There have been some new developments regarding the question of whether radio host Rush Limbaugh will become part owner of the St. Louis Rams. In lieu of laying them all out in one comprehensive piece, we’ll break them out over a series of postings that we’ll cobble together over the next several hours.
Last week, Limbaugh found an unlikely ally in MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who chastised those opposing Limbaugh’s efforts.
“There’re now gonna be character tests for sports owners?” Olbermann said. “There’ll only be three of them left. Unless they beat the Vikings Sunday as of next Thursday it will have been a full year since the Rams won a game. My God, if Limbaugh wants to buy them far be it for me to tell him he’s flushing his money down a rat hole.”
More recently, Stephen A. Smith also spoke out in favor of Limbaugh’s bid.
“If he has the dollars,” Smith said, “he should be allowed to do it.”
Smith also said that black players who claim they’ll refuse to play for the Rams are “lying through their stinking teeth.” Smith argues that, in the end, players will go where the money is.
But that’s where Smith, who never met a nuance he couldn’t grasp, misses the point. Teams win in free agency by “winning the ties” -- in other words, by convincing players to take the same (or even less) money than they could get elsewhere.
So, under Limbaugh, the Rams would have to overpay to attract free agents.
That’s the point -- it will as a practical be harder and more expensive for Limbaugh to do business because all ties will go to some other team.
Unless the other team is the Raiders.
