RUSH: Okay. Grab sound bite number 43. Here’s the latest on this from the NFL standpoint. Here’s Commissioner Goodell this morning on the NFL Network, which they own. He’s on the program called Good Morning Football. The co-host is Nate Burleson, and he’s interviewing the commissioner. Question: “Let’s start off with reports there’s going to be a policy change in the NFL that will force players to stand during the anthem. Even the president came out and said that you were gonna force players to stand. What can you say about that?”
GOODELL: (whispering) There has been no policy change. What we plan to do is have a very in-depth discussion with our players and our owners next week and make sure we truly understand the issues and also understand the approach that we want to take together with the players to address these issues in our communities. I believe that urgency is actually beneficial. But this isn’t something that started two weeks ago. This is something that we have been focused on for well over a year. It’s hard work. It requires patience and, frankly, a deeper understanding than, frankly, we’re willing to give a lot of these issues. And I know our fans are focused on football, as well as they should be, and we want to get that focus on football. But we want to support our players, support our communities, and help make them better.
RUSH: Well… (sigh) I would love to know what you people think of that before I weigh in and characterize it. So you heard him. “There has been no policy change.” He sends a memo out; he told the owners and the executives: Look, can you do what you can? It’d be really helpful if everybody will stand up and we’ll talk about this.
But here he says, “There has been no policy change.”
So they’re continuing… I’m not gonna characterize it. I’m gonna wait for you.
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RUSH: Here’s Paul in Cape Coral, Florida. Great to have you on the program, sir. How are you?
CALLER: I’m doing fine, sir, today, Rush. Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to talk to you.
RUSH: I appreciate that, sir.
CALLER: Rush, you know, this whole thing goes back to the leftists going after what is left for ’em, ’cause they don’t have anything left but, you know, rhetoric and hate speech. And you said it two years ago. I remember listening to you. It was about two years ago when the helmet issue came up, and I was listening to you and out of nowhere you said, “Don’t doubt me on this, folks. You very well may not have an NFL in a couple of years from now. I know you’re laughing now, but mark my words.” I remember you saying that, and here we are you are the later on in an even worse position with the leftists coming after the NFL. It’s not about flags or statues or anthems or anything else. They’re coming after the Constitution.
RUSH: That’s true. They’re going after the Constitution in any number of ways. Now, your memory is right on the money. This whole thing started with concussions and the danger they were associating with player suicides and CTE and they made a movie about it, and I told people: This league is not going to be what it is at some point in the future. I didn’t specify two years ’cause I didn’t think it was gonna happen that soon. I might have said five. But what I did say is that it may not happen in our lifetimes, but this league is finished. As you know it, this league is over. Well, now, something that I didn’t even foresee is beginning to happen, and that was Kaepernick. So Kaepernick happened —
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: Pardon?
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: You add Kaepernick to the concussion issue. You have to add them. You can’t separate them. It’s all part of the same inertia here that is moving against the league. It is an oppositional force against the league, and what nobody foresaw was the players deciding to agree with Kaepernick and start protesting the very country that has made them wealthy and that affords them this opportunity — in a league that is 75% African-American. So if you add that to the concussion business and now it’s getting worse.
The deterioration is happening even faster than I thought, because it’ll it was just gonna be concussions and the left would focus on the safety and health, and now they’ve got an even better entree. Now they can go after the country — and better than that, they can have the league itself be perceived as anti-American. What a… You couldn’t have a greater success shot than this. If your objective is to present the idea that America sucks, that America’s racist, that America’s bigoted, and you want to destroy the NFL at the same time, you got a twofer here now. And as is evidenced here, the league… (snorts) They don’t know what to do.
CALLER: (silence)
RUSH: Paul, are you still with me out there?
CALLER: I sure am, but like I said over the years listening to you, that was right on, and 98.7% of the time, you’re right, and let me tell you that is spot on. It did happen a lot quicker.
