http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/09/09/liberalism_is_killing_the_nflLiberalism Is Killing the NFL
September 09, 2016
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RUSH: The NFL opened last night. This is not about Brandon Marshall taking a knee during the national anthem. This is gonna become a tired, worn-out story before long. You might have heard the Seattle Seahawks are planning a team protest on Sunday. (interruption) You didn't hear this? Doug Baldwin and the Seahawks players and a couple of other Seahawks players said they were toying with the idea of a total team protest against the national anthem on Sunday, which just happens to be the 15th anniversary to the day of 9/11.
Now, supposedly they've changed their minds about this, they say. The latest update about this is they're not gonna do that, but they were pondering it. We've also learned that the Seahawks have a couple people, a player and a coach who are 9/11 truthers, who believe the government flew the planes into the World Trade Center, and one of the people who believes it is the head coach, and got into an argument with a retired military man some years ago about this.
People are now saying maybe -- maybe -- the head coach was just joking. Maybe he's really not a 9/11 truther. But one of the players is, and the other players want to go along with this social injustice and all this. Anything could still happen. One of the things they like to do is... Brandon Marshall last night of the Broncos, nobody knew it was gonna happen. Come out sing the national anthem, the camera focuses on both teams and there's number 54 for the Broncos taking a knee. And nobody knew it was gonna happen.
So the Seahawks could surprise me. We'll just have to wait and see. One of the late games on Sunday is a home game in Seattle. Well, the big story the NFL game last night, get... I don't know how to do the See, I Told You So on this, because I can't pinpoint in my memory exactly when something happened that made me realize the game of football is now been corrupted by the left. It's recently. It's in the past three to four years. Last night is an illustration of what I'm talking about.
The quarterback for the Carolina Panthers is Cam Newton. He's a big guy. He's 250 pounds. That's huge for a quarterback. It's huge for a running back! It's huge for a fullback. Somebody's gonna carry the ball. He is tough to bring down. Last night Cam Newton was hit in the head by mean players on the Broncos, four or five times, helmet-to-helmet strikes -- which, in the NFL, are no longer allowed. You can't go helmet-to-helmet on anybody, particularly defenseless player, but you just can't do it.
They're trying to prevent as many concussions from taking place as they can, as they make efforts to make this game of violent collisions safer. Football is not a contact sport. Basketball is a contact sport. Football is a collision sport, violent collision sport. If you play in the offensive line or the defensive line, you and I couldn't last one play there, folks. The average human being would be on injured reserve for your career after one play. It's like being in a car wreck without the car every play.
I mean, these are really tough people that play this game. And not everybody can. There's only 1600 'em that are qualified to play in the National Football League, so the league is doing everything it can to pay attention to safety. Concussions. They made a movie about it regaling some doctor in Pittsburgh who had discovered the noted disease CTE, which can only be diagnosed in an autopsy. Anyway, Cam Newton. The hits were questionable last night. Only one of them was called as a penalty.
However, the penalty was negated because in the same play Cam Newton was accused... I'm sorry. "Accused." Football is not in a court of law. Cam Newton was penalized for intentional grounding. So those penalties offset, which in the NFL means it's as though neither happened; just replay the down. But it really is strange that an illegal hit to the head which leaves the quarterback woozy can be offset by an intentional grounding penalty, but that's what happened. Here's the upshot of it. Well, Mediaite...
This is not from a sports page. Not any sports page that you would recognize. This comes from Mediaite. "NFL Under Fire for Violent Hits Taken by Cam Newton in Season Opener -- The NFL is drawing criticism from fans, from pundits, and even several players over its handling of the multiple vicious hits to the head taken by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton in Thursday night's season opener." When was the last time can you ever recall seeing the day after any football game, a news story about the viciousness, about the violence?
About how, "This can't be allowed to go on! We gotta step in and stop this. This is outrageous. This is impermissible!" Have you ever seen anything like this in postgame reporting outside of sports media? "Perhaps the worst..." I'm reading from Mediaite. Nothing against Mediaite. Don't misunderstand here. This is cultural, folks. The game of football is never gonna be the same. This game is gonna be reviewed play-by-play within the context of our culture, social justice, political correctness. You wait. Every play...
Lawsuits are not far. It's gonna totally change the way you watch the game, the way it's reported, and the way it's played. "Perhaps the worst of the repeated shots came during the Panthers' final drive, when Denver Broncos safety Darian Stewart launched himself into Newton headfirst, making helmet-to-helmet contact. Newton was facedown in the Denver turf, unable to move for several seconds before slowly getting to his feet and finishing the drive.
"That play resulted in a penalty against Denver, but other violent shots did not -- much to the dismay of Panthers tight end Greg Olsen. We've got to treat Cam like a quarterback,' Olsen told CBS Sports. 'I know he's the biggest guy on the field, but he's still a quarterback.' ...
Fans and critics were up in arms over the fact that Newton was allowed to continue playing after all the hits and not removed from the game as part of the NFL's concussion protocol." You realize what's happening here?
I'm making no comment on it. I'm just bringing it to your attention. I'm telling you. So what happened is, the NFL has this concussion protocol. Anybody... They've got spotters in the press box that are not tied to any team. They got neurologists. They got doctors. They've got all kinds of people out there making sure that if a player even appears to have gotten a concussion, they yank him out there and they give him the concussion tests and if he fails they don't put him back in there; he's done for the day.
And they're upset that that didn't happen to Cam Newton 'cause there were clearly a bunch of different times he could have very easily had a concussion, and nobody made a move to help him -- the spotters up in the press box, the doctors, the neurologists, nobody -- and it says right here: Fans, critics, pundits, reporters up in arms over the fact that Newton was allowed to continue playing after the hits. What do you expect? It's the final drive. The Panthers are down four. They need to get into field goal range.
It's the opening game. They lost to the Broncos in the Super Bowl. Can you imagine being the person to take the Panthers' starting quarterback out of the game in that circumstance? It isn't gonna happen. Nobody wants that, just like Comey didn't want to be known as the guy that took out Hillary because of the FBI thing. Nobody's gonna step in here. But now this is a huge news story. It's bigger than who won or who lost. It's bigger than the guy that took a knee during the national anthem.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I just want to add one thing to 'em. I'll tell you what's gonna happen here. In addition to all of this hand-wringing over every play now -- you ought to see the social media on this. You ought to see the tweets on this by sportswriters outraged. Somebody needs to be suspended. The NFL needs to stop the game and throw some people out. It's just incredible.
I'll tell you what's gonna happen. Quarterbacks are now gonna be taken out. There will be teams that will decide it's worth it to get a 15-yard penalty and maybe, maybe get kicked out of the game for an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit if it gets the opposing quarterback taken out of the game.
Imagine this scenario. Pick any two teams you want. Pick a team that has a really -- I mean, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And it's a very meaningful game. The other team's coach, "You know what, we gotta get the quarterback outta the game," and the simplest way to do it you assign a bunch of defensive players helmet-to-helmet. No bounty, no bounty, just helmet-to-helmet hit cause the concussion protocol to be implemented and the starting quarterback have to be taken out of the game.
This is going to increase head shots. Head shots are going to become a strategic part of the game. And when this starts happening, you're gonna really see the sportswriter community explode. You're gonna see Twitter and social media and the rest of the media and everybody else wringing their hands. I don't want to predict when this is gonna actually happen, but it's not far down the line where you're going to be looking at football and remembering it the way it used to be. And you're going to be longing for it.
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