Simmons: Rush Had Right to Bid for NFL’s Rams
Russell Simmons, the businessman, philanthropist and hip-hop impresario, has done a lot in his time to bridge America’s white/black racial divide. Now Simmons (pictured) is defending conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, who was just forced out of a bid to buy the NFL’s St. Louis Rams for allegedly making racist remarks on his popular radio show. “I don’t know, he should be able to buy” into the team, Simmons said in Dallas today. “Yeah–why not? I think it’s up to the players to play for him or not! I don’t think he was really making policy. Americans have a right to their own opinions.”
Simmons’ take was somewhat surprising, since it came just days after a piece he wrote for the Huffington Post ripped people like Limbaugh for their “nasty” and “hateful” views on things in general. “One thing I think I did wrong in that article, I said ‘fearful and angry people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.’ I wish I hadn’t done that,” Simmons said today. “Because I’m friends with [FOX honchos] Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, too. I think they’re wonderful guys and they have an opinion. I think some of it–their choices–are based a little more on fear; that’s my opinion. Some of what they believe is important and useful, and it’s different from what I believe, and more important and useful than my views on certain subjects.”
Simmons was in town for a pre-event reception tonight for Dallas Rocks, a Nov. 14 fundraiser here for his Diamond Empowerment Fund nonprofit, which benefits African communities where diamonds are a natural resource.
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Kind of tough for a player who is drafted not to play with him, unless you demand a trade (like Eli Manning) or wait a year and re-enter the draft (like The Ticket’s own Michael Trabtree almost did).
wow… sounds like a reasonable man, with the ability to both reconsider his own positions, and apply a consistent standard even to people he disagrees with. not many folks like that left anymore.
It seems to me that all the negative vibes this blowhard (Rush Hudson Limbaugh A.KA. Jeff Christie) has been spewing over these many years has come back to blow back on his face (A classic “Blow Back”). He always tries to give off the airs that he can have anything he wants but as we all witness those with more money and more influence tossed him aside like sack of potatoes and the ultimate insult was that it was done in public (money don’t buy you everything butterball).
Now of course he blames everyone else (Michael J. Fox, Perez Hilton, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor, Hillary Clinton, Olympia Snowe, ESPN, NFL, the media, basically people of color, the handicapped, women and gays) when of course all you have to do is listen to his show and plainly hear his daily prejudices filled sermons. So NFL, I salute you decision, job well done. And to the whaling cry baby perched on his self made pedestal, quit your whining it was your own fault. Don’t we all feel better?
People who accuse Limbaugh of racial bigotry are off the mark, and probably don’t listen to him.
Perhaps they rely on the fabricated quotes, and the quotes removed from context. or CNN. Or they have very strict definitions of hat constitutes racism
The best example was the Obama’s Spanish-language campaign ad, which played Rush’s parody of liberal racial positions, and presented them in the ad as his own.
It wasn’t by accident, and hey were never held accountable
Rush will not sue because he knows they will file a counter compliant and he will be deposed and like Nixon he knows that the tapes will sink him. For so many years he has spent his time on the radio mis-labeling and/ or mis-characterizing others. Poor little “self-centered” Rush, no out except creating the myth that everyone is out to get him. Sorry sucka you can only yourself to blame for your idiot comments. He finally had his judgment day where the NFL wins and tubby loses. Tee, hee….