RUSH: I appreciate… I want to play this Goodell sound bite for you, and I want your reaction to it. But if it would put you on spot, I don’t want to do that. But if you’d like to do this, I like to play it for you and get your reaction to it.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Do you want to go? You want to do it?
CALLER: Yes, sir!
RUSH: Okay. Here we go: The Goodell sound bite. You just heard it. I’ll play it for Paul. You know, I asked for people to react to it, but the lines are full, which means we might not get the calls who want to react to it ’til next week, and I want them now.
CALLER: (chuckles) Yes, sir.
RUSH: So the solution here is to ask existing caller. Here’s the Goodell bite. It takes about 45 seconds. Be patient. Listen to the whole thing.
GOODELL: (whispering) There has been no policy change. What we plan to do is have a very in-depth discussion with our players and our owners next week and make sure we truly understand the issues and also understand the approach that we want to take together with the players to address these issues in our communities. I believe that urgency is actually beneficial. But this isn’t something that started two weeks ago. This is something that we have been focused on for well over a year. It’s hard work. It requires patience and, frankly, a deeper understanding than, frankly, we’re willing to give a lot of these issues. And I know our fans are focused on football, as well as they should be, and we want to get that focus on football. But we want to support our players, support our communities, and help make them better.
RUSH: So what is your reaction? Are you a football fan starting out?
CALLER: Oh, absolutely! Big Buccaneers fan.
RUSH: So you are a fan, then. No question.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: So what is your reaction here to the commissioner’s statement?
CALLER: Well, the first thing that caught me was they don’t really consider this much of a problem. It is a big problem, and to me, that statement he just made right there? That’s just got Kaepernick and the rest of them are out there jumping up and down with their hands up in the air saying, “We’re winning, we’re winning,” and that’s the only reaction I got out of that. I mean, they know the anthem is about honoring the men and women that bled and died for this country. And they know that, and they’re turning it into a personal protest that they know millions of people are gonna see —
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: — getting the leftist word out.
RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The commissioner has just issued a statement here in reaction to Trump claiming victory. Trump and everybody’s out there claiming victory, and the commissioner is throwing cold water on it, saying, “No, no, no, no! There hasn’t been any policy change here. We’re not telling the players they’ve gotta stand up,” and he goes on to explain why.
CALLER: But it’s just digging more into the leftist agenda. I mean, to me, he made that statement under either leftist duress, or he has very close leftist friends.
RUSH: Well, that —
CALLER: Saying the president just can’t change football. I agree with that, but it was just… To me it was just a lackadaisical comment just to make everybody happy.
RUSH: Well… Nnnnn… He’s not making everybody happy with it. This is… (sigh) Let me see here. Look, I gotta take a break. Go through the call roster and ask anybody if anybody wants to react to this, and we’ll… (interruption) Uh… (interruption) I overreached? Okay. We’ll get to that. I want to get somebody that’s gonna react to this. Find out if there’s somebody on hold that wants specifically to react. If nobody, we’ll wait ’til we get somebody.
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RUSH: Lad in Minnesota. Welcome to the program. You want to react to this Goodell soundbite statement, correct?
CALLER: Yes, I did. I think he’s just kicking the can down the road. In think he’s trying to buy some time. I think he’s thinking that he’s made a statement now and he’s gonna see how the fans react by saying he thinks the players should stand up, but I think he’s just the kicking the can down the road and buying some time.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. You know, I put this statement in context with everything that we’ve known and learned. And up until this statement, the most recent input we had from the commissioner was the memo that we all got yesterday that he sent to club owners and executives in which he stated that he would appreciate them meeting with their teams and encouraging their players to stand. And that at the same time meetings, constructive meetings would take place on finding alternative ways for the players to continue to lodge or show their displeasure, to continue their protests, but to please let’s try to get everybody standing for the anthem.
