RUSH: This poor safety. You know, people are angrier at this safety for the New Orleans Saints than they are about this? This poor guy. Marcus Williams is his name. He’s a rookie. He had an interception in the game. Did you see the second game yesterday? (interruption) Well… (sigh) It was a circumstance at the end of the game that nobody’s ever seen before. Well, not never seen, but I mean, nobody can remember the last time they saw anything like this. Minnesota is 30 yards away from field goal range. They’re trailing by two; there are ten seconds left.
They somehow have to complete a 30-yard pass to a guy on the sideline, get him out of bounds for one or two seconds left, or rush the field goal kicker on and kick a 50-yard field goal to win the game. And instead, Case Keenum threw the ball. It was a perfect strike to a wide receiver who caught the ball, and the safety for the Saints, all he had to do was wait. Let the guy catch the ball and knock him out of bounds or just tackle him, and the game would have been over. He mistimed his hit and he whiffed. He went low.
The receiver had to jump about three feet off the ground to catch the ball, and the safety went low. I know exactly what happened here. The coaches probably told the defense, “Whatever you do, do not commit pass interfere. Whatever you do! Let ’em catch the ball.” And the safety’s a rookie. He just mistimed it. There was no one behind him, and so the wide receiver for the Vikings had the presence of mind to stay inbounds and streak down the sideline and score the winning touchdown. It was pandemonium.
Anyway, there’s all kinds of outrage at this safety, No. 43 for the Saints, Marcus Williams. He owned up to it after the game. But it’s just amazing. I mean, there’s legitimate, real anger at this poor kid and hardly any commensurate anger over what happened out in Hawaii. Now, I know sports is more intimate, and it is precisely not politics in this instance, and that’s why… Look, I’m not denying… I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t be affected by it. It’s just, being angry at this safety… ‘Cause the Saints had the game.
They had come back from 17-to-nothing down in the second half. The lead changed three times in the last three minutes of the game. Drew Brees had mounted one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history, and they had the game won. Ten seconds left, have to complete at least a 30-yard pass to even have a chance at a long field goal — and then get out of bounds, stop the clock. Everybody in that place thought the game was over. You could hear a pin drop.
Everybody thought it was over. The Vikings thought it was over. The coaches, the players, everybody thought it was over! The fans thought it was over. Except that it wasn’t. (interruption) Well, there were people throwing their TVs out of windows, exactly right, because of this. (chuckles) If I were in Pittsburgh, I’d be throwing TVs out windows. (interruption) Well, I predicted it. Yeah, I told my golf buddies, “Jacksonville’s gonna smoke ’em.” I did. I was not surprised by that outcome in the least.
You can talk to anybody I talked to. I said, “Jacksonville’s gonna win.” I even told one of the guys that caddies. I said, “You know what? I’m not gonna play today. If the Steelers are gonna get blown out, I want to watch it instead of seeing it score by score while on the golf course.” I stayed home. I watched the game yesterday, and none of it surprised me. None of it. Not a thing. That’s what’s so distressing about it. You can throw on the Steelers all day long. My point is that this safety for the Saints, there is genuine, real anger at this guy.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Julie in Dayton, Ohio. Glad you waited. You’re next on the program. How are you doing?
CALLER: Hey. Great, Rush. First, I want to say I am basking in the Minnesota Miracle. I have been a Minnesota fan my whole life. We’ve been through a lot of disappointments. But we finally got revenge for the bounty of 2009 when they were trying to injure, on purpose, Brett Favre. So thank you Marcus Williams, thank you Case Keenum, and thank you Stefon Diggs.
RUSH: You know, it wasn’t just Favre that they were trying to take out. That bounty… You’re talking about the bounty program the Saints had, right?
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Yeah. Not the Saints, but… Yeah, the Saints had a bounty program, and it was they were trying to take out a couple wide receivers, at least according to the tapes of the defensive coordinator. I had forgotten about that. I had forgotten you were carrying that around too. That makes what happened yesterday even sweeter.
CALLER: Oh, I texted my brother last week ’cause he was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and I told him, “I hope Mike Zimmer is bringing that game up, because Minnesota fans have definitely not forgotten it.”
RUSH: Yeah, but none of the players are there anymore. That happened many, many moons ago.
CALLER: There’s one player left. There’s only one player.
RUSH: Right. One player left.
