{"id":3841,"date":"2016-03-24T16:10:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T16:10:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-07-06T09:35:19","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T13:35:19","slug":"nfl_made_deal_with_rams_to_draft_sam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/03\/24\/nfl_made_deal_with_rams_to_draft_sam\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Made Deal with Rams to Draft Sam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: I want to take you back to May the 9th, 2014<\/a>. May 9th, 2014, coming up on, almost, not quite, but almost two years ago. See if you remember me saying this.<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: He wasn\u2019t drafted yesterday, the openly gay Michael Sam, and now there\u2019s panic throughout the media wondering if he will be. Don\u2019t doubt me on this. He\u2019s going to be drafted. He\u2019s gonna get drafted today. I just hope it\u2019s by the Redskins. What are you shaking your head for in there? Anyway, he\u2019s gonna get drafted. There\u2019s no mystery to this. He will get drafted. Michael Sam wasn\u2019t drafted yesterday, and that means he\u2019s going to be drafted today. No matter how it happens, it\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n


\nRUSH: 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\u2019t have what it took. He didn\u2019t have the size, didn\u2019t 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\u2019s what all the smart people said, and it didn\u2019t matter to me.<\/p>\n

I knew he was gonna be drafted. He had to be drafted. There was something in the works, it was gonna happen. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s from St. Louis, I think, if he\u2019s the right Howard Balzer, used to be at the Sporting News. Who\u2019s he with now? I\u2019m not sure, but he\u2019s still around. Anyway, he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

“A longtime NFL reporter –” I thought you knew this. They\u2019re staring at me with blank faces across the glass. “With everything going on, what are you talking about this for?” Because it\u2019s a See, I Told You So. “A longtime NFL reporter revealed Wednesday the NFL agreed to a deal where the Los Angeles Rams … didn\u00c2\u2019t have to do HBO\u00c2\u2019s ‘Hard Knocks\u2019 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,\u2019 Howard Balzer tweeted.”<\/p>\n

Michael Sam, they asked him about it, was not shocked about this, “I\u2019m not surprised at all.” Howard Balzer reported the NFL was concerned that Michael Sam wouldn\u2019t be drafted, they couldn\u2019t have that. Here comes the first openly gay player being celebrated by the Drive-Bys and everybody. The NFL can\u2019t afford not to draft the guy. In their minds, they can\u2019t, in their PR, they can\u2019t afford not to. But no team wanted him because of the professional assessment that he just wasn\u2019t professional caliber. It didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t want any part of Hard Knocks because it\u2019s a distraction. I mean, if you\u2019re 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\u2019t erase the fact that it\u2019s there. And so it changes what happen.<\/p>\n

<\/a>NFL coaches say, “Look, I don\u2019t want these guys playing to the camera. I don\u2019t want \u2019em thinking they\u2019re being spied on. And I don\u2019t want this video footage being taken here to end up with the Patriots.” That\u2019s what all coaches say. “I don\u2019t want the footage that these guys get being given to competing teams.” It\u2019s a very few number of teams that want to do Hard Knocks. So the league came along and said, “Rams, you\u2019re doing Hard Knocks unless you draft Sam.” They said no question, we\u2019ll draft Sam. And let\u2019s put a little exclamation point on this. Do you know who is doing Hard Knocks this coming season? The Los Angeles Rams.<\/p>\n

And what do you think that\u2019s all about? (interruption) No. It\u2019s because you want to get out of St. Louis, move to LA? Fine, remember that Hard Knocks deal with Sam? It\u2019s 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\u2019ll gladly do Hard Knocks. Isn\u2019t this circuitously humorous the way it all happens. But I\u2019m just playing you the See, I Told You So \u2019cause I knew it\u2019s another sterling, shining example why you should not doubt me when I make these prognostications, predictions.<\/p>\n

And I know that the more sure of myself I sound, to certain people, the more off-putting it is, because nobody\u2019s supposed to be that sure of themselves. I get that. Nobody is supposed to be that confident. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

“I really do think that I\u2019m right, but I don\u2019t want to go to the mat on it.” That\u2019s considered sophistication. That is considered open-mindedness. That is considered an acknowledgment that you don\u2019t 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\u2019t hedge it. And that just… It off-puts a lot of people. I\u2019m just telling you, when I get into one of those modes, do not doubt me. As is the case here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t drafted yesterday, the openly gay Michael Sam, and now there\u2019s panic throughout the media wondering if he will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"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":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNFL Made Deal with Rams to Draft Sam - 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:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/03\/24\/nfl_made_deal_with_rams_to_draft_sam\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"NFL Made Deal with Rams to Draft Sam - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I want to take you back to May the 9th, 2014. 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