Rush Not Wanted

I see that Rush Limbaugh is part of a group that is currently in talks to buy the NFL's St. Louis Rams.

For those of you unaware of Rush...I envy you.  At best he's a conservative talk radio host who is viewed by some as the voice of the Republican Party while to some he's an eveil right-wing rascist who uses said radio show to spout ills and evils to a worryingly large audience.  I'll let you decide which is most correct.

One thing that Rush has been accused of is being a rascist, particularly after one incident during his short but unforgettable tenure as an analyst on ESPN's NFL Countdown show in 2003.  I can't find a video of the incident but here is what he said of Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback, Donovan McNabb.

"Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team."

He promptly resigned three days later, and rightly so.  McNabb isn't one of the game's greats but at that point he had led the Eagles to an NFC Championship Game and was one of the gane's better signal callers.


I don't know for sure whether the NFL has a fit-and-proper test for perspective owners but it wouldn't surprise me if they do.  I know, for example, that the Premier League does.  If they do, then I hope that these comments are levied at him and used to keep him out of the League.  American football is a fine sport and the NFL is the best spors league on the planet.  Neither needs Limbaugh or his ilk.

Media Watch - The League Of Ireland Takes Another Blow

A little bit of selfish news from the media watch scribe this week. I recently received funding to ake a documentary on Italia ’90. I’m delighted with the news if I’ honest. I’ll be trekking across the country over the next few months and interviewing fans, asking them how they enjoyed the tournament which happened when I was a mere four-and-a-bit years old.

As part of said documentary, I’ve naturally been doing a lot of research. I can tell you all about Sheedy and O’Leary and Big Jack and co. but this research has involved going through newspapers of the time, capturing a sense of how Ireland as a nation celebrated the greatest sporting achievement in the history of our nation. The optimism is refreshing. To see people living, breathing and enjoying football is a marked difference to what we see in 2009, and what we see with regards to the League of Ireland.

Last Sunday, RTE’s Radio One’s This Week programme ran a feature on the sustainability of football in Ireland. It was a relatively glum piece that had input from the likes of Sligo chairman Dermot Kelly and Fran Gavin and the tone was simple – the League needs to downsize, return to local roots and avoid more controversies. Now, you may think that this is the sort of piece that’s not too relevant, being broadcast when the sane among us are watching, say, Man U v Birmingham or the GAA. Unfortunately, it’s not. This Week has over 150,000 listeners on an average Sunday, which far exceeds the total weekly League of Ireland attendance, or even the number of people who watch MNS on RTE Two. It’s certainly more people than will see Pats’ European run, that’s for sure.

Us hardcore, we know what the sport is like here. We love it. We get the buzz of a Friday night and we know what it’s like to follow a team. We have the passion. Those among us who’ve heard that report know that despite the problems, the League of Ireland is in many ways vibrant and exciting. Claire Byrne can voice an ad on Newstalk all she likes, but her reach is limited. The clubs can do a lot in their communities, but are they doing enough to change the public’s opinion, an opinion formed by shows like This Week.

Maybe all we need is one person to come along and capture the public’s opinion again, make us all love football once more. Maybe we just need Big Jack.