It was not a dictate. It was not a command from the office of the commissioner. And that is why Goodell got the question. He said, “Let’s start off with reports there’s going to be a policy change in the NFL that will force players to stand during the anthem. Even the president came out and said that you were gonna force players to stand.” And that’s because of the Goodell memo yesterday, and we read it to you, and it did sound like he was asking the club owners to ask the players to stand, could we move on and find another way of doing this?
Now, asked point-blank about it this morning on the NFL Network, he said: “There has been no policy change. What we plan to do is have a very in-depth discussion with our players and our owners next week and make sure we truly understand the issues and also understand the approach that we want to take together with the players to address these issues in our communities.”
Well, the way to translate this is, “Yeah, I sent that memo out yesterday, but it wasn’t a policy change. I was asking people to cooperate with me here. But I can’t make ’em. Or I’m not gonna make ’em. I asked them to cooperate with me, and then we’ll have an in-depth discussion with the players and the owners next week to make sure we truly understand the issues.” Meaning, “We’ll let the players vent in a meeting next week, and we’ll try to come up with a way that if they want to say they hate the cops, that we give them the opportunity to keep doing so.”
That’s what he’s saying here. “If our players think their communities I hate the cops and they want to show their the displeasure with the cops or with the country or with discrimination or with bias, we want to find a way, outside of the anthem and outside of the games for our players to continue to try to, quote, unquote, improve their communities.” This is such…
“I believe that urgency is actually beneficial. But this isn’t something that started two weeks ago.” That’s a reference to Kaepernick. “This is something that we have been focused on for well over a year.” Kaepernick. He says, “It’s hard work.” We’ve been dealing with this crap for over a year and we haven’t been able to fix it. “It requires patience and, frankly, a deeper understanding than, frankly, we’re willing to give –”
Meaning, these players have a legitimate grievance and our white asses don’t understand it, and we gotta take time to make sure that we do! That’s what he’s saying here. And I’m not gonna tell these players (raspberry). They got legitimate grievances that you and I can’t understand and we’re gonna listen to ’em.
So, he’s making it clear here that the players’ grievance is the most important thing here in finding a way that they can continue to express it, hoping just not during the anthem. “Guys, could you please, we’ll give you anything, but please, not during the anthem.” That’s my take on this.
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RUSH: Rush Limbaugh, America’s Real Anchorman, America’s Truth Detector, translator of gobbledygook BS, and the Doctor of Democracy all combined in one harmless, lovable fuzzball package. 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program.
I have to tell you that my staff on the other side glass here has just had the biggest time in the last 10 to 15 minutes. They think that a couple of things I said are guaranteed to be played and looped over and over again, even on ESPN. They’re not worried about this, but they find it funny as it can be. Two things I said while dissecting Roger Goodell’s statement today on the NFL Network. And this is what I mean by translating gobbledygook BS.
I can translate diplo-speak. When people are trying not to say something, say it anyway, I’m the guy that can detect it. When they’re trying to say something, but not say it, I know when they’ve said it. And then I translate it into everyday common usage language, which I did. And they’re just having the greatest time in there. And I’ll mention it again, but before I get to that and going backwards I want to keep rolling forward here on the commissioner’s statement.
Play it again. Grab number 25. Again, Commissioner Goodell on the NFL Network today, which they own. NFL owns the network. The show Good Morning Football. Nate Burleson is the host and basically says, “Let me start off with reports there’s gonna be a policy change in the NFL that will force players to stand during the anthem.” Oh. I should add, there is a game tonight in Charlotte, the Philadelphia Eagles in town to play the Panthers, the North Carolina Panthers.
The word went out because of the Goodell memo yesterday, the Goodell memo went out that they were gonna ask — here, in the Goodell memo — where did I put this here? It actually has a statement — yes. “Like many of our fans, we believe that everyone should stand for the anthem.” This is in the memo yesterday. “It is an important moment in our game. We want to honor our flag and our country, and our fans expect that of us.” That was sent, it’s part of the memo sent to all of the owners and a bunch of execs at the teams yesterday.
