Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [270]
Here’s the deal: I think that the NFL, like Major League Baseball and the NBA, is a monopoly. A monopoly is by definition a bully. They can bully anybody they want, any way they want. That’s the power that they’ve been given. Maybe that’s why there are very few things to which we grant monopoly status in this country.
GARY BETTMAN:
After they did Playmakers and the NFL threw a fit, I was having lunch with Shapiro, and he said to me, “If you’re going to have a work stoppage next year, how about if we do the equivalent of Playmakers for hockey? It’ll be good exposure for the game.” I looked at him and said, “Are you kidding me? Do you think we’re that dumb?”
Of the many irate voices raised in perpetual outrage on America’s talk-radio stations, few were as powerful or controversial in the 1990s and in the new millennium as Rush Limbaugh, the opinionated conservative heard in 650 markets worldwide. Hoping to capitalize on Limbaugh’s popularity—even though it meant a complete about-face from ESPN’s usual avoidance of political content—John Walsh signed Limbaugh in 2003 for a coveted slot on Sunday NFL Countdown after pursuing him for more than a year.
It was a bold, adventurous idea, and it only took three weeks for it to collapse completely.
With considerable promotional fanfare, and after much debate about whether Limbaugh was an appropriate choice, the talk star who sometimes called his followers dittoheads made his NFL Countdown debut on September 7, 2003. On September 28, during a discussion of Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, Limbaugh said, “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 this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.”
Oddly or not, backlash was not immediate. None of the other Countdown members said anything that day, but that Tuesday, reacting to Limbaugh’s comments, McNabb himself said, “It’s sad that you’ve got to go to skin color. I thought we were through with that whole deal.” Following the comments, Democratic presidential candidates Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, and Al Sharpton all urged ESPN to fire Limbaugh. Similarly, the National Association of Black Journalists demanded that ESPN cut Limbaugh loose.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, Radio Personality:
The first time I’d been approached about coming to ESPN, we couldn’t figure out what to do. I was talking with John Walsh, and he told me they had this idea that they’d put me in the studio show as a fifth person, not on the main panel but off to the side at my own desk. I would be ostensibly the voice of the fan in the studio, and during the discussion segments throughout the two-hour show, if there was any time I wanted to interrupt and disagree or offer another point to what the professionals were saying, then I would hit a buzzer and on the screen there would be a red flag being thrown, like I was a referee throwing in, and I would then enter the discussion.
I had also tried out for ABC’s Monday Night Football the year Dennis Miller got it. I auditioned with Al Michaels. Don Ohlmeyer was back producing and I went out to L.A. with a tape of a Buffalo Bills–Tennessee Titans playoff game. I didn’t get the gig because Don said, “You’ve got a radio show. I got production meetings all day on Monday. I just don’t think you have the time to do it.” I think he was also a little afraid of the reaction if I’d gotten that job. That was okay by me. Don and Al have since become two of my closest friends.
Once I got on the show, I dealt mostly with John Walsh and Norby Williamson, who said to me after a couple weeks, “We need to punch things up. You don’t need to be afraid here. We don’t expect you to be an x’s and o’s football guy.” So I got the impression that they were a little bored.
Before the McNabb game, we