Why Rush Limbaugh Is On ESPN And Why There Are Few African-Americans

[Yavin4]

as coaches.

There's one simple explanation for both: ESPN and the NFL are scared too death that the NFL is getting "too Black".

Let me clear from the start, I don't think that Blacks are superior athletes or any other racial nonsense. What I am saying, which is verified by the numbers, is that the NFL has more African-American players than White players. I think that the racial disparity has a lot more to do with socio-economic factors, like access to a quality education and access to jobs, than racial genetics. If you have the height and skills of a LeBron James, then the world beats a path to your door to see that you play in the NBA. However, an African American student that shows academic promise in poor public school is completely ignored by the system.

So, in order to keep White males from switching away to NASCAR, both ESPN and the NFL are trying to keep the media-beloved "Angry White Male" watching football. That's why Dennis Erickson got the SF 49er job over Denny Green, even though Denny has a better win/loss record. That's why Jack Del Rio and Mike Tice got coaching jobs over African-American assistant coaches that have longer tenures in their positions.

And, this is why ESPN hired Rush. Rush's job is to convince those Angry White Males that African Americans of prominence in the NFL is due to political correctness, not merit, which is completely absurd. Tell me, the Green Bay Packers allowed the Michael Vick-led Atlanta Flacons to beat them in the playoffs because the NFL wants to "promote African-Americans". ESPN knew full well of what they were doing by hiring Rush.

[supernova]

1. HST redeems ESPN

the only thing that redeems ESPN for me -- not a big sports fan to start with -- is that every Monday I get my healthy dose of Hunter S Thompson at the ESPN web site.

If we could get some of Rush's AWM eyeballs reading Hunter's "Hey, Rube" column, now that would open some eyes. :crazy:

[Jack The Tab]

2. You may have something here...

I never really thought about it because I'm not much of a Football fan, but the angry white males do seem to gravitate towards NASCAR and golf.

[mojowork_n]

3. He's just a mean, evil sunuvacrocodile.

I turn on his radio show once in a while to piss myself off. Not about the same things he's pissed off about, but how he's leading people around who mostly don't have the time or experience of thinking independently to know better.

Anyway, the worst thing I ever heard him say was a few weeks ago. He drew it out a little bit, just playing with the words, savoring the delicious fulfillment of a personal fantasy... "Folks, thiiiis just in, it hasn't been coroborated, but a SKY NEWS report has just released a report that a plane has gone down in Scotland. The Dixie Chiiicks are said to be on board..."

The Chicks are still with us. I didn't see any reports of any planes having gone down in Scotland. The asshole just liked tantalizing his audience...

[VermontDem2004]

4. You may not know the story behind those coach hiring

The manager of the 49ers probaly believed that Erickson ran a better system then Green, Erickson didn't have the talent he has now when he coached the Seahawks, it is only 4 weeks into the season and only 3 points in two games is the only thing seperated his record from being 3-1 to being 1-3. Also, Mike Tice is now 4-0 with the Vikings and finished last season with a winning streak after a dismal start. I think Owners should be able to hire who they feel is the most qualified without being required to interview a miniroty coach.

[tishaLA]

8. Gimme a Break

The NFL owners themselves installed the interviewing process because 2/3 of them saw that there was too little representation of African Americans in head coaching positions (and in coordinator positions, too). If they have GMs who can't follow NFL policy, too bad. The league recycled mediocre coaches like Mora et al for a LONG time. Interviewing a "minority" coach is the owners' reasonable response to the league's bad hiring practices.

[democracyindanger]

5. Umm

No. The NFL definitely has problems as far as blacks in head coaching and front office positions, but it has more to do with the old-boy-network still alive among the upper echelon of team managements than any fear that white NFL fans are going to stop watching. As for ESPN, somebody in programming may have an agenda by hiring Limbaugh, but not out of any worry that the "NFL is getting too Black." If that were true, they wouldn't have hired Michael Irvin for this season.

And I can't speak on Del Rio and Tice, but Dennis Erickson got the Whiner job because Walsh wanted somebody he could control, which wouldn't have been Denny Green. It was about personality, not skin color.

[VermontDem2004]

6. Or they wouldn't of had

Sterling Sharpe on years ago, or they wouldn't of hired TJ. And CBS wouldn't of had Deion to do their pregame show.

[jobycom]

7. I think you are dead on on about 80% of that

The NFL and ESPN are afraid--aka Jimmy the Greek-- that the face of football is becoming too black. They are afraid it will be too much like the NBA to be marketable to the NASCAR crowd. And so they do try to lighten it up a bit, so to speak.

At the same time, they don't want to lose their black audience, so they try to please both groups without offending the other. I don't think this is completely conscious-- I think some of it is just what's been called a "black tolerance" level. Many of the people in control want fairness, and want to see black atheletes given their due, and given coaching positions, and even ownership positions. But at some point ESPN, the NFL, and other sports-related entities just feel uncomfortable at the number of non-white faces, and have to go a little white. So they hire Limbaugh, feeling he targets a market segment they are not fully utilizing, or some such PR nonsense.

But I don't think that's what's happening with black coaches. I think that has more to do with plain old racial prejudice. Owners, most of whom are old enough to have lived during segregation, just don't quite feel as comfortable with a black coach. These owners are generally wildly successful or lucky business people who are used to going on gut feelings, and they look at a black applicant and a white applicant and just feel that the white one is better, for some intangible reason. That intangible is race-- they feel more comfortable with their own. Which is why we need black ownership of teams, and a stronger incentive/penalization program by the NFL towards hiring minority coaches. We need to break the bias.

I believed ESPN was just trying to hire a dynamic, energetic announcer when they hired Limbaugh. I thought they would keep politics out of sports. But they haven't, so far. And so far they are defending him. Which makes me not so sure about their original motives. Either way, their current intentions are clear. They don't care about the integrity of their programming, only about their numbers, and maybe some deeper agenda, conscious or not.

Good post, Yavin4.