RUSH: Big news out of Washington, D.C. The Washington Redskins are no more. The Washington Redskins have announced that they’re gonna change the name, they’re gonna get rid of the name, they’re gonna get rid of the logo, they’re gonna get rid of the icon. They haven’t announced what the new name of the team will be, but it’s going to happen. It did happen. They announced it today.
Now, I want to share an observation with you. I said last Monday, a week ago today, and I’ve said it numerous times since, no matter what the left gets, it’s never enough, it’s not gonna make anybody happy. I guarantee you the name Washington Redskins is gone, there isn’t any celebrating out there because this does not make them happy. Nothing they get makes them happy. Nothing they get makes them content. It just, for some oddball reason, it makes the left more miserable.
They have gotten a lot in the last 10 years culturally, and they’re not happy. They’re angrier than ever. I told you last Monday it’s not gonna make Colin Kaepernick happy if they get rid of the name Redskins. All it’s gonna do, “Okay. Chiefs are next, then the Cleveland Indians, then the Braves.” It doesn’t stop anything. It doesn’t satisfy them, and I hate having to use this guy as an example ’cause I like him. Stephen A. Smith, who has conservative tendencies, was on ESPN’s Get Up show today. And I want you to listen to what he said about the Redskins announcing that they are dropping the name.
SMITH: The flip side to it is that when we’re sitting here as an African-American community, a disenfranchised community, and we’re seeing protests that have taken place in the streets and we’re seeing people engage in symbolic gesture but no real change has been made in America —
RUSH: See?
SMITH: — in the year 2020 it’s still not a federal law against lynching, for crying out loud. When you see these kind of things that are not taking place, that are not being addressed, particularly as it pertains to African-Americans, again it’s a bittersweet feeling.
RUSH: How can I be more right? As I say, I hate using Stephen A. ’cause I like the guy. (interruption) What? The program observer with a question. What’s the question? (interruption) Murder is against the law? Yes. So you’re saying lynching is against the law. No law against lynching. Right. Have they changed the name Lynchburg, Virginia, yet? (interruption) They’re working on it.
But I’m serious. That was his answer to how do you feel the Redskins are getting rid of the name. No happiness. No satisfaction. Just a list of things that continue to document how miserable it is in the United States, in America, for the African-American population.
By the way, African-Americans are not permitted to vote? When did that happen? He said it’s a disenfranchised community. Does he know what that means? I think he means disenfranchised means that they’re excluded, they’re left out, they’re ignored. It means you can’t vote. (interruption) Whoa, whoa, whoa what’s your facial expression? You’re frowning at me? (interruption) That’s what I thought. I thought the Voting Rights Act, you know, all 10 versions of it. I guess I got a lot to learn about what’s going on in America.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to play you a sound bite from “Char Bally.” That’s how Magic Johnson used to pronounce his name. Charles Barkley was on Friday’s CNBC’s Power Lunch. You know, I read this, I didn’t actually see this, but I read this and said, damn it, you know, I love hearing what I have said come out of the mouths of others. There’s never any acknowledgment, but that’s okay.
Barkley is talking about all of this stuff going on in professional sports, this social justice stuff, such as the NBA permitting its players to use social justice slogans on their jerseys instead of their names. And of course what did I say about that, folks? They’re going the wrong way. The NBA’s going the wrong way. The NFL is going the wrong way. People are not gonna tune in to watch. They don’t want to watch players kneel, led by coaches kneeling in protest of the national anthem, especially after playing something called the African-American national anthem where there isn’t any protests.
If the NFL thinks that this is where its fan base is, and they can’t possibly, they have to know this is not where the fan base is, but they have made up their minds that the money from Nike and other sponsors is more important, especially since fans aren’t gonna be permitted in the stadium, then who needs fans? All we gotta do is hope they watch on TV. And maybe go out and spend some sucker money on jerseys and licensed merchandise.
It’s like Jason Whitlock said. They’re lining up and signing up behind Black Lives Matter, which anybody can learn in five seconds on the internet is a Marxist organization, not civil rights. And the NFL is announcing that they are not who we always thought they were. Not only that, but sports is this place where people go to get away from this kind of stuff, for two or three hours at a time it’s the place where you go to escape all they. Well, here’s Barkley on CNBC on Friday.
BARKLEY: The media, they’re gonna spend all their time on what’s on somebody’s jersey, and what’s on the buses, and who’s kneeling and who’s not kneeling. My concern is turning this thing into a circus instead of trying to do some good stuff. Obviously, we are in a divided country and sports used to be a place where fans could go and get away from reality. The fans are at such a disadvantage because they’re going through the pandemic and they don’t want to see a bunch of rich people talking about stuff all the time.
RUSH: Yep. Don’t want to see a bunch of rich people whining and moaning. How did you get rich if there’s all this injustice, if there’s all of this systemic this and systemic that, how does the rest of this stuff happen?
By the way, one more thing about the Redskins changing the name. You know what’s gonna happen now? When the Redskins come up with a new name, when they announce whatever the new name’s gonna be, the next thing is gonna be massive lawsuits demanding reparations for past damages to the community. And they’re gonna use this as evidence. They’re gonna say, “The Redskins, Dan Snyder, the NFL, they knew all along what they were doing.”
