{"id":37716,"date":"2011-03-11T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T23:57:49","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-18T23:57:49","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T23:57:49","slug":"players_will_lose_in_nfl_dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/03\/11\/players_will_lose_in_nfl_dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Players Will Lose in NFL Dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"RUSH: Springfield, Illinois, with Brian. Welcome, sir. Great to have you here.<\/p>\nCALLER: Hey-ey, Rush. It\u2019s an honor and a privilege.<\/p>\nRUSH: Thank you.<\/p>\nCALLER: Twenty-year-listener, first-time caller.<\/p>\nRUSH: I appreciate that.<\/p>\nCALLER: You made me think a lot about this Wisconsin thing and about how the citizens are paying their salaries.<\/p>\nRUSH: Right.<\/p>\nCALLER: And it made me think about the NFL, and how I\u2019m a big supporter of the NFL. Maybe we need some representation there, the fans, on some of these negotiations.<\/p>\nRUSH: Well, in this case, you can make the analogy, of course: Private sector union negotiations versus public. But in the case of the public sector unions, the payment is direct. It goes from the back pocket of the taxpayer right to the employee — and that guy does have no choice about paying his taxes. He has no choice. Whatever the state tax rate is he gotta pay it. You can choose whether or not to buy a jersey, you can choose whether or not to go to a game, you can choose whether or not to even have cable and watch the stuff on television. You can chose to totally avoid it. If you don\u2019t want to donate a dime to the National Football League, you don\u2019t know have to.<\/p>\nCALLER: Right. But do you think it might help if we get organized?<\/p>\nRUSH: Fans?<\/p>\nCALLER: Yes!<\/p>\nRUSH: No.<\/p>\nCALLER: No?<\/p>\nRUSH: Not at all. What are you gonna do?<\/p>\nCALLER: I — I\u2019m not sure, but if we organized and we got our money and our resources together we could, eh… We could —<\/p>\nRUSH: You don\u2019t have to do that.<\/p>\nCALLER: — have a say in how many games or, you know, have some sort of input in on it.<\/p>\nRUSH: Wait a second. Wait, wait a minute now. Let\u2019s cut to the chase here. What is it about the NFL CBA talks that\u2019s got you bugged? Who are you mad at?<\/p>\nCALLER: It just made me think that the people paying the salaries —<\/p>\nRUSH: Right.<\/p>\nCALLER: — the taxpayers. It made me think about the NFL and the fans that are paying the salaries, maybe I\u2019m wrong here, but it just… It hit me as a similar analogy.<\/p>\nRUSH: Well, yeah, but it\u2019s all elective when it comes to the fans in the NFL. Even… You can say, ‘Okay, well, the NFL has licensed sponsors,\u2019 so there\u2019s Reebok. Well, fine, but you don\u2019t have to go buy Reebok equipment. And if you don\u2019t, you\u2019re not contributing to anything, owner or player, of the NFL.<\/p>\nCALLER: Right.<\/p>\nRUSH: But your taxes, you have no choice.<\/p>\nCALLER: Well, you don\u2019t have to live in Wisconsin, either.<\/p>\nRUSH: No, but choosing not to buy a ticket to a football game or whatever is a little bit more realistic than choosing to leave Wisconsin. But no matter where you go in this country, you have to pay taxes — and in almost every state you are paying public sector government workers with your taxes, and not just at the state.<\/p>\nCALLER: Yeah, I got the point.<\/p>\nRUSH: You\u2019re paying your local employees; you\u2019re paying everybody with your tax dollars.<\/p>\nCALLER: You just got me going made me think about this NFL thing for some reason.<\/p>\nRUSH: No, I don\u2019t mind.<\/p>\nCALLER: But I just thought maybe it might be a decent idea for the fans to get a full representation somehow.<\/p>\nRUSH: Well, let\u2019s explore this! I don\u2019t mind the thinking here. Think about it, if you want some representation here, like the governor was the representation for taxpayers in Wisconsin.<\/p>\nCALLER: Right.<\/p>\nRUSH: So you\u2019ve got the players and the owners, they\u2019re meeting ostensibly the final time today before the lockout unless there\u2019s another extension. It\u2019s five o\u2019clock today. So if there were a fan representative there, representing you and the rest of the fans, what\u2019s the case that that representative would make?