RUSH: I want to spend just a couple of minutes here on the Super Bowl, congratulate the Hunt family, Clark Hunt, mother, Norma, the head coach Andy Reid, number 15, Patrick Mahomes. It really turned out to be a good game to watch. The first time in 50 years the Chiefs have been back.
A lot of the conventional wisdom about the game did not materialize, meaning media predictions. It was not the high scoring romp that everybody thought it was gonna be. It was a fantastic evening, despite television’s best efforts to screw it up. Did you watch any of the pregame show? You know, when these games start, the players are rusty, the players are nervous. The first five or 10 minutes of every Super Bowl, little fumble here, bad pass there, incomplete, what have you. They’re sitting around on the field for 15 minutes waiting for the game to kick off.
Meanwhile, all these promotions are taking place and advertiser-related things are taking place to delay the start of the game. It’s getting more and more cluttered in the pregame every year. And I think the NFL had better be careful because they’re forgetting the reason they’re there. It’s the game. It’s the players. And the game and the players are beginning to take second fiddle to some of the other promotional stuff that’s — I mean, you can’t give away all of it, don’t misunderstand.
I mean, they brought those players out for the Kobe Bryant ceremony. That was botched. Nobody knew what they were doing. The moment of silence lasted three seconds. Did you catch that? And then the players broke down and they both left the field, both teams left the field because they had to leave the field to come back on the field for player introductions.
And then the anthem and — speaking of the anthem, the speaking of the pregame, can we say victory? What did the NFL focus on in the pregame? The flag, with the 49ers in the game. Colin Kaepernick opposes the flag, kneeled down, didn’t like the flag. The NFL makes a big deal about the flag. They played Johnny Cash’s Ragged Old Flag song in its entirety in the pregame. A major, major political victory. And, hey, they politicized it, not us.
The halftime show’s another thing. One other thing on this before we go. There is a show on Fox & Friends Weekend on Sunday, Brian Kilmeade went to the next tent. Everybody was down there in South Beach and near the stadium at the same time and Fox had the broadcast rights, so the Fox game broadcast team was in one tent, Fox News was in a nearby tent.
Kilmeade decided to go do a behind-the-scenes feature on what the Fox pregame show is as it’s being assembled. You got Howie Long back there, you got Terry Bradshaw, Curt Menefee, and Jimmy Johnson. And when he got to Jimmy Johnson, Jimmy Johnson’s talking about his first Super Bowl and mentioned me. Every time I have run into Jimmy Johnson, Jimmy Johnson mentions me and what happened in his first Super Bowl in 1994-’95.
It was the first two of Super Bowls over the Buffalo Bills, and it was in Atlanta. Now, that Super Bowl — of all the things for him to remember, but it’s made some indelible print on his brain. When the Cowboys won the NFC championship game going to the Super Bowl, Jimmy Johnson announced that he was not gonna bring his parents.
Remember this? He didn’t want to bring his parents. He bought them a brand-new, gigantic TV and told them to stay home and watch the game ’cause there’s all these distractions at the Super Bowl. He wouldn’t be able to spend much time with ’em.
USA Today did a story on it, and I praised Jimmy Johnson. This is a very mature thing to do. He’s gonna be tugged in whole different ways. He’s not gonna have much time to himself, and all the demands are gonna be placed on him would indeed be distractions, and it’s the rare person that would tell family, “Hey, you know, we’ll celebrate after this week. Here’s a new TV. Watch the game on TV. Don’t come here. It’s gonna be a zoo. I’m not gonna be able to hang out.”
I was praising him. Well, on the sideline of that game, Jimmy Johnson comes out with the Cowboys. I’m there with Steve Sabol of NFL Films, and Johnson comes up (impression), “Boy, my mama is ticked at you,” and I said, “Why?” “Well, telling her to stay home.” I said, “Coach, I’m all for what you did. I think it was a great move. I think it’s a very mature move.” He laughed about it. He laughs every time it comes up.
When that Super Bowl comes up, he mentions the story that (laughing) I told his mama not to come. It was him! I was… I don’t know if he thinks I was being critical of his decision or not, but I was praising his decision. You know how tough that is to do, to tell your family, “Look, we only got a week down here, and it’s gonna be a zoo, and I’m not gonna be able to spend a lot of time with you.
“Your feelings are gonna be hurt. Here’s a brand-new TV. Watch it on that at home. We’ll get together later”? So he mentions this. In fact, here it is. It’s… Dah-dah-dah. What’s the sound bite number? (interruption) It’s 18. Here it is. Kilmeade. It happened at about three minutes into a five- or six-minute piece.
JOHNSON: My first Super Bowl, I caught a lot of flak because I told mother and daddy to stay at home. And Rush Limbaugh says, “You told your mother and daddy not to come to the Super Bowl?” I said, “This is an important game. I don’t want any distractions.” Now, I did bring them to the second Super Bowl.
RUSH: Yeah. So he thinks that I was criticizing him for it, and I never was. I was praising him for it. I thought it was a very, very mature thing to do. So, anyway, congratulations to the Chiefs. This is a big deal. The founder of the Chiefs, Lamar Hunt, created the American Football League when they wouldn’t let him in the NFL, and he coined the term “Super Bowl.”