CALLER: But still, he played for Minnesota and hopefully the guys, I’m sure, playing for it now will remember what happened to them. I would hope.
RUSH: Anyway, it was a fabulous ending. That place, you could go from hearing a pin drop to utter pandemonium.
CALLER: Oh, the noise was incredible. I hope to go. My brother, our dream is to go to the Super Bowl and have the Vikings playing in their home stadium.
RUSH: Okay. So what do you think? You’ve got the Vikings going into Philadelphia to play the Eagles. I looked at the weather forecast. If what I saw is right, it’s gonna be 60 degrees Saturday in Philadelphia, which is a great benefit for the Vikings. The Vikings do not practice in the cold weather and they play in a dome. You’d think the Vikings in Minnesota would be cold weather adaptable but they’re not. And the Eagles, they’ve all got indoor facilities now, but the Eagles at least have played some games in it recently. This is a major, major assist here. I don’t know if it’s major but it’s certainly gonna take away an advantage that the Eagles might have thought they have if it is indeed that warm.
CALLER: Exactly. I agree. But the old Minnesota group, they would have probably thrived on playing in that weather years ago when they didn’t have the dome. But you’re right. Now this team that plays of late, they’re not used to playing so much in the cold, yes. I’m happy to hear that the weather forecast is gonna be somewhat promising.
RUSH: So are you worried about the Eagles at all or you think the Vikings can handle ’em?
CALLER: Ummm. (sigh) I think… What I’m kind of worried about is that sometimes when you go off such a high from a win like this, it can not be to your advantage the next game you play.
RUSH: Right, like, “The season’s over. How can we do better than this? How can we have a bigger high than what we just had?” Yeah, that’s a psychological thing. That’s gonna be up to the coaching staff.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: They gotta, as best they can, make ’em forget that. Give ’em a day to enjoy that; then refocus. I think it will be fine in that sense. I think they’re professionals and as long as, you know, someone gets to kneel during the anthem, they’ll be fine.
CALLER: Well, you know, since you bring up kneeling during the anthem… This wasn’t what I was gonna talk to you about.
RUSH: What was? What were you gonna talk about? I’ve forgotten now since we were talking about the game.
CALLER: (chuckles) Well, I was gonna talk about my first thought on Saturday when I heard about the Hawaii incident was that it was definitely on purpose that the button was pushed, because I think an incident of this magnitude just does not happen on accident. Unfortunately, I think that, you know, who knows if this fueled Kim Jong-un. I mean, I’m sure he loves seeing all the panic that occurred. I just wanted to mention, too, that I remember an interview with Trump, and somebody talked to him — interviewed him — after the inauguration.
And they talked to him about that car ride when he was with Obama and they ride in, you know, the limo together, and they had a conversation before the inauguration, and the reporter, or the interviewer asked him, you know, things that they talked about. And he kept, you know, most of it private. But they asked him if there was anything that surprised Donald Trump. And he said, “Yes, there was something that surprised me.”
RUSH: What was it?
CALLER: Well, it was who we should be worried about, and Trump didn’t say who it was, but he said he was surprised to hear who we should be worried about.
RUSH: You mean from Obama?
CALLER: From Obama.
RUSH: But we don’t know who that is?
CALLER: No, but I’m spec — and I’m just speculating, but I think it is North Korea, and I never thought of them.
RUSH: Interesting. Now you’ve got me thinking. Okay, so here I’m trying to envision this. We’ve got Trump and Obama in the short limo ride from the White House over to the inauguration, and that is… You know, I read Bret Baier’s book on Eisenhower, and Eisenhower and Truman hated each other, and the ceremony calls for the new president to show up at the White House for coffee. Coffee and tea with the outgoing president. Go in there for 10 minutes, have some yuks, and then you get in the car and head over to the inaugural.
Eisenhower refused to go in and meet Truman, the outgoing president. They literally had no love lost for each other. So but I’m picturing here now you’ve got Trump and Obama in the car on the way over there, and Obama warns Trump of a danger, and Trump says he was surprised at what Obama warned him about. But you, Julie, don’t know. You haven’t heard. Nobody reported what Obama said that Trump should be concerned about?
CALLER: Correct. No.
RUSH: Okay. You think it’s North Korea. Okay. North Korea. Okay, now I’m wondering if that’s, in fact, what Obama would warn Trump to be afraid of. I have to think about that. I’m not so sure.