RUSH OUT: Rush Limbaugh has resigned from ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown show, a day after a furor erupted over comments he made about Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
Maybe the comments weren't racist, but they sure were stupid. After McNabb's weak start this year, the question of whether he's been overrated is certainly now an open one. But please, leave race out of it- I'd say that aside from the QB's generally good on-field track record, the reasons for his prominence and his positive reputation are that he plays in a big East Coast market and (perhaps more importantly) McNabb is known as a class act- a good guy with no rap sheet who makes funny commercials with his mom. Unlike the Terrell Owens' and Bill Romanowskis of the world, McNabb is friendly to the press, doesn't bitch about his coach or teammates, and has never gotten into any sort of trouble with the law since he's been in the league. Rush Limbaugh for some reason looked at all this and came to the conclusion that "no, it's 'cause he's black." Stephen A. Smith has a great column about the situation; it's too bad PTI's off this week, 'cause I want to know what Wilbon has to say about it.
Rush knows the media as well as anyone, and unlike his buddy Trent Lott he got out right away, turning this "scandal" into a one-day story (another reason- Drudge-abetted drug rumors). The bumbling Democratic presidential candidates couldn't help themselves, of course, demanding Limbaugh's resignation- because who plays the fourth-banana on a football pregame show is a matter of great concern for the president of the United States. How much you want to bet neither Howard Dean nor Wesley Clark had ever heard of Donovan McNabb before Wednesday?