RUSH: I want to take you back to May the 9th, 2014. May 9th, 2014, coming up on, almost, not quite, but almost two years ago. See if you remember me saying this.
RUSH ARCHIVE: He wasn’t drafted yesterday, the openly gay Michael Sam, and now there’s panic throughout the media wondering if he will be. Don’t doubt me on this. He’s going to be drafted. He’s gonna get drafted today. I just hope it’s by the Redskins. What are you shaking your head for in there? Anyway, he’s gonna get drafted. There’s no mystery to this. He will get drafted. Michael Sam wasn’t drafted yesterday, and that means he’s going to be drafted today. No matter how it happens, it’s going to happen.
RUSH: Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to announce prior to the draft that he was gay, and entered the draft in that way. In the predraft run-up there were all kinds of professional assessments that even though he had been the Defensive Player of the Year in the SEC, he just didn’t have what it took. He didn’t have the size, didn’t have the speed to play defensive end or outside linebacker in the NFL, just was not going to excel there as a pass rusher. That’s what all the smart people said, and it didn’t matter to me.
I knew he was gonna be drafted. He had to be drafted. There was something in the works, it was gonna happen. I didn’t pretend to know what it was. I could have guessed. But he was going to be drafted. The NFL was going to see to it that he was drafted. And we learn from Howard Balzer, who is an aging sports writer. He’s from St. Louis, I think, if he’s the right Howard Balzer, used to be at the Sporting News. Who’s he with now? I’m not sure, but he’s still around. Anyway, he’s got a story that the Rams made a deal with the NFL to draft Michael Sam in order to not have to be participating in the HBO show Hard Knocks.
“A longtime NFL reporter –” I thought you knew this. They’re staring at me with blank faces across the glass. “With everything going on, what are you talking about this for?” Because it’s a See, I Told You So. “A longtime NFL reporter revealed Wednesday the NFL agreed to a deal where the Los Angeles Rams … didnÂ’t have to do HBOÂ’s ‘Hard Knocks’ series in 2014 if they drafted Michael Sam. ‘Sources say NFL agreed not to have Rams on Hard Knocks in 2014 if they drafted Michael Sam,’ Howard Balzer tweeted.”
Michael Sam, they asked him about it, was not shocked about this, “I’m not surprised at all.” Howard Balzer reported the NFL was concerned that Michael Sam wouldn’t be drafted, they couldn’t have that. Here comes the first openly gay player being celebrated by the Drive-Bys and everybody. The NFL can’t afford not to draft the guy. In their minds, they can’t, in their PR, they can’t afford not to. But no team wanted him because of the professional assessment that he just wasn’t professional caliber. It didn’t matter.
So the news here is that the league threatened the Rams with Hard Knocks. Some teams want to be on Hard Knocks because it promotes, it sells tickets, it gets the team on the map. A lot of teams don’t want any part of Hard Knocks because it’s a distraction. I mean, if you’re a coach, the last thing you want is a bunch of cameras and cameramen and sound people. All it is is an interruption. You know as well as I do that you put a camera on a street corner and what otherwise would happen changes. Once people see the camera they start playing to it. They can’t erase the fact that it’s there. And so it changes what happen.
And what do you think that’s all about? (interruption) No. It’s because you want to get out of St. Louis, move to LA? Fine, remember that Hard Knocks deal with Sam? It’s doubling back on you, guys. You want us to vote for your move to LA, fine, you gotta do Hard Knocks. Okay, when you measure it that way we’ll gladly do Hard Knocks. Isn’t this circuitously humorous the way it all happens. But I’m just playing you the See, I Told You So ’cause I knew it’s another sterling, shining example why you should not doubt me when I make these prognostications, predictions.
And I know that the more sure of myself I sound, to certain people, the more off-putting it is, because nobody’s supposed to be that sure of themselves. I get that. Nobody is supposed to be that confident. There’s supposed to be a lot of gray area. The true measure of a refined, intelligent person is to admit that he may not be right. And this attitude, by the way, has infected much of conservatism, if I may make a brief stream of consciousness departure here.
What I mean by this is, how many times do you pick up a conservative opinion piece and it reads something like this: “I think X, but I understand why the people who don’t think X think Y, and I am perfectly understanding, and I am perfectly willing to tolerate Y. They may have a point. They could very well be right! I maintain that my position on X is what it should be. But if they don’t agree, the last thing I want to do is try to force them to. So while I see point X, I even see people that disagree with both of us. I can understand all points of view on this.
“I really do think that I’m right, but I don’t want to go to the mat on it.” That’s considered sophistication. That is considered open-mindedness. That is considered an acknowledgment that you don’t know it all, which is supposedly the right way to be. And, of course, when I think I know something, I say I think I know it, and I don’t hedge it. And that just… It off-puts a lot of people. I’m just telling you, when I get into one of those modes, do not doubt me. As is the case here.
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