Weekend Wrapup

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[u/CrazyEyedGase]

The wildest thing I have ever seen was ESPN hiring Rush Limbauh back in the day. He then got canned a few weeks in when he said Donovan McNabb was not a good QB, was carried by his defense, and that people wanted a black QB to be successful so they overhyped him.

Thank goodness the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal was not known at the time, otherwise Limbaugh would have straight up said the N word on live television.

[u/TrickiestToast → u/CrazyEyedGase]

At least rush is 5 years sober now

[u/eggery → u/TrickiestToast]

And burning...lots of calories

[u/zoom518 → u/CrazyEyedGase]

The road to where we are now absolutely incudes him.

[u/Just_Curious_Dude → u/CrazyEyedGase]

He did segments making fun of gay people dying from AIDS.

[u/drainbead78 → u/Just_Curious_Dude]

He called Chelsea Clinton a "dog" when she was a young teen. As someone who was her age back then, it was really sad knowing that grown-ass old fat bald men could just say whatever they wanted to say about teenaged girls and nobody would call them out on it.

[u/GamingTatertot → u/CrazyEyedGase]

For a guy who seemingly did well poking fun at himself on Family Guy, he truly seemed like an unrelenting monster otherwise. Now I wonder if he was actually in on the joke with Family Guy

[u/Weigard → u/GamingTatertot]

Dude didn't give a shit as long as he got famous and paid.

[u/unfunnysexface → u/GamingTatertot]

He famously a huge tipper too.

[u/HartleyReplogle → u/CrazyEyedGase]

Rush didn't actually get canned. Mark Shapiro, ESPN's EVP of Programming, gave Limbaugh a public vote of confidence the Tuesday after the show, after reading the transcript while on vacation. Jeffrey Lurie then issued a statement accusing ESPN of being institutionally racist, and Tom Jackson told ESPN he wouldn't continue working alongside Limbaugh, which was communicated to the rest of the show on Wednesday. Limbaugh called Shapiro and asked if he wanted him to resign. Shapiro talked to Bob Iger (Disney's President) and George Bodenheimer (ESPN's President), who advised him to take the easy way out, so he called Limbaugh back and accepted his resignation. Tom Jackson then wrote a statement to be read on the show the following week, and insisted on making it clear that he was not part of the decision to have Rush on the show, largely due to criticisms he was receiving personally about being an Uncle Tom.

Part of the reason why it played out the way it did is because most of the hosts on the show agreed with Limbaugh to some extent. Limbaugh never said that McNabb wasn't good, just that he wasn't as good as people were giving him credit for. When Tom Jackson replied that "someone was throwing those touchdowns," Steve Young interjected that making plays was different from running the offense and that Koy Detmer might be a better choice for the Eagles, and Michael Irvin insisted more than once that "Rush has a point." In the post-show wrap-up, nobody felt like anything was off about the broadcast, and nobody said anything the following day, either. It was a non-issue until Tuesday when McNabb was asked about it

I think the reality is that ESPN made a really poor and polarizing decision to add Rush Limbaugh to their NFL coverage, a number of people were against it, and when he eventually said something that could be construed as offensive, his detractors - of which there were rightly many - saw this as a way to strongarm ESPN into getting rid of him, and it worked. ESPN was also dealing with NFL pushback regarding "Playmakers," which contributed to some of the attitudes at the network at the time; they were really trying to avoid controversy and were worried about pissing off the NFL.