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Brian Troutman
Limbaugh: Comments Misunderstood Radio talk show host and media personality Rush Limbaugh has been the center of controversy at numerous points in his 15-year career as a national figure. Few people can rival Rush’s ability to polarize a group; he is detested by liberals and embraced by conservatives. In September, Limbaugh was added to sports network ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown as a commentator, and on September 28, he made comments regarding Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb and the media’s treatment of racial issues in sports. Conventional wisdom and the media coverage quickly claimed that Limbaugh was being a bigoted racist, but further examination reveals that this damaging assumption is completely untrue. As listeners to his daily afternoon radio program are aware, Rush is an avid football fan, and his addition to Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN was not totally illogical. While some sportscasters present for Limbaugh’s controversial remarks and numerous other sports journalists would claim (after the fact) that putting Rush Limbaugh on the sports program was an irresponsible publicity stunt on the part of ESPN, asserting that Rush was a political activist in a sportscaster suit, Limbaugh did have a strong interest in the sport, even if it had not been exercised in the professional venue of sports journalism. In addition, this foray into sports broadcasting is not Limbaugh’s only one: in 2000 he was tried out for a commentator spot on ESPN’s fellow Disney property, ABC Monday Night Football, but he was passed over in favor of high brow comedian Dennis Miller. The events of that fateful Sunday NFL Countdown episode unfolded innocently enough, but they struck many viewers and participants alike by surprise. Limbaugh and his ESPN cohorts were discussing the shortcomings of the Philadelphia Eagles offense. Commenting on quarterback Donovan McNabb and the media’s treatment of him, Limbaugh stated, “I don’t think he’s been that good from the get-go. I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.” Sunday NFL Countdown wrapped quickly to a commercial, and Rush’s comments received almost no attention for the rest of the program. One thing that became immediately obvious: the silence of the rest of the broadcast team was a testament to the lack of racism in Limbaugh’s comments. Although fellow Sunday NFL Countdown panelist Michael Irvin would later point out that show producers were signaling to end the segment due to time constraints, Irvin or any other of the show’s commentators did have the ability to challenge Rush’s comments later on in the program. It wasn’t until after some in the public interpreted the remarks as racist that the other Sunday NFL Countdown hosts would come around to try and counter the “racist” argument. One of the central elements necessary to understand the actual nature of Limbaugh’s comments is to realize that he made two separate statements. One of the statements indicated that McNabb was not only overrated, but given credit for the successes of the defense of the Eagles. The other statement attested that the media desired a black quarterback to do well. While these two statements may appear to be the same, the differences between the two eliminate the supposed racism in Limbaugh’s comments. Although it is somewhat subjective, Rush’s claim that McNabb had not been a good quarterback and therefore overrated is verifiable to a certain degree. Donovan McNabb is rated as being in the lower half of NFL quarterbacks. Since starting with the Eagles in 2000, the Eagles’ offense has never ranked higher than 10th in yardage gained. Conversely, the Eagles’ defense has never ranked lower than 10th in yards allowed. Clearly, the Eagles have a disparity between their offense and defense, and this was illustrated in 2002’s NFC championship, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced off against Philadelphia’s Eagles. Many analysts agree that the two defenses were evenly matched, but Donovan McNabb was no match for the Buc’s defense as much as Brad Johnson was for the Eagle’s defense, and Tampa won the game with a score of 27-10. Statistics do support Limbaugh’s remarks about McNabb as a quarterback. Limbaugh’s second assertion was that the media was “overly desirous” that a black quarterback do well, and that this resulted in unwarranted favorable coverage of McNabb. When examined, this comment is not an indictment of McNabb; it is an indictment of the media. Rush was thereby claiming that the media was the racist. According to Limbaugh, those in sports journalism were the ones that could not separate the race from the player. Rush Limbaugh would have rathered that coverage be based on the abilities of the quarterback, and not on his race. The media frenzy which ensued only served to obfuscate the true matter at hand. While many in the media felt as if they were exposing Limbaugh as the racist they believe him to be, it was Limbaugh who was trying to expose the racism of the media. What Rush didn’t account for was that any statement made by a conservative which in any way involved race would be interpreted as being racist.
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