So there isn’t gonna be any happiness, there isn’t gonna be any satisfaction, there isn’t gonna be any contentment. The left might be happy — and I’m not even sure about this — that they might be happy when they get the kind of change that you can put in your pocket. Like reparations. Like walking-around money. And I’m not talking about chump change. But I probably could be wrong about that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Donald in Charleston, South Carolina. Great to have you, sir. How are you doing?
CALLER: Very well, sir. So I’m talking about the Washington Redskins here. If Daniel Snyder is gonna change the name of the Redskins that means he’ll probably have to ban the logo merchandise that fans used to wear with the emblem on it. And if he bans that, that’s a money grab for Nike because you can’t wear the old merchandise. You gotta buy the new merchandise.
CALLER: And just like when NASCAR banned the Confederate flag, he’s gonna have to ban anybody wearing the old T-shirt.
RUSH: But they can’t. That’s the thing. They can’t. And I’ll guarantee you — there’s no way. What they would have to do, let’s say the Redskins — of course they’re not the Redskins anymore now, folks. We don’t know what the name is, but they announced today that the name is gonna change.
We can call them the Washington Orangeskins and put a picture of Trump on the helmet. Anyway, you know some fans are gonna show up wearing old Redskins jerseys, and they’re gonna do it on purpose. The team has a lot of fans who love the name, and when the team travels, fans are gonna show up wearing it, and what are they gonna do, not let them in the stadium?
Are they not gonna let ticket buyers either in FedEx Field or when the Skins are on the road if they show up wearing some of the old Washington Redskins licensed merchandise? And you know the fans are gonna do that. I’d venture to say that most Redskins fans disagree with this profoundly and deeply.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: George in Tallahassee, Florida, glad you called. Great to have you with us and the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Godspeed on your recovery. I’ve been a listener since day one.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Thank you.
RUSH: Because they’re woke. Because they’re good liberals. That’s why they get a pass. They’re good liberals. You know that.
CALLER: Every hypocrite athlete should never take another dollar of endorsement money from Nike again. I mean, you know —
RUSH: That’s like saying they ought to wake up and stop kneeling during the anthem. It isn’t gonna happen.
CALLER: Well, that’s interesting. Another point, I love your nicknames for people. Little Brian Stelter. I think you ought to call him Pennywise now. He looks like that clown on the Stephen King movie. He reminds me of that.
RUSH: I haven’t seen a Stephen King movie. Pennywise, is that the name? Anyway. I appreciate the call out there, George. It wasn’t, by the way, just Nike, FedEx. Fred Smith is a minority owner in the Redskins, and he’s trying to sell his percentage. So is a guy named Dwight Char, partner of Daniel Snyder’s, and there’s one other guy named Rothman, they’re three minority owners and their total does not get near to Snyder’s percentage, so they’re powerless when it comes to board of director voting and all that.
But they still have a significant percentage, and they’re trying to use their leverage to get Snyder to change the name and there’s some talk that Snyder may now, after doing this, just sell the team if he can get out of it what it’s actually worth. I don’t think anybody can right now. I don’t know the Redskins. It’s reputedly worth two point some odd billion. I don’t think anybody would pay that for any NFL franchise right now other than maybe the Cowboys or the Patriots. And neither of those are gonna be up for sale anytime soon, so it’s kind of a moot point.
But Nike – look, Betsy Ross, they had this great new shoe that they wanted to sell a year ago, Fourth of July, that had the Betsy Ross flag on it. What happens? Kaepernick speaks, I hate that flag. I don’t think Nike ought to be selling it, and they cancel it. I think it was a coordinated PR stunt to begin with. I don’t think Nike ever intended to sell those shoes. I think it was an ongoing effort to give Kaepernick a platform.
But this is the point, folks. A bunch of American corporate CEOs have become uber-left-wing activists right along with university professors and teachers. And everybody thinks that corporate CEOs will be big time Republicans who believe in tax cuts and not paying their fair share. And it ain’t so. It’s not the case anymore.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Richard in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, hi. Glad you waited, sir.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. It’s an honor to speak with you. I am a longtime listener, and mega dittos. I’m calling to express my frustration. I spent over 40 years of my life in corporate America. Sports was always an outlet. This is not just about the Redskins changing their name. It’s about the involvement of politics in sports. If we watch a game, if we go to a game, I’m a paying customer. I do not want to have to sit there and view or listen to something related to politics.
And I know professional sports ownership has sold their soul to the devil years ago with this supported structure, et cetera, et cetera. But I’m tired of it. It’s supposed to be an escape for us as American citizens. And they’re turning it into, like everything else, you can’t walk away from it, it’s right in your face. And I’ve heard you speak of it, and I’m just voicing my —
CALLER: Obviously there’s money involved because money —
RUSH: Well, yeah, but – (crosstalk)
CALLER: — everybody else walks.
RUSH: No, this is the Democrat Party, if you want to put it in broadly understandable terms. If you want to be even more specific, it’s the American left. It is an attempt to corrupt every aspect, every successful capitalist enterprise the United States economy and destroy it. It is specifically about creating the reaction you’ve had and driving you away from it.
And if you don’t get driven away, guess what? You’re gonna be drowned with nothing but a liberal message that you damn well better love and you damn well better accept or shut up about it. It’s the Democrat Party, it’s the American left doing this. And they’re not stopping at sports. They are politicizing literally everything, and they have been for years now.
Related Links