<\/p>\nCALLER: Well, on what sort of issues that they might be stuck on, and that the people that are really gonna be impacted a lot as well are the fans. So I thought maybe we might be able to mediate and be in on some of the negotiations. I don\u2019t know. Just I thought with all that money, all our pool of resources, we might be able to do something with some sort of representation.<\/p>\nRUSH: Okay, well, let me try it this way: What do you want to happen in these football negotiations? You want the game to be played, right? You don\u2019t want a lockout?<\/p>\nCALLER: Right. No lockout.<\/p>\nRUSH: You don\u2019t want a lockout. So you want free agency. You want the draft (well, the draft\u2019s gonna happen). You want it all. You want the stuff. So you want these two sides to come together?<\/p>\nCALLER: Right.<\/p>\nRUSH: And come to an agreement. So you think —<\/p>\nCALLER: Seems like there\u2019s three sides. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\nRUSH: Well, there\u2019s actually more than that. How about the poor people that work at the concession stands on an NFL Sunday?<\/p>\nCALLER: You\u2019re right. Yeah.<\/p>\nRUSH: How about, for example, all of these guys that own sports bars? I have to tell you a sports bar owner will tell you that football season is his most profitable. I don\u2019t want to hear this Final Four college basketball garbage. The NFL and college football in the fall are what make a sports bar profitable. (interruption) Don\u2019t give me World Cup! Another thing: How about the Vegas casinos? How about the sportsbooks?<\/p>\nCALLER: That\u2019s right.<\/p>\nRUSH: Look at all the money bet on football. Look at all the stuff that\u2019s gonna go dark.<\/p>\nCALLER: I\u2019m just offering up an idea for some of these people, an umbrella to get under to make sure that we can get this out, you know, without a lockout. I don\u2019t know maybe you can get the bar owners and the workers together and maybe donate some money, get some in there. I don\u2019t know how it works, Rush.<\/p>\nRUSH: Yeah, but not all the fans are gonna be united. Some of the fans are gonna be on the players\u2019 side. Some of the fans are gonna be on the owners\u2019 side. Just assuming that the fans are all gonna be aligned into one way of thinking is also a little fallacious. (interruption) Whose fault is it? Who\u2019s fault is the NFL…? (interruption) Um… (groans) Snerdley wants to know who I think is at fault; know at fault. I don\u2019t look at this as anybody being at fault. This is just a dispute. At some point it\u2019s gonna get resolved, at some point it\u2019s gonna settle, and I\u2019ll tell you who\u2019s gonna lose: The players. The players are facing a loaded gun. They don\u2019t, at the end of the day, have a prayer. <\/p>\nThe owner of the Seattle Seahawks has a 414-foot yacht. The owner of the Seahawks could support the other owners for a year or two if he wanted to. While the players, nobody on the players has a 414-foot yacht. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s gonna happen. I\u2019m just saying at the end of the day here — (sigh) and I don\u2019t mean this in a cutting way, but — the owners have the ability to outlast the players. The thing that the owners have to be concerned about is what this guy is calling about. If this goes on way long and it appears that these guys are selfish and the press is able to convince people that these billionaires are just greedy and they really don\u2019t care about anything but themselves, could they lose all of the fan base, who knows? <\/p>\nYou know, baseball went without the World Series. They had a walkout, they had a strike, they went without the World Series. It took steroids to get people back into that game! You might not like hearing that. You might not like it, but it took steroids and human growth hormone to make that game exciting enough to get fans back. Well, look, I\u2019m just telling you what the truth is. You go on strike and you cause the World Series not to be played… They got it back, their stadiums are full now, they\u2019re doing new stadiums are popping up. But the NFL is number one. The NFL has taken over as the, quote, unquote, ‘national pass past time.\u2019 Frankly I don\u2019t think the owners think the fans are gonna go anywhere. I think at some point the owners know the fans will watch. <\/p>\nLet me tell you what the owners are more worried about the than anything else, folks. <\/p>\nI\u2019m gonna tell you right now, folks.