NFL Quickly Discarding Limbaugh May Come Back To Haunt Them

The concern and negativity expressed by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Indianapolis Colts' owner Jim Irsay, and NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith over Rush Limbaugh potentially becoming a limited owner for the St. Louis Rams was certainly the right thing to do from a public relations standpoint.

And it certainly accomplished its goal, as Dave Checketts essentially had no choice but to drop Limbaugh from his group that is interested in the franchise, which he did last week.

But from a business standpoint, it sends a bad message to prospective owners and could end up hurting the league’s bottom line as a whole.

Not only was the potential for an overlooked team that lacked tradition in St. Louis to become meaningful in the eyes of NFL fans everywhere discarded, but Limbaugh’s tremendous platform that could have been used to promote the league was also lost.

Limbaugh’s job description and resume as a conservative shock-jock speak for themselves, and stating that you want President Barack Obama to fail and insinuating that Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is overrated because he is black are not the best things to say if you want to become a part of the increasingly P.R. conscious NFL.

But Goodell and Irsay seemed to focus more on what Limbaugh has said, than to whom he has said it to.

Millions and millions of people, many of who like him and many who despise him, and more importantly, many longtime NFL customers combined with those who could not care less for the sport.

I don’t know how having Limbaugh as an owner would have hurt teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars, who can’t sell out their stadiums, because Limbaugh could have been the Jerry Jones of owners for liberal sports fans everywhere.

And I also don’t know how it wouldn’t have increased the value of the NFL’s TV and cable contracts, its advertising spots, and the amount of Rams' merchandise sold across the country.

Advertisers gobble up spots for Limbaugh’s radio show, why wouldn’t they do the same for games featuring a team owned by him?

And the notions that Limbaugh being a minority owner for the Rams would have hurt the team’s ticket sales and resulted in players refusing to sign with the franchise are false.

If there is one thing that fans do best, it's separate their teams from their owners.

Clippers' owner Donald Sterling has admitted to paying for sex and has been accused of housing discrimination, but that doesn’t stop the team’s small number of loyal fans from showing up at the Staples Center.

And Lions fans still support their team sufficiently even after years of poor ownership by the Ford family.

It's easy for players to say that they wouldn’t have taken Limbaugh’s money now, but I don’t know if that would have ultimately been the case.

ESPN NFL analyst Chris Mortensen said it himself when talking about the subject: “Money talks.”

Is the NFL powerful enough to continue to be the most successful professional sports league in America without Limbaugh?

Obviously.

MLS commissioner Don Garber and the NHL’s Gary Bettman would have played Russian roulette with Andrei Kirilenko if it meant having an owner with the shrewd marketing skills and audience that Limbaugh possesses, and would have put up with all of his potential Mark Cuban-type moments on the radio because of that.

The NFL is not the MLS nor the NHL.

But with that said, perhaps the biggest consequence of Goodell and Irsay writing off Limbaugh so quickly will be revealed in the near future when current owners try to sell their teams.

There are only so many multimillionaires with squeaky clean reputations that are interested in becoming an NFL owner.

Former CEOs of insurance companies, Russian oligarchs, and Saudi princes may prefer to spend their money on an NBA or European soccer team instead of making a bid for an NFL franchise at the risk of their character being publicly criticized.

In a league where teams can be worth more than a billion dollars, that could cost an owner millions.