I thought it was interesting to watch the Eagles game Sunday, as McNabb and the announcers basically confirmed Rush's commentary. McNabb stunk, his stats were awful, he missed wideopen receivers, he threw fastballs to guys ten feet away, he tossed two picks, but he did pull off a gutsy runlate in the game. Still it was the Iggles defense that won the game, as they harrassed the Skins qb mercilessly in the first half and ended up being responsible for two TD's.
The announcers meanwhile fell all over themselves taking shots at Rush and basically putting McNabb up for the Nobel Prize, and kept referring to the horrible week he had endured. Well, he was the one who got up and started playing the race card. He was the one who acted like questioning the media's treatment of him was tantamount to burning a cross on his front yard.
The award for biggest jackass has to go to Eagles owner Jeffrie Lurie who accused ESPN of "institutional racism" for even hring Rush. I mean it's obvious NFL Commissioner Tagliebue is a fullfledged PC drone, but to hear an owner talk this way was startling. He also suggested that the league should punish ESPN or anyone else who subjects it to unflattering coverage. Where were the ACLU censorship monitors on that one? So the league's position is that being a conservative is equivalent to being a racist? Will that be the new standard for evaluating potential owners?
I also lost any shred of respect I had for Tom Jackson and especially Chris Berman. OK, Jackson is a former player, obviously no Rhodes scholar and probably under a lot of pressure to slime Rush. The fact that he chose to do it via a cheap shot back stab instead of confront Rush like a man doesn't surprise me but it sure lowers him in my eyees.
Berman on the other hand is just a total liar and coward. He is a smart guy and the supposed professional journalist. It takes him a week to see which way the wind is blowing, then he gets up the nerve to take on Rush, again with no danger of rebuttal. What a pathetic weenie loser.
On his show today Rush revealed that the producers had urged him to make his commentary "edgier." He said he called Jackson to discuss the incident upon learning that Jackson was "upset", something that apparently took Jackson two days to discern, but that Jackson never talked to him. Rush also said that there was never any agreement he would stick to football.
A lot of listeners wanted Rush to stay and fight this thing out, and I think Rush has had second thoiughts about his decision. I think he looked at it as the class thing to do, but now sees it just made his critics look justified. One thing is certain. ESPN's ratings would have been the highest ever if they had kept him and dealt with this issue, rather than acting like a bunch of children.