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RUSH: This is the first year — that may not be right. There may have been previous Super Bowls where I didn’t really care about the game in terms of the matchup. I wasn’t excited about one or maybe both of the teams in it, but I don’t remember. My memory is that I’ve been jazzed and excited and ready to go just because of the event. And there’s something, I don’t know, maybe chalk it up to getting older and interests changing, but I have yet to catch the Super Bowl hype.

I’m gonna watch the game, don’t misunderstand. But in terms of, you know, in previous years I would have sat here, I’d want to talk football strategy with you every day leading up to the game, and I haven’t even thought about football strategy as it relates to this game. During the commercial break, the last one of the previous hour, Snerdley, while I’m trying to do something else, is shouting at me over the intercom. He doesn’t understand. The media apparently is just fit to be tied that Marshawn Lynch won’t talk to ’em.


Goodell was having his State of the League press conference during the last hour. It happens every Friday during the Super Bowl week. And apparently he was peppered with question after question after question, media, “Are you gonna punish Marshawn Lynch? Are you gonna punish this guy? Are you gonna fine this guy? Because he not talking to us.” But he is talking to ’em. He’s just not answering their questions. He’s not getting anywhere near — the guy doesn’t trust the media.

I mean, he may not be the kind of guy you want to take home to meet mom, but he doesn’t trust the media. He’s not given them anything. He’s not answering one substantive question with any substance, and the media is fit to be tied, and they want dad to punish him. They want Goodell to fine the guy, suspend him or do something. And Snerdley was asking me, “Why is the media so upset?”

I said, “Well, ’cause the guy won’t talk to them.”

And he said, “It’s just sports.”

Don’t be fooled. The sports Drive-Bys think that what they cover is as important in the world as anything else. The bottom line is they’re fit to be tied.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Debbie in McLean, Virginia. Great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I love you so much. I just wanted to mention, I was watching Marshawn Lynch this week, and I just got to thinking, what if our conservative Republican candidate could react that way to the media. ‘Cause I think about how Romney got trapped with the contraception question. And if our candidate, whoever he or she is, could just say, “You know, these are the three things I’m not talking about right now. The social issues are off the table. The most important things: national security –“

RUSH: It’s an intriguing thought, Debbie. Now, we wouldn’t want a candidate doing it the way Marshawn’s doing it.

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: But your whole point, just don’t give ’em anything?

CALLER: Yeah. Well, you always say, don’t accept the premise, and it’s like, you know, they’re injecting something that we weren’t —

RUSH: You raise a good point. I’ll tell you what happened with Romney. Here is Stephanopoulos, and out of the blue asks Romney this question about, what was it, contraception.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: It comes out of the blue. Nobody’s talks about it. Nobody’s thinking about it. Romney has manners. He’s a polite guy. And after telling Stephanopoulos he doesn’t understand it two or three times, Stephanopoulos kept probing, he said, yeah or no, George, or whatever he answered, and that gave birth to the War on Women. And it was a trick from the get-go, and all Romney was trying to do was be a polite, nice guy, and that’s what you’re saying. Don’t give them the edge. Just say, “Silly question. Not what we’re talking about. Not answering, George. Move on. Ask somebody else.” It’s an intriguing idea. I’ve long believed that kind of behavior is called for.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Heck, I don’t talk to the media, Snerdley. I’ll have a couple or two or three I’ll talk to, but I don’t talk to ’em. That’s what Kit did, one of many things Kit did so well. You know, Kit was able to tell ’em “no,” but not have a Marshawn Lynch effect on ’em. Marshawn Lynch… The real problem is, it’s one thing to not talk to the press. The league says the players have to.

They have to make themselves available, during the season, at least once or twice a week; the Super Bowl, every day. Marshawn Lynch makes himself available. The reason the Drive-Bys don’t like Marshawn is ’cause he insults them, and he eventually conveys to them that he thinks their jobs are worthless and irrelevant and that they are just out to trip him up and make him look bad, and he’s not gonna help ’em.

So his posture is that he doesn’t trust them, and that’s why they don’t like him. It’s not that he’s not talking to ’em. It’s the way he doesn’t talk to ’em that ticks ’em off. He insults their very existence. To Marshawn Lynch, a gaggle of reporters is the least important and relevant thing about his job, and in his world he doesn’t need ’em to do his job. They have no effect on his job one way or the other.

Talking to the media is not gonna have a thing to do with how many yards he gains in a game or whatever. That’s his attitude. It’s how he goes about telling them that. You know, you can tell somebody, “Sorry, I’m not talking to you.” But, “Sorry, you’re worthless, you’re a piece of excrement, you’re out to screw me, and I’m not talking to you”? Well, they’re gonna not like you, ’cause the sports Drive-Bys think the world hinges on what they do.

For example, the sports Drive-Bys will tell you that Marshawn Lynch “owes it to the fans” to talk to the reporters. Why? Well, because it’s the media that conveys Marshawn’s message to the fans, and that means the fans will like Marshawn and like the game. So the media thinks that they are fundamentally, crucially important to the popularity of the game. Well, Marshawn Lynch is telling them (paraphrased), “Our game doesn’t need you.

“We play the game every day, and you people aren’t on the field. We win and lose, and you never make a tackle. Why should I talk to you?” You never are gonna score points by telling a journalist he’s irrelevant. You’re never gonna score points by telling a journalist that his job isn’t necessary, and that’s what Lynch does with his attitude. Now, I do the same thing. I don’t talk to ’em. That was one of the many things great about Kit. They all loved him after he told ’em “no.”

And after he told ’em “no,” they always thought maybe next time the answer’d be “yes.” Marshawn Lynch? (laughing) There is no hope. (laughing) There is no way he’s gonna change his mind. That’s the attitude that’s conveyed. That’s why I tell you about Kit. Y ou know, folks, I’ve made a big deal of this. I still get e-mails from people who don’t quite understand what’s the big deal with saying “no” to people. It’s hard to do and still remain respected, liked.

It was one of the many things Kit was just brilliant at doing. I mean, all these people he’s telling “no” to, liked him. They started off not liking me to begin with — or resenting me, what have you — because of political differences. But they all loved him, every damn one of them. He got all kinds of respect. He always took their call, and he always politely told ’em “no.” Sometimes he’d tell ’em, “Look, I’ll work on him,” meaning me. “I’ll do what I can. I wouldn’t hold out any hope. You know, he just doesn’t see any value in it.”

There’s an artful way of doing it (laughing), and Marshawn just doesn’t care about the artful. He’s a blunt-force running back. You know, if you’re in his way he’s gonna mow you down whether you got a camera, a microphone, a notepad, or you’re wearing a uniform with number 54 on it, middle linebacker.

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