Potential St. Louis Rams Owner Rush Limbaugh Declares Basketball the Sport of Gangs

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Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:07 pm

On his radio show today, talk show host, and potential future part owner of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, Rush Limbaugh declared that basketball is the favorite sport of gangs. Limbaugh said, “Midnight basketball, I mean, we’ve done it all. We’ve taken the favorite sport of gangs, and we put it at midnight to get them on the basketball court.”

Here is the audio courtesy of Media Matters:

A caller was complaining about a proposed one cent increased in her sales tax that would go towards combating gang violence, Limbaugh said, “It’s not reasonable that you should understand the insanity that local and state and federal bureaucracies are doing. It’s perfectly normal and understandable that none of what they do would make sense to you. My question — OK, a 1 cent sales tax to fight gang violence. What do you spend the money on to fight gang violence? Afterschool program — don’t we already have afterschool programs? Don’t we already have — what do you call it, extracurricular events? Midnight basketball — I mean, we’ve done it all. We’ve taken the favorite sport of gangs, and we put it at midnight to get them on the basketball court.”

Rush kept ranting, “We had 100,000 new cops with Clinton — we’ve done it all. And the problem still is out of control. Liberalism doesn’t work. I’m gonna tell you what. If they’re gonna raise the sales tax in this little — Salinas, California, wherever you’re talking about — if they’re gonna raise 1 cent sales tax to handle gang violence, then the money oughta go to the purchase of bulletproof vests for the law-abiding citizens when they leave their home.”

Wrap your mind around the fact that this man, Rush Limbaugh, thinks that his constant racial comments should not interfere with his potential ownership of a team. Comments such as this one could be look bad to a league where 70% of all the players are African-Americans.

I do wonder if Limbaugh’s past history of getting canned by ESPN for interjecting race into a conversation about Donovan McNabb, along with his regular usage of the race card on his radio show will impact his chances. However, NFL owners and players overwhelmingly donate to the GOP. The problem isn’t which Limbaugh’s politics, but the publicity that he generates from them.

I could easily see the NFL telling Rush to keep his NFL business and his talk radio business separate. I don’t see a real problem with Limbaugh being a part of an ownership group as long as he can keep his mouth closed and not bring bad publicity to the league. The Checketts group, which Limbaugh is a part of, will be one of many bidders for the team. As with all team ownership situations, money not politics will be the determining factor.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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