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Rush Limbaughblamed the National Football League Players Association, the media and “race hustlers” such as Al Sharpton for his ouster from a bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams.

The radio talk show host said DeMaurice Smith, the union’s executive director, was using Limbaugh’s presence in a group of bidders including St. Louis Blues owner David Checketts as part of negotiations over the NFL’s labor deal. Smith spoke to Commissioner Roger Goodell and sent an e-mail to the union’s executive committee regarding his concerns about Limbaugh.

Limbaugh also said on his show today that unfair media coverage and pressure from Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, two black clergyman and civil-rights leaders whom he called “race hustlers,” contributed to his ouster. Sharpton said in a recent letter to Goodell that there were a “myriad of reasons” why Limbaugh shouldn’t be involved in the NFL.

“The real reason that pressure was brought upon me by Sharpton and Jackson and DeMaurice Smith and the commissioner is that the players association is using my involvement with the Rams and this whole episode as a bit of leverage in their negotiations, their upcoming negotiations, with the league and with the owners on a new collective bargaining agreement,” Limbaugh said. “That is what is really going on.”

Checketts dropped Limbaugh from the bid yesterday, saying his “involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions.”

Goodell’s Stand

That came a day after Goodell said that he wouldn’t want an owner making “divisive comments,” such as the radio host’s 2003 statement that Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black succeed at that position. McNabb is a five-time Pro Bowl selection who has led the Eagles to five conference championship games and a Super Bowl appearance in the past 10 years.

Goodell said he strongly disagreed with Limbaugh’s comments about McNabb, which came about 16 years after the Washington Redskins’ Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to win a Super Bowl title. Limbaugh resigned from ESPN’s announcing lineup after the comment.

“I would not want to see those kind of comments from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL,” Goodell said at a league owners’ meeting in Boston.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay also told reporters at that meeting that he wouldn’t consider voting to approve an ownership group that included Limbaugh. At least seven players, including the New York Giants’ Mathias Kiwanuka, said they wouldn’t play for a team owned in part by Limbaugh.

Obama Leverage

Limbaugh called Smith, who is black, an “Obamaite” who would use political leverage from President Barack Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus against owners and the league. He also cited “‘misreporting,” “lying,” “made-up quotes” and “blind hatred” from “unhappy, angry, agitated people” including sportswriters as helping derail his attempted purchase. He didn’t identify any of these people.

“I still love professional football,” he said. “I’ll still love the people that play it and admire them, and I’ll probably remain the biggest nonpaid promoter of the sport. But those people who enabled this event -- for their own racial reasons, for their own ratings, their own fundraising, their own face time, their own business reasons -- they’re going to be just as unhappy as before this happened.”

(Source: Bloomberg)