RUSH: Anybody watch the NFL opener last night?
Chicago Bears hosting the Green Bay Packers. Somebody tell me the difference between that game last night and a preseason game. The only difference was the starters played when they don’t play in the preseason, but other than that, who can tell the difference? I asked Brian, “Did you watch the game?” “Yes. First quarter and I fell asleep.” Bingo!
All this heralded offense? New Packer offense, new coach, Aaron Rodgers? First quarter touchdown and pfft! That’s it. Defense wins the game. Now, that’s standard for early in the season. These guys haven’t played. The starters haven’t played. This is their first game. They’re gassed by the third quarter. They haven’t played. There’s so much I would do to change the NFL. But, of course, I will never get that chance.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Big news from the National Football League: As predicted by me mere moments ago, the malcontent Antonio Brown will play Monday night for the Raiders against the Denver Broncos, the last game of the weekend, the second game of Monday Night Football. If you haven’t been following this, I don’t want to take the time to bring you up to date on the month of August and Antonio Brown with the Oakland Raiders. Suffice to say, he missed practices.
He missed team meetings. Because he screwed up his feet in a cryotherapy chamber in France, and then refused to wear an approved league helmet. The culmination of this was on Wednesday — after he was fined $53,000 for missing two meetings — he posted on social media the letter from the Raiders announcing his fine, and then bad-mouthed the Raiders, and then threatened to punch the general manager in the face! Nobody has ever told Antonio Brown no. This is not unusual in sports, professional athletes. (interruption)
“Why wasn’t he fired on the spot?”
Because he’s the best receiver in the league, and because they’re paying him $30 million guaranteed — which they could have gotten out of, by the way. If Antonio Brown would have been suspended and not on the roster for game one, they would have owed him nothing. Nobody has told him no. The Steelers got rid of him and took nothing to do so. They were thought to get the worst end of the trade deal, but they knew what they were doing. He was a cancer in the clubhouse, causing all kinds of trouble, refusing to show up for the last game of the season that they had to win to have a chance to get into the playoffs.
He fakes it out with an injury that he didn’t have. Just a cancer! So he goes to the Raiders and makes it look like he doesn’t want to be there. But he threatens to punch Mike Mayock in the face. He had to be restrained by teammates from doing so. So they sent him home. This is two days ago. They sent him home and then announced that he was probably going to be suspended, and I knew right there, “He’s not going to get suspended. They’re not going to let Mayock suspend him.” They are moving to Vegas next year; they need him on the team to sell tickets in Vegas.
They need him for this, they need him on the field. He’s the best receiver in football. (Pardon me, Odell Beckham Jr., and the rest of you.) But I knew. He’s a Millennial. Nobody has ever told him no, which is par for the course for professional sports, anyway. There’s nothing unique or generational about that. That’s always been the case. But threatening to beat up your boss and having to be physically restrained? And then the Raiders say, “Well, we might suspend him.”
You should read the comments on some of the sports blogs that talk about this. Virtually 90% of the commenters thought it was a no-brainer. “The guy is gone. You just don’t do this. You don’t threaten to punch out your boss and get away with it.” Of course, I don’t post comments on these websites. I’m too famous to do that. But I just sat there and chuckled. I said, “You guys, he’s not going to get suspended and the Raiders are going to end up, in a sense, apologizing in one way or another because the guy is a child and they are gonna have to treat him as such.”
So the upshot is he was sent home yesterday. He returned to practice today. He had an emotional meeting with the team where he apologized; said it wasn’t going to happen again. It will happen again. It will probably happen Monday if he doesn’t get the ball enough! This is not going to end. There is no ending until somebody tells him no. The guy has acted as a child and as an immature, selfish solo operator and has been paid more every time for doing so.
He’s been rewarded for his bad behavior, including by the Raiders. They’re going to be moving to Las Vegas next year. They’re going to need all the star power they can get to attract a new fan base, sell tickets and all this kind of stuff. So this is a no-brainer, but it ain’t going to get better with the Raiders. They think they can talk sense. They can say, “Okay, he’s… He’s learned his lesson now. He won’t do this again.” (chuckles) He’s never learned a lesson. He’s never had to!
I don’t know him. Don’t misunderstand. I just know what everyone else does from following this stuff. But that’s the update. Speaking of, I referenced this towards the end of the broadcast yesterday. Do you remember the name Jemele Hill? Jemele Hill was fired from ESPN. She was an anchor on the 6 o’clock SportsCenter. She’s an angry, leftist radical. She hates Trump. That’s why she got fired. She was tweeting all kinds of stuff under ESPN’s name.
They didn’t want to fire her, but they had to. She’s working at a magazine called The Atlantic. I’m sorry, it’s not… Yes, The Atlantic has a piece that was published. “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges — They attract money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them, while [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] struggle. What would happen if they collectively decided to go to black schools?” So here’s somebody actually promoting segregation!
