Why wouldn't the NFL want Limbaugh?

[mrplunkey]

Controversy sells seats. Even if you hate Rush, it would probably be a marketing coup for the league. People who hate him would be against his team. People who love him would be for his team.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I'd compare this to Al Frankin or Keith Olbermann owning a NASCAR team. I bet his team would catch hell, but there's be a lot of people ready to see someone swap paint with his car.

 

[-SD-]

because rush gots the conservative coodies
and hates bliques.

 

[calveless wonder]

i love you plunk, but jesus you are so far up the republican party's ass with no happy medium

 

[mrplunkey]

i love you plunk, but jesus you are so far up the republican party's ass with no happy medium

Set aside the specifics of Limbaugh. This is about marketing and money.

NASCAR is a seriously conservative event. There WILL be a prayer there, a pledge/national anthaem, and some sort of military show of support (recognition and fly-overs).

So what if a NASCAR team was bought by the Dixie Chicks or even Code Pink, what would I say? I'd say this is a great thing. Anything that gets people fired-up (good or bad) can only increase my viewership.

Imagine how many people who watch hoping to see Limbaugh's team fail. Now think about how many would watch hoping to see his team win. Either way, the NFL wins because people will be watching.


This is business and Business > Ideology any day of the week.

 

[EnderJE]

i love you plunk, but jesus you are so far up the republican party's ass with no happy medium

It's like wrestling or Mike Vick. Are we saying that the lives of dogs aren't worth shit and old Fat Ass is the antichrist?

 

[redsamurai]

Well there's a couple reasons Brian......all of which you're perfectly aware of. Let's see.......

1) First and foremost, the NFL is comprised of 70% black players......the days of playing for a "Massa" like Limbaugh just doesn't appeal to them. They already don't like the league for penalizing them if they so much as raise their voices in triumph after a touchdown. This one's pretty simple.

2) To kind of go along with reason 1, he's a bigot/racist....no real debate there.

3) for the above reasons, he's bad for the NFL "brand". I'm really surprised at his reaction to this because he's made a career out of complaining about affirmative action on the basis that a business owner should have the leeway to hire/fire whoever he chooses even if it's based on a superficial reason such as skin color. So in this case, the NFL has chosen not to do business with him because it could potentially affect their ad revenue.....especially "WHEN", not if, when he opens his fat trap and makes the comments he's so known for and quite frankly get's off on. The NFL is simply afraid he may at some point affect their sponsors. Valid concern. Just like NFL teams for the most part wanted nothing to do with Vick.......bad for the image.



And no, it would not increase NASCAR's ratings if Olbermann bought a team. Nobody would care. Nascar would still lick ass.

 

[Dial_tone]

I didn't see the big deal at first but Colin Cowherd spelled it out nicely. It's got nothing to do with politics. Fact is most of the owners are Republican and probably share his opinion on a lot of things. The NFL wants two things among owners - a uniform voice and QUIET.

Al Davis, Jerry Jones are high profile owners but you never hear them bad mouthing the league or teh game. The NFL doesn't want a Mark Cuban-like owner who runs his mouth about players, refs and anything else he can think of. Cuban doesn't fear the repercussions of what he says. He willingly pays whatever fines he gets. Rush would do the same because he can afford to. Even worse - he has a national radio platform to say whatever he wants, like his Donovan McNabb/the NFL wants black QB's comment, whenever he wants.

People think this is about Rush interfering with the team, not signing black players and other nonsense like that. He'll have no say in how the team is run. I bet there's 53 guys in Oakland right now that would take Rush over Al Davis any day of the week. The NFL just doesn't want to get into trying to fine him into being quiet and having to fine players who respond to whatever he says and so on and so on. Owners want it nice and quiet in the owner's box and Rush will be anything but that.

Keep in mind Mark Cuban caught all manner of flack when he wanted to buy the Chicago Cubs. He was willing to pay $300-400 million more than the next guy. Cuban did not get the team because MLB feared he would never STFU...and he's a Democrat. You're short sighted if you think this is politics.

 

[the_clockwork]

cuz his team would get worse.. they would never rush left

 

[walliwalibus]

His radio show makes for bad business.

 

[mrplunkey]

I didn't see the big deal at first but Colin Cowherd spelled it out nicely. It's got nothing to do with politics. Fact is most of the owners are Republican and probably share his opinion on a lot of things. The NFL wants two things among owners - a uniform voice and QUIET.

Al Davis, Jerry Jones are high profile owners but you never hear them bad mouthing the league or teh game. The NFL doesn't want a Mark Cuban-like owner who runs his mouth about players, refs and anything else he can think of. Cuban doesn't fear the repercussions of what he says. He willingly pays whatever fines he gets. Rush would do the same because he can afford to. Even worse - he has a national radio platform to say whatever he wants, like his Donovan McNabb/the NFL wants black QB's comment, whenever he wants.

People think this is about Rush interfering with the team, not signing black players and other nonsense like that. He'll have no say in how the team is run. I bet there's 53 guys in Oakland right now that would take Rush over Al Davis any day of the week. The NFL just doesn't want to get into trying to fine him into being quiet and having to fine players who respond to whatever he says and so on and so on. Owners want it nice and quiet in the owner's box and Rush will be anything but that.

Keep in mind Mark Cuban caught all manner of flack when he wanted to buy the Chicago Cubs. He was willing to pay $300-400 million more than the next guy. Cuban did not get the team because MLB feared he would never STFU...and he's a Democrat. You're short sighted if you think this is politics.

But all the publicity is good for the league -- not bad for it. The NFL is about showbusiness, not football. Not seizing on this opportunity to draw even more viewers into the sport seems like a terrible marketing move.

And Rush can still say whatever he wants to -- he's got over 13 million listeners (most estimates are around 20) captured five days a week for three hours straight. He's already got the ultimate bully pulpit. Even moving 10% of those listeners over to the NFL would be a huge viewership gain. The NFL doesn't even get 100M viewers for the superbowl.