Well, I mean people made some assumptions on reading and hearing this, that the commissioner had basically told the owners and their executives, “Hey, get the players standing, okay? Stand up for the anthem.” Well, a lot of people are worried the players are gonna stand. And so they’re planning on ancillary protests at the game tonight, hoping to attract the attention of the sports Drive-Bys. And one of those groups is a bunch of pastors.
“In Charlotte tonight, however, all eyes will be off the field as a large number of civilians have indicated that they will be participating in their own ‘kneel-in’ protest outside of Bank of America stadium. ‘Nearly 100 pastors and community leaders plan to hold a Kneel-In protest outside Bank of America Stadium before the start of the Carolina Panthers-Philadelphia Eagles NFL football game on Thursday night. The protest intends to highlight ongoing police brutality and social and racial injustice, just as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did while the national anthem was played before a 2016 NFL game.”
This is a quote from Bishop Kevin Long of the Temple Church International-Charlotte in words he gave to the Charlotte Observer: “These things have yet to be properly addressed in our judicial system and the like,” which makes my translation of the Goodell statement right on the money, Mr. Snerdley.
They’re worried that the players aren’t gonna kneel now because of the Goodell memo yesterday, so they’re gonna have a kneel-in outside of the stadium and they’re inviting the sports Drive-Bys to come televise it. So with that as added information, let’s go back to the Goodell statement this morning on the NFL Network.
GOODELL: (whispering) There has been no policy change. What we plan to do is have a very in-depth discussion with our players and our owners next week and make sure we truly understand the issues and also understand the approach that we want to take together with the players to address these issues in our communities. I believe that urgency is actually beneficial. But this isn’t something that started two weeks ago. This is something that we have been focused on for well over a year. It’s hard work. It requires patience and, frankly, a deeper understanding than, frankly, we’re willing to give a lot of these issues.
RUSH: Stop the tape. In other words, there’s more going on here than our white asses can understand and we gotta be patient and take the time to figure out what it is. Just don’t do it during the anthem! We’ll work with you. We’ll let you educate us. But don’t do it during the anthem. That’s what he’s saying there.
Now, there’s one other aspect — and that’s what the staff thinks is so hilarious. They think even that’s gonna be on ESPN. I don’t care. I’m almost getting too famous to be on any other show but this anyway. Any other show that puts me on distracts from that show. Any show that puts me on causes that audience to ask, “Why isn’t Limbaugh on this show every time?”
Joe Lockhart is now the PR director for the NFL, and he’s a Clintonista. And I think Lockhart is working with Goodell. The question was, “Let’s start off by reports that there’s going to be a policy change in the NFL.” Goodell didn’t answer that question. Goodell said, “There has been no policy change.” He wasn’t asked if there had been. He was asked if there was gonna be, and he didn’t answer that. And this is not splitting hairs. This is why I see the stitches on the fastball. I can tell if it’s a curveball or a slider headed my way when it’s words that people are uttering.
Goodell says there has been no policy change. That’s a message to the players, “Don’t freak on me. There’s no mandate. We just really want you to stand, just this weekend, and then we’ll try to figure something out where if you hate the cops, we’ll give you a way to say you do, but just don’t do it during the anthem.” (interruption) Well, hate the cops, what did these ministers say? “The protest intends to highlight ongoing police brutality and social and racial injustice.” Don’t complain to me when I properly translate what people are saying.
But the rest of this Goodell statement here — I’ll finish it myself. “And I know our fans are focused on football, as well they should be, and we want to get the focus on football, but we want to support our players and support our communities and help make them better.” And that, again, is, if the players want to express their disgust with the cops and with racial inequality, then we’re gonna find a way to let ’em do it. Just not during the anthem!