His daughter was playing back in the day with a little plastic black ball called the Super Ball, and he said, “Oh, Super Bowl,” and it’s just a great thing for everybody involved. The 49ers will be back. They’re a young team with a great coach and everything. It turned out to be one heck of a game and one heck of a night for everybody involved, other than the 49ers losing. That’s always tough to do.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here is Pat in Melbourne Beach, Florida. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, thank you for taking my call and for all you do. I love you. But I’m calling because I was really appalled watching the halftime show yesterday, the pole dancing, the crotch shots, the tongue flicking, and the audacity they had to even involve children with this. There was so —
RUSH: Wait a minute. Did you know that those were Hispanic children and they were in cages?
CALLER: Yes, I saw that, and I found it to be disgusting. I mean, these are the people who support the #MeToo movement, and yet they had no problem with the exploitation of women on stage. And, of all things, Jeb Bush came out and said it was the best halftime show he’s ever seen. I know many in my family and friends —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: I guess that’s what getting three delegates will do for you with a hundred million.
CALLER: Well, what was your opinion of this, Rush?
RUSH: I thought, are we back to objectifying women now? Is it okay? If you’ve got people like J.Lo and Shakira flashing it all, leaving very little to the imagination, going through all this, then what is this — and, I’ll tell you, it didn’t happen in a vacuum.
Then you go to the commercials, how many commercials were there in this Super Bowl about how women are still being victimized and they need to empower themselves by sticking together. And Kathryn saw one and looked at me, “I resent this notion, I resent the idea that women have to band together in order to do anything that’s achievement worthy. This is silly.” It didn’t work with her. But I think it was full of mixed messages.
CALLER: Right. I also thought it was the worst commercials I have ever seen. I couldn’t understand half of them. Maybe I’m getting too old.
RUSH: No, you know what? I thought the same thing. I asked myself that. Am I generationally beyond where the country is? I think a bunch of corporate marketers, because of media and because of Twitter, are totally misjudging the mainstream of American culture. I do not believe the mainstream of American culture is as touchy-feely, as insecure and so frightened of living life and getting up every day as portrayed in so many of these commercials last night.
CALLER: I sure miss the day of the Clydesdale horses, Rush, I love those.
CALLER: I sure do. Those were the best, and I sure wish Bud would bring ’em back, I tell you. But I guess they won’t.
RUSH: Well, a different bunch now runs Budweiser. Look, the halftime, it’s been trending this way. Just in context with the #MeToo movement, Jeffrey Epstein would have probably loved the damn show. Is that what they’re shooting for?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You know, we were talking about Super Bowl commercials earlier. Trump had a great one yesterday in the early part of the game. I’ll play the audio for you. It’s a great video commercial. But there was more outreach to the black community in this commercial by the Trump campaign than there has been by the Democrat Party in I don’t know how long.
Nothing that the Democrats are promising to fix for you ever gets fixed. Everything just gets worse and your complaints remain the same. So one of the big things, criminal justice reform. A big deal in the African-American community, the belief that the incarcerated in America are largely, the percentage base is out of whack to the mainstream population.
A lot of people, “Hey, it’s not about that. It’s about who’s found guilty and who does the time.” But African-Americans believe the system is corrupt. The point is they have been after the Democrat Party to do something about this for who knows how long, and they’ve got nothing but a bunch of lip service. And while they’ve gotten nothing, they’ve seen the Democrat Party bend over backwards and forwards, whatever direction they can for illegal immigrants and making sure that they’ve got welfare, making sure they’ve got free this and free that.
So Trump has come along, jobs for African-Americans is way up, African-American unemployment a 50-year all-time low. And African-American approval for Trump in three different polls hovers around 34%. Same thing with Hispanics. So the ad that ran is a campaign ad, and it has Alice Johnson, who was falsely imprisoned and was released because of Trump’s legislation. Let’s listen to the audio of the ad. Alice Johnson, sentenced to serve life in prison.
JOHNSON: I’m free to hug my family. I’m free to start over. (on screen graphic: “Politicians talk about criminal justice reform.”) This is the greatest day of my life. (on screen graphic: “President Trump got it done.”) My heart is just bursting with gratitude. (on screen graphic: “Thousands of families are being reunited.”) I want to thank President Donald John Trump. (cheering starts) Hallelujah!
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Thank you, thank you, thank you!
THE PRESIDENT: I’m Donald Trump, and I approve this message.
RUSH: It’s a powerful visual, and I didn’t read early enough. The text, the graphic over the beginning said, “Alice Johnson was sentenced to serve life in prison for a nonviolent drug offense,” life. “Thanks to President Trump, people like Alice are getting a second chance.” That’s the criminal justice reform. And it’s true.
They talk a great game and they’ve got the Reverend Jackson and the Al Sharptons and they run around and they do the hustle, all of the racial instances that allows the Democrats to keep calling the Republicans and conservatives racists and all that. But, if Trump can peel off just 10% or 15% of the African-American vote — and this ad, believe me, if you saw it, it was — well, it was worth a rewind. You know, I missed it. I had somebody say, “Did you just see the Trump ad?” I said, “No.”
Look, I can hit the rewind here on the VCR. Not the VCR, the DVR. And it was worth the rewind to watch it.
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