Rush for Rams? Limbaugh bids for NFL team

By JIM SALTER

The lowly Rams have someone who loves them.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he is teaming up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts in a bid to buy the Rams, owners of the NFL's longest losing streak at 14 and just 5-31 since 2007.

In a statement, Limbaugh declined to discuss details, citing a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs, the investment firm hired by the family of former Rams owner Georgia Frontiere to review assets of her estate, including the NFL team.

Limbaugh also declined to discuss other partners that might be involved in the bid, but said he and Checketts would operate the team.

"Dave Checketts and I have made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process," Limbaugh said.

Forbes magazine has estimated the Rams franchise has a value of $929 million.

Frontiere's children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, inherited 60 percent of the Rams when their mother died in January 2008. Billionaire Stan Kroenke of Columbia, Mo., owns the remaining 40 percent. It wasn't clear if the Limbaugh/Checketts bid was for 100 percent of the Rams or just the share owned by Rosenbloom and Rodriguez.

"Our strategic review of our ownership of the Rams continues," Rosenbloom said in a statement released late Monday. "We will make an announcement upon the completion of the process."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined comment. Spokesmen for Checketts and the Blues declined comment.

Limbaugh is a native of Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis. He's so popular among conservatives -- fans of his show call themselves "dittoheads" -- that he has been called by some the voice of the Republican Party.

Limbaugh, who lives and works in Palm Beach, Fla., once worked for the Kansas City Royals and is an avid sports fan.

In 2003, Limbaugh worked briefly on ESPN's NFL pregame show, but resigned after saying Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.

Checketts, 53, and his SCP Worldwide and Towerbrook Capital Partners purchased the Blues in 2006 from Bill and Nancy Laurie. The Blues have been gradually rebuilt under his leadership and made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2004.

Checketts first approached Rosenbloom in early 2009 about possibly buying the Rams. Eric Gelfand, a spokesman for Checketts, said in June that Checketts had put together a group consisting of local and outside investors.

An NFL rule allows ownership of NFL teams and teams in other sports, but only if they are in the same market. That would be a problem if Kroenke wanted to become majority owner of the Rams because he owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.

Checketts' company owns Utah's Real Salt Lake of the MLS. But an NFL spokesman has said the cross-ownership rule does not apply to the MLS.

The potential sale of the Rams has been rumored since Frontiere's death. Her children are both involved in other interests and neither has ties to St. Louis.

The sale has raised concerns in St. Louis, which lost the Cardinals franchise after the 1987 season when Bill Bidwill moved the team to Arizona.

The NFL passed over St. Louis for the smaller Jacksonville, Fla., market when it awarded an expansion team in 1993. Two years later, civic leaders convinced Frontiere, a St. Louis native, to move the team from Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest market, back to her hometown.

Los Angeles is still without a team, and a loophole in the Rams' lease allows them to move as early as 2014 if the Edward Jones Dome is not deemed among the top quarter of all NFL stadiums. Though just 14 years old, the dome is fast becoming one of the league's older venues, and getting it into the top quarter seems unlikely.

Checketts became the youngest person ever to run an NBA team at age 28 when he became president and general manager of the Utah Jazz in 1984. He later ran the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden.

NFL's Greatest Nightmare

Rush Limbaugh might one day own the St. Louis Rams. Hell, sometimes these column thingies write themselves.

The only thing that could make this news even more fantastic is if in his first two acts as owner Limbaugh traded for Donovan McNabb and made Jesse Jackson the head coach.

Followed by Ann Coulter's hiring as general manager.

My head exploded after hearing this Limbaugh news.

Limbaugh is going to change the name of the team from the Rams to the Nappy-Headed Hos.

Of course I know Don Imus said that but it still fits.

And somebody lock up the Rams' painkillers, stat.

When the Rams go 1-15 Limbaugh will blame it on the liberal media.

Or ACORN.

"Look, let me put it to you this way," Limbaugh once said on his radio show, "the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."

When I see McNabb and Tom Brady the first thought that comes to mind: gangs.

Sure.

"I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing," Limbaugh said on his radio show. "Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."

Slavery had its merits, like the no-huddle.

"I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well," Limbaugh said on ESPN.

Brett Favre is black?

How exactly will Limbaugh address the team after he purchases them?

"I just want to introduce myself and say my door will always be open. That is, unless, you're a black quarterback. If you are, please leave the room now."

Would NFL owners really allow Rush Limbaugh to own a team? Really, really?

It is serious and it could happen, according to several NFL sources, because of one of Limbaugh's partners, Dave Checketts. The latter's tenure as president of the New York Knicks and then Madison Square Garden was definitely mixed nevertheless his name adds credibility to a bid that would otherwise be seen as some sort of sick joke. Checketts is currently owner of the St. Louis Blues NHL team.

Let's be clear: it's unknown if the Limbaugh-Checketts group truly has the cash or the muscle to buy the Rams, valued by Forbes Magazine at $913 million, but there are people in the sport who are taking this bid talk seriously.

Media types like me would love for Limbaugh to own an NFL team because it would provide an unending source of material.

Limbaugh is a pungent bowl of stark raving bigoted lunacy. He'd be a dream to cover. But for the NFL, Limbaugh as an owner would be as comfortable as a colonoscopy with a periscope. It'd be one of the great nightmares for the sport.

The league has made significant strides in putting its horrid racial past behind it. The NFL isn't perfect on the issues of ethnicity but it tries.

Allowing Limbaugh, who plays the song "Barack the Magic Negro" on his radio show, a seat at the owner's table would instantly undermine everything the NFL has worked decades to accomplish.

And again, this whole thing is very possible.

Limbaugh is a huge sports fan and football follower which is why ESPN hired him in the first place before he torched the place one day.

I'm still wrapping my head around the words "Limbaugh" and "NFL owner" which is like saying the words "Freeman" and "Denzel Washington" in the same sentence.

"Have you ever noticed," Limbaugh once said on his radio show, "how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

Yeah, this could be interesting.