Now, my question is, what is the purpose of the NFL? What is the goal of the National Football League? Excuse me. I’ve got a frog in my throat here. We had a caller talk about Robert Kraft, who owns the Patriots. Why does Robert Kraft own the Patriots, is another way of asking the question. Why does Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys own the Dallas Cowboys? It’s another way of asking the question, what is the one goal of the owners, the purpose of the NFL and its members.
And back to Goodell’s statement, “I know our fans are focused on football, as well they should be, and we want to get that focus on football, but we want to support our players, support our communities and help make them better.” So let me answer my own question: What is the one goal of the NFL and its owners? Let me give you some multiple choice answers here and you tell me which one you think is the answer. I’ll even let you choose two of them. Ready?
Profits. What’s the one goal the NFL. Number one, profits.
Number two, playing football.
Number three, to have fun.
Number four, kind of a subset of number one: To sell merchandise and products, like Tom Brady toilet seats.
Number five, entertainment.
Is this why the NFL exists?
Employing hundreds of thousands and providing them health care?
Supporting floundering TV networks?
And finally, changing things in the community. That’s what Goodell said they want to do. They want to get back to football, but they want to support the players and their communities and help make ’em better. Is that why the NFL exists, to change things in communities and make them better? If you ask me, that is the one thing that is not the NFL’s job. (background noise) That noise you hear is the printer, which has been broken since July, and we have constant attempts to fix it going on irrespective of whether I’m on the air or not. Shows you where I rank in the hierarchy here. (laughing) No. No solution since — well, 1st of August.
Changing things in the community, making things in the community better. To me, that’s the one thing that it’s not. All these other things, supporting floundering TV networks, all these other things could be related to the overall purpose, which is profit. The overall purpose is making money. Now, all those others I mentioned are subsets or subsidiaries.
But changing things in the community? Come on! That is not why anybody buys a team in the NFL. It might be in the future, you know, some Millennial scores big and wants to own an NFL team and might actually think the purpose is to change things in the community. The guy will never win a Super Bowl, but he may not care to. I mean, people are different. But right now the people that currently own these teams are not in it to lose money, change communities. It’s the one thing that’s not their job.
But the players, well, they don’t own anything. And they don’t really care about profit because they get paid whether there is one or not ’cause they have contracts. When you get right down to it, they don’t care. I’ve even heard current players who are leaders of the union say, “I don’t care about the league 10 or 15 years from now. I’m not gonna be in it.”
Wait a minute, I ask, what about union solidarity? What about preparing a system that will continue to provide for players long after you’ve gone? “I don’t care about that. It’s not my business. I don’t own it,” said one union member in the players association. The players, some of them, want to use the NFL as a platform, a platform they do not own. And I don’t even think they’re about changing things in the community.
I think they’re simply about raising hell, ’cause this is not changing anything in the community. This is just driving the people away that you want to reach. This is just causing this league to lose influence and lose its power and to lose whatever respect. What the players are doing, the people that play the game are driving customers away. The people that play the game are the ones inflicting damage on it, while they claim they want to improve and change their communities.
I will admit it is a noble dream. It is a noble objective. But it’s fruitless. This is not how you do it. And there’s ample evidence in American history to show this is not how you do it. Which I have to think the organizers know, which means there’s a whole other reason why all this is happening. And I maintain the primary target in all of this is in fact the NFL and not cops and not bad communities and not social injustice or any of that.
The target of all of this is the NFL. They’re the effort here. They’re the entity that has been targeted for damage. And I hear some of you out there shouting, “Rush, you really the players, they get paid by this, do you think they’re really trying to hurt?” I don’t think the players think that’s what they’re doing. But there might be a couple who do who might have piles and piles of resentment for who knows what and wouldn’t mind, while they’re getting paid, knowing they’re only gonna get paid for two, three, five, 10 years max, depending on their level of anger.
How many of you people have hated the boss in your lives? That’s something that every employee has in common, at one time or another. And if you work in radio. (laughing) Every day.