The trouble is though that like all celebrities, he wants to have his cake and eat it too. He enjoys stirring the pot, and profits by the publicity it gets him to say provocative things. The things themselves, when properly understood, are not racist (I don't believe he is racist at all, to be frank.) But he deliberately frames things in a way that is easily misunderstood, so that lines taken out of context are used against him (by which he profits from the extra media attention.)

But now that the media narrative and image that he's built up is hampering his attempt to buy this team, he is playing the victim. It's a lot like general celebrity love/hate relationship with paparazzi. I don't have much sympathy with them because they reaped the benefits and then also have to pay the price.

“It's not only the Holy Grail”

It's like the Westerners going to China with dreams of getting rich from the World's Greatest Market.

I know. Even before I lived there for a while, I knew. It's not only the Holy Grail (because of the size of the broadcast market as well as the metro area and potential attendence, on paper), but as I have written elsewhere, a city of “perpetual promise” or something like that (evoking post-World-War-II idealists' views decades ago about Brasil, such as during the time of creation of Brasilia as the capital, but which for so long has been met with reality that deflates the idealism — it “has great promise and it always will,” which remains the cynical view of LA). There's so much to do in LA that football is just one of many options, and there hasn't been that much interest. That's why Al Davis's sojurn failed, and why the Rams left. That is also why I have not only thought about LA, but about other cities, and why I have used Orlando as an example of an alternative growing, probably-ambitious Sun Belt destination for the team. Los Angeles? Good luck; others have tried, and they have failed. Even if the NFL (all the clubs and all the people paying extra for tickets to attend games everywhere) builds the new team a brand new stadium, there's no guarantee of success.

“If one of the other bidding ownership groups offers the same type of money and the guarantee of remaining in St. Louis, I would be surprised if NFL owners don't select the lower risk and less controversial investors.”

Certainly the children would cheer Limbaugh's Defeat if that were to happen. [rolling eyes] But the most sound decision is what should be made, in an ideal world. If Limbaugh, fine, if others, fine, too.

Insofar as staying in St. Louis, would the new owners try to hold up the city (as has already been asked aloud by one writer) for a new stadium?

I would prefer the team stay there, as I like St. Louis, and I wish it would get its Redbirds stuff back.

And I really truly don't care if a bunch of NFL owners allow Rush to join their elite little group, especially if he get out of Checketts way and let him run day-to-day operations.

Of course, the Dittoheads and others supporters will probably scream the NFL is being PC or its too scared. What they fail to realize is that perception and the dreaded PC does in fact impact business and the bottom line.

If Limbaugh/Checketts do offer more cash and location guarantee, it will be interest to see how much of a public role Rush will take as liberals and Dems money is just as valuable as Republicans money, and St. Louis continues to be a very Dem town.

Personally, it doesn't really matter to me. I am a Seahawks fan… so I already root against the Rams.

Should Greg Louganis be stripped of his Olympic awards and gays prevented from Olympic participation on “morality” or other “socially conservative” grounds?

Or merely for the Rams. The thing to do is to find out what consequences may actually be serious — removed from the resentful kids' stuff we're routinely seeing, which is largely a temper tantrum and another eruption of viciousness underlying political correctness and similar politics. Would there be refusals of players actually to play? (They should be banned from playing anywhere, not only on the Rams, if they refuse to play for or against the Rams.) Would there be boycotts, losses of sponsors? Think here of Glenn Beck and the diseased hatred directed at him from so many, versus true effects on the programming's ratings and any true, real-world loss of sponsorship and advertising and other revenue.

The main issue with the Rams remains as before: Once it is sold, will the team stay in St. Louis (which I hope it does; I do wish the club could exchange name, insignia, etc., with the Phoenix Cardinals someday, though, and return these “Cardinal” things to St. Louis), or will it be moved, such as to LA?

They won't be able to sign free agents and their draft picks will either sit out and get redrafted or bail as soon as their contracts allow. The good players, the ones that win games, will always find a way to leave.

They will be the whitest team in the NFL…which is fitting for a state that has a highway adopted by the KKK.

Normal people instead wonder — if he or if others buy the team, which is for sale, will it stay or leave?

(Orlando is a long-growing, overdue Florida city still awaiting an NFL team, and LA is still the Holy Grail.)