Rush Limbaugh Bids for St. Louis Rams

Conservative Radio Host Teams Up with St. Louis Blues Owner Dave Checketts to Take over NFL Team

(CBS/AP)  The lowly St. Louis 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."

Limbaugh's bid has caused a stir among commentators and invited parody online.

Dashiell Bennett of the often satirical sports blog Deadspin published a post entitled "Horrible Person Wants To Buy Horrible Team."

It read, "Professional blowhard Rush Limbaugh is aiming to become a part-owner of the St. Louis Rams. I guess the team won't be drafting any black quarterbacks from now on. (But at least they'll play pain-free!) " - references to incendiary comments Limbaugh made about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and Limbaugh's addiction to narcotic painkillers.

St.. Louis' Riverfront Times ran a blog post entitled, "Think the Rams Couldn't Get Any More Despicable? Meet Their Possible New Owner."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined comment. Calls seeking comment from Checketts were not returned.

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 Sports Capital Partners 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.

[bubbadubba]

<<<A quart jar of viagra NOT with his name on the prescription....huh...>>>

Aw, you left out the best part regarding where he was coming from and why he needed the viagra.
Google it Rush fans.

[bubbadubba]

Hey Rush,
"If we could live our lives half as worthlessly as you, I'm convinced that we'd wind up burning too..."

[dadrees-2009]

Just proves that the Drugster makes waay too much money

[esq777]

Limbaugh and the Rams are a good match. They're both losers. Forget about steroids, the NFL will now have to institute random Oxycontin testing, and the Rams will have to replace their helmets with white hoods.

[Solarrays247]

C'mon, give ol' Rush a break! After all....he works hard gettin' those right wingers worked up into a mouth frothing frenzy everyday! Besides, Beck is taking business away from him....poor Rush has to try to make some money any way that he can!

[chelokee]

Wow! I didn't know Rush had THAT much money! Good luck Rush, I wouldn't want to own a team. www.yoeddie.com

[curse914]

Rush seems to be getting fatter by the second.

This Rush Dumbo, "The lifetime recipient of Obesity in Broadcasting Award" is the most hated man in America. He should stay out of American's most popular game. He can do no good. Posted by Baileyccc

[bubbadubba]

I think Rush would really enjoy going into the locker room after a game.

[bubbadubba]

Rush Limbaugh - The most hated man in America.
Stinks to be him.

[bubbadubba]

So if Limbaugh owns the team will it be OK for all the players to use illegal drugs too?
Just wondering.

[bubbadubba]

It is a brilliant move by Limbaugh. He will order all his little lemmings to buy up all the tickets to Rams games and buy nothing but Rams merchandise and of course the brainless lemmings will follow their "god's" orders.
Pretty smart.

[bubbadubba]

If Limbaugh wins the bid, the Rams will be the only all white NFL football team after he orders the managers to get rid of all the black players.
I'm guessing the new helmet logo would be a Swastica?

[lawyertom1]

The Rams, this year, are not worth guano, just like Rush.

[lostourway]

Rush Limbaugh is an "entertainer". It's my personal belief that he practices and believes only about 1/3 of what he says. The rest is "created" to garner an audience. Whenever his ratings fall, he get's a little more radical.

What were the figures in the Howard Stern movie? People who love him listen for 1 hour and 20 minutes a day. People who hate him listen for 2 and a half hours a day.

Who wants to listen to someone who walks the middle ground like the rest of us? That's not entertainment.

If you think "Rush is Right", then you don't spend enough time in the real world.

If he starts "diversifying" his entertainment empire, I'd bet dollars to donuts he becomes a lot more moderate very quickly.

[endurorob_5]

hungry1968-16 October 6, 2009 3:13 PM EDT


If Obama fails, then the conservatives win, and that means that America fails.

Look at the economy, healthcare, companies offshoring by the thousands, foreign policy mired in belligerence and arrogance, two disastrous wars, energy prices through the roof.....

The LAST THING that America needs, is for Obama to "fail" reversing this nightmare that the conservatives foisted on us.



You missed the whole point of my post. The point is Limbaugh wants one person to fail because he believes that if that person succedes a whole group of people, Americans will fail. Where as element 51 would hope for a large group of people to fail because of hatred for one. However I do agree that if Obama succedes in his socialist agenda we all fail.

[hungry1968-16]

Does the league have a "substance abuse policy" for owners?

[hungry1968-16]

by endurorob_5 October 6, 2009 2:41 PM EDT
Limbaugh said he hopes Obama fails not he hopes America fails. He wants Obama to fail because he believes if Obama succedes then America will fail. You on the other hand would hope for the rams to fail just out of pure hatred for Limbaugh.







If Obama fails, then the conservatives win, and that means that America fails.

Look at the economy, healthcare, companies offshoring by the thousands, foreign policy mired in belligerence and arrogance, two disastrous wars, energy prices through the roof.....

The LAST THING that America needs, is for Obama to "fail" reversing this nightmare that the conservatives foisted on us.

[jxknowles]

Good for Rush. I'm glad to see he's spending his money on something other than drugs and hookers. Also, he won't be tax-dodging if he buys a team in Missouri. That and hiring African Americans to fill much-coveted, highly-paid positions. Let's face it, this guy isn't going to live forever, it's about time he pays something back to society. Even Rush isn't stupid enough to leave his fortune to his cat.

[timdgrim]

The St. Louis Oxycontin-Rams would be hard to put on a T-Shirt.