What were the ’60s for, Jemele? What was Dr. King all about? You can throw that out now; we’re going to segregate everybody. She said that “black men make up 55% of the football players in those conferences, and 56% of basketball players.” I think it’s higher than that. Anyway, she’s tired of these black athletes selling out and going to white schools as she sees it. We’re really making progress here, aren’t we, folks? Thank you, Democrats.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Big news from the National Football League: As predicted by me mere moments ago, the malcontent Antonio Brown will play Monday night for the Raiders against the Denver Broncos, the last game of the weekend, the second game of Monday Night Football. If you haven’t been following this, I don’t want to take the time to bring you up to date on the month of August and Antonio Brown with the Oakland Raiders. Suffice to say, he missed practices.
He missed team meetings. Because he screwed up his feet in a cryotherapy chamber in France, and then refused to wear an approved league helmet. The culmination of this was on Wednesday — after he was fined $53,000 for missing two meetings — he posted on social media the letter from the Raiders announcing his fine, and then bad mouthed the Raiders, and then threatened to punch the general manager in the face! Nobody has ever told Antonio Brown no. This is not unusual in sports, professional athletes. (interruption)
“Why wasn’t he fired on the spot?”
Because he’s the best receiver in the league, and because they’re paying him $30 million guaranteed — which they could have gotten out of, by the way. If Antonio Brown would have been suspended and not on the roster for game one, they would have owed him nothing. Nobody has told him no. The Steelers got rid of him and took nothing to do so. They were thought to get the worst end of the trade deal, but they knew what they were doing. He was a cancer in the clubhouse, causing all kinds of trouble, refusing to show up for the last game of the season that they had to win to have a chance to get into the playoffs.
He fakes it out with an injury that he didn’t have. Just a cancer! So he goes to the Raiders and makes it look like he doesn’t want to be there. But he threatens to punch Mike Mayock in the face. He had to be restrained by teammates from doing so. So they sent him home. This is two days ago. They sent him home and then announced that he was probably going to be suspended, and I knew right there, “He’s not going to get suspended. They’re not going to let Mayock suspend him.” They are moving to Vegas next year; they need him on the team to sell tickets in Vegas.
They need him for this, they need him on the field. He’s the best receiver in football. (Pardon me, Odell Beckham Jr., and the rest of you.) But I knew. He’s a Millennial. Nobody has ever told him no, which is par for the course for professional sports, anyway. There’s nothing unique or generational about that. That’s always been the case. But threatening to beat up your boss and having to be physically restrained? And then the Raiders say, “Well, we might suspend him.”
You should read the comments on some of the sports blogs that talk about this. Virtually 90% of the commenters thought it was a no-brainer. “The guy is gone. You just don’t do this. You don’t threaten to punch out your boss and get away with it.” Of course, I don’t post comments on these websites. I’m too famous to do that. But I just sat there and chuckled. I said, “You guys, he’s not going to get suspended and the Raiders are going to end up, in a sense, apologizing in one way or another because the guy is a child and they are gonna have to treat him as such.”
So the upshot is he was sent home yesterday. He returned to practice today. He had an emotional meeting with the team where he apologized; said it wasn’t going to happen again. It will happen again. It will probably happen Monday if he doesn’t get the ball enough! This is not going to end. There is no ending until somebody tells him no. The guy has acted as a child and as an immature, selfish solo operator and has been paid more every time for doing so.
He’s been rewarded for his bad behavior, including by the Raiders. They’re going to be moving to Las Vegas next year. They’re going to need all the star power they can get to attract a new fan base, sell tickets and all this kind of stuff. So this is a no-brainer, but it ain’t going to get better with the Raiders. They think they can talk sense. They can say, “Okay, he’s… He’s learned his lesson now. He won’t do this again.” (chuckles) He’s never learned a lesson. He’s never had to!
I don’t know him. Don’t misunderstand. I just know what everyone else does from following this stuff. But that’s the update. Speaking of, I referenced this towards the end of the broadcast yesterday. Do you remember the name Jemele Hill? Jemele Hill was fired from ESPN. She was an anchor on the 6 o’clock SportsCenter. She’s an angry, leftist radical. She hates Trump. That’s why she got fired. She was tweeting all kinds of stuff under ESPN’s name.
They didn’t want to fire her, but they had to. She’s working at a magazine called The Atlantic. I’m sorry, it’s not… Yes, The Atlantic has a piece that was published. “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges — They attract money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them, while [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] struggle. What would happen if they collectively decided to go to black schools?” So here’s somebody actually promoting segregation!
What were the ’60s for, Jemele? What was Dr. King all about? You can throw that out now; we’re going to segregate everybody. She said that “black men make up 55% of the football players in those conferences, and 56% of basketball players.” I think it’s higher than that. Anyway, she’s tired of these black athletes selling out and going to white schools, as she sees it. We’re really making progress here, aren’t we, folks? Thank you, Democrats.