nothing. It was tough at the time, but it was nothing.
But he was right. It is tough. So I’ve always had a different perspective the game ever since then. Anyway, Leigh’s had his ups and downs, but he’s now back and is opining on these things. Don Lemon said to him last night, “Okay, seems to be common defense now. Many people have been raised with corporal punishment. It’s the way it happened for these kids. They were raised this way, it’s the way they’re raising their kids, and they don’t see what’s wrong with it. In fact, they think it kept them in line. Does it hurt the NFL that players speak out and defend Adrian Peterson for the way that he is raising his child?”
STEINBERG: The players will get this right, the league will get this right, and we’ll see a program just like what they did with breast cancer and they’ll take over a leadership role, and they’ll become a leader here in a dynamic way.
RUSH: Right. So what Lee Steinberg is saying here is that there is gonna be Spousal Abuse Month in the NFL to go along with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the NFL. Now, there is a color for this now. I think it’s purple, isn’t it? (interruption) Isn’t it? I’m not joking. Isn’t there a ribbon that’s supposed to signify consciousness raising for spousal…? (interruption) Well, look it up. You’ve got time to look it up in there. I’m hosting the show.
I think it’s right. Anyway, Steinberg, get this: They “will get this right, and we’ll see a program just like what they did with breast cancer and they’ll take over a leadership role, and they’ll become a leader here in a dynamic way.” Let’s say that happens. Do…? (interruption) I told you it was purple. I… (interruption) No, it’s not black and blue. Don’t say that. Don’t make me say that! Oh, geez.
Snerdley just said he thought the color would be black and… This as you remember, which I guess is… (interruption) No, purple is a combination of black and blue. Little red thrown in. See what my staff does to me, folks? My staff is the one takes me over to the edge there, and they sit in there and they yuk and laugh about it, while they hope to see me go over the edge and barely, barely hang on.
They just love it. So, okay, Steinberg says we’re gonna have the same kind of thing. What is spousal abuse awareness in the NFL, what would it be? They do a whole month of it? I don’t know. Okay, Don Lemon was who was asking the questions. Now, this is… Well, you’ll see here.
We had to go back two days ago. Two days ago, Don Lemon, just to refresh your memory… Don Lemon is our all-time favorite CNN anchor.
It’s a close race with our all-time favorite CNN reporter. That would be Nic Robertson. We love Don Lemon, and we hope nothing ever happens to Don Lemon. CNN is cutting people left and right. They’re cutting budgets and they’re letting staff go, and we hope Don Lemon survives all of it. Don Lemon’s the guy that asked a transportation expert if a black hole might have swallowed the missing Malaysian airliner.
Now, he admitted that it was an out-there explanation or possibility, but could it have happened? He asked it. And, of course, the transportation expert answered it as diplomatically as you can imagine. So two days ago, Don Lemon was defending corporal punishment because that’s how he was raised. This is Tuesday night, CNN, Situation Room.
LEMON: I have to say that, uh, when I was a kid, I would have to go and get the switch off the tree, and if I brought back a switch that wasn’t big enough, then my grandmother my dad or my mom would go get a bigger one. Now, listen, I’m not condoning what Adrian Peterson is alleged of doing. But, you know, people do discipline their children. People do punish their kids, and corporal punishment happens in this country. It happened almost every single day for me as a kid in Catholic school, and I think a lot of people see that as sort of a parent’s right to discipline their children.
RUSH: Okay. So you could construe that to be almost a defense for corporal punishment. Spanking, for those of you in Rio Linda. Corporal punishment is not… They don’t go and get, you know, a sergeant or someone in the military to come in and discipline the kids. Corporal punishment means spanking. They don’t call a military guy over to do it.
I just need to make sure that the people in Rio Linda are up to speed and don’t get lost here. So a he’s defending it and Michael Wilbon defended it. He said, “Oh, yeah. I had to cut my switch. I was raised this way.” Wilbon said (summarized), “If there were more of this in the black community, if there were more corporal punishment, if there were more Adrian Peterson-like dads out there, a lot less trouble.”
He said it. Now, he can say it without all kinds of grief descending on him. Now, the bite you just heard was two days ago. It’s Tuesday night, Don Lemon defending corporal punishment. In the space of two days, in 48 hours, somebody got to Don Lemon and changed his mind, or changed the way he views corporal punishment. Don Lemon got his mind right. This is last night on CNN.
LEMON: Over the last couple days of watching what’s going on and doing research and looking at the pictures from Adrian Peterson, I have evolved on this. ‘Cause I think, “Hey, you know, you can spank your kid!” But I think that we as a society need to reexamine that. My initial reaction was, “Well, I was a kid, this is how I was treated and I saw the evidence at least for my own, you know, personal experience is this.” But I think that we need to reexamine that, and especially for me as an African-American because the question is: “Where did you learn that from? Was that learned from the slave master?”
RUSH: Oh, no. Oh, no, he didn’t! Oh, no, Don, you didn’t. Oh, no. Corporal punishment, he has to abandon his belief in corporal punishment. He was raised that way, and he thought it was okay. Everybody was. It was just de regeur. It was the way things ha. But somebody got to him and said, “Don? Don? No, no, no, no. No, no, no. We in the media don’t believe in corporal punishment.
“If you want to stay good graces of the liberal media, no, no, no. Change your mind on this,” and so in analyzing why he erroneously thought it was okay because it had happened to him, he was convinced to dig deep to find the roots of corporal punishment in the black community. And in fact, now, it is totally invalidated because it was learned from the slave master.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: But I was just thinking of something. We were just talking amongst ourselves here in the break. Don Lemon may have unlocked the door for Adrian Peterson, in terms of winning back the affection of the American people and getting the media off his back, and maybe even the legal system.
Don Lemon said on CNN last night that when he was speaking in favor of corporal punishment two days ago, he actually was unaware of the roots. He became aware after his first statement of support for corporal punishment, and to explain why it may be valuable and why it may work in the African-American community. Somebody got to him, and last night he said that it can be traced to the slave master.
“Especially for me as an African-American, the question is: Where did you learn corporal punishment from? Was that learned from the slave master?” Well, Adrian Peterson, are you listening to this, buddy? Here it is. It’s been hand-delivered to you on a silver platter. All you have to do is say you were trying to do exactly what the guy on CNN was trying to. He was trying to validate the way he had been raised.
He turned out great! Look at him. He’s on CNN. You turned out great. You’re on Minnesota Vikings. And then you learned! You thought corporal punishment was okay, but when you found out it was actually traced back to the slave masters, you disavow it. You’re not gonna have anything more to do with it.
It could work.
It could make the media less inclined to come after you, buddy.
Think about it.
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