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s high-definition TV, 60-inch screens. <\/p>\nThey\u2019re worried it\u2019s much easier than going to the stadium.<\/p>\nBREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\nRUSH: Matthew in Harrisburg next as we roll on with Open Line Friday. Welcome to the program. Hello.<\/p>\nCALLER: (whispering) Hello, Mr. Limbaugh.<\/p>\nRUSH: Hi.<\/p>\nCALLER: I have 99.6% mega dit-tooos. I\u2019m calling to call you on you\u2019re saying that the NFL can\u2019t raise our taxes. Who do you think builds their coliseums? Most specifically, your beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, which I like, too.<\/p>\nRUSH: All right, all right, okay.<\/p>\nCALLER: The stadium they had built was built by the taxpayers.<\/p>\nRUSH: Touche. You have a point. You do. They threaten to move, threaten to leave unless the city builds them a stadium. They offer some bonds or they increase sales tax or whatever. Yep, yep. Yep. I have to admit. You\u2019re right. But we still have a chance to vote on it. We still vote. At the end of the day, the Steelers coulda lost it, and any other community could vote against them. The people in the community, the NFL does have to think about that now. If they do anger voters this way next time they want a new stadium someplace that\u2019s gonna be publicly financed, they could lose it.<\/p>\nCALLER: But, Mr. Limbaugh, it was actually voted down by the taxpayers. They said they didn\u2019t want to do it and so they just initiated it anyway. I used to live there.<\/p>\nRUSH: Now, I had forgotten that.<\/p>\nCALLER: Oh, yes. It was voted down by the public. It was some kind of a tax, a Regional Asset District tax.<\/p>\nRUSH: Hmm. So the people in Pittsburgh…<\/p>\nCALLER: Voted down by the populace, but our esteemed leaders, our most knowledgeable ones still put it into being.<\/p>\nRUSH: Yeah. Well, they didn\u2019t want to lose the team. They didn\u2019t want to lose the team.<\/p>\nCALLER: That\u2019s understandable.<\/p>\nRUSH: Yeah, it is. Okay, so — I got 20 seconds — where does that put you in the current disagreement over the collective bargaining agreement? Where does it put you?<\/p>\nCALLER: Collective bargaining agreement? I have to agree with the Wisconsin governor. I agree with the Wisconsin governor, because we need to find a way for the taxpayers to have a voice in our government.<\/p>\nRUSH: Right. Okay, Matthew, I appreciate it. Well, there I am properly chagrined. What a way to end Open Line Friday. Yip yip yip yip.<\/p>\nBREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\nRUSH: All right, look, for the last time, folks: Public sector unions have nothing to do with the National Football League. If the NFL doesn\u2019t get people voluntarily attending their games, it ends. They cannot compel attendance, they cannot compel ticket sales. But if you don\u2019t pay your taxes, you lose your house; you go to jail (unless you\u2019re getting Obama\u2019s mortgage program). Sports leagues, they\u2019ve been tried and some have failed. They don\u2019t exist anymore. But government never goes away, does it? Never at any level, and it\u2019s time some of it did. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Springfield, Illinois, with Brian. Welcome, sir. Great to have you here. CALLER: Hey-ey, Rush. It\u2019s an honor and a privilege. RUSH: Thank you. CALLER: Twenty-year-listener, first-time caller. RUSH: I appreciate that. CALLER: You made me think a lot about this Wisconsin thing and about how the citizens are paying their salaries. RUSH: Right. CALLER: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlayers Will Lose in NFL Dispute - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/03\/11\/players_will_lose_in_nfl_dispute\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Players Will Lose in NFL Dispute - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Springfield, Illinois, with Brian. Welcome, sir. Great to have you here. CALLER: Hey-ey, Rush. It\u2019s an honor and a privilege. RUSH: Thank you. 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Welcome, sir. Great to have you here. CALLER: Hey-ey, Rush. It\u2019s an honor and a privilege. RUSH: Thank you. CALLER: Twenty-year-listener, first-time caller. RUSH: I appreciate that. CALLER: You made me think a lot about this Wisconsin thing and about how the citizens are paying their salaries. RUSH: Right. 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