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American Morning
Rush Limbaugh Resigns
Aired October 02, 2003 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Our top story again, Rush Limbaugh saying there was -- quote -- "No racist intent" in remarks he made Sunday on ESPN about the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, Donovan McNabb. He is African-American.
Nonetheless, Limbaugh will not be on the pre-game show this Sunday. He resigned his job as football commentator.
To Philadelphia, our first stop this morning, and Michael Okwu with more on this.
Good morning -- Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Rush Limbaugh is expected to address the National Association of Broadcasters right here in Philadelphia in about two hours. No doubt his resignation will be fresh on the minds of everybody.
Late last night, he issued the following statement -- quoting now: "My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret. Therefore, I have decided to resign."
Now, George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN and ABC Sports, issued the following response: "We accept his resignation and regret the circumstances surrounding this. We believe that he took the appropriate action to resolve this matter expeditiously."
Now, the resignation comes hours after McNabb had a press conference in which he said he did not mind the criticism of his performance. He just minded the fact that Limbaugh introduced a whole notion of race into the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOVAN MCNABB, EAGLES QUARTERBACK: Pretty, pretty heavy. You know, something obviously that I've been going through ever since I was young, you know, through high school, through college and through the NFL that, you know, you figure that it would have been over by now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OKWU: Now, this is a remarkable development. What appeared to be a slow brew came to a sudden boil. The comments were made on Sunday. Absolutely nothing happened with this story for at least 24 hours. McNabb came forward with his press conference yesterday. And then, Limbaugh, in what was a very vocal radio show, stood by his comments, absolutely showing no signs of backing down, and then the resignation late last night -- Bill.
HEMMER: Michael Okwu in Philly this morning, thanks for that -- Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: For more now on the Limbaugh controversy, we are joined by "Sports Illustrated" senior writer, Peter King.
Peter, good morning to you. Thanks for being here.
PETER KING, SENIOR WRITER, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning, Heidi.
COLLINS: I want to go ahead and go back to the very beginning for just a moment, if we could, to hear exactly what Rush Limbaugh said that has gotten him into so much trouble. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, "SUNDAY NFL COUNTDOWN," ESPN: You know, I think the sum total of what you're all saying is that Donovan McNabb is regressing. He's going backwards. And my -- I'm sorry to say this. I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Peter, do you think Limbaugh was being targeted by the very liberal media that he claims was backing Donovan McNabb?
KING: No, I don't think so, Heidi. I think the whole story here is that you knew at some point that Rush Limbaugh was going to say something that would be indefensible -- at least I knew it. And I thought it was only a matter of time.
The thing that mystifies me about this is I thought this is what ESPN wanted.
COLLINS: Well...
KING: I thought ESPN wanted outrage, headlines, AMERICAN MORNING, today...
COLLINS: Certainly...
KING: ... you know, and all of that stuff.
COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) talk about, though. Why did they hire him, in your mind? What did they want him to do?
KING: I think, you know, Disney, you know,, ABC, ESPN, Fox, CBS, the rights holders for NFL football are desperate to up the ratings, so that they can make a better deal in their next television contract after the 2005 season when the NFL contract comes up again. They want the ratings to spike, so that they can make a better deal on the next contract. That's what this was an attempt to do.
And to me, I'm -- you know, I thought that this would be a firestorm through next Monday, and then we'd all just sort of go back to normal. And it surprises me a little bit that ESPN -- I believe ESPN, you know, I'm pretty sure that it probably asked him for his resignation.
COLLINS: You think so. What about that? I mean, do you think that now that he has resigned, it's going to put an end to it? Or is this going to go on and on?
KING: No, it will put an end to it. I mean, you know, the NFL is sort of a 17-week soap opera during the season, and this happens to be the mid-week story in week four.
COLLINS: Right.
KING: You know, by Monday, there will be something else. Somebody will -- you know, somebody else will say something stupid, and we'll start covering that.
COLLINS: All right, let's listen for just a moment if we could to Warren Moon, obviously a former Pro Bowl quarterback. We want to hear a little bit about what he had to say about Limbaugh's comments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN MOON, FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK: As a quarterback coming up during the '70s and '80s that I had to endure some of these same racial things. I thought we were over this by now. I thoughts racial comments about black quarterbacks had ended way back when.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: So, what about that? I mean, is this something that is just going to continue and continue? Or was McNabb and is McNabb overrated?
KING: Heidi, this was not a story, to me, about as much about Donovan McNabb being overrated. A lot of people have that feeling. I have that feeling that he's slightly overrated. But this was a story of calling Peter King and "Sports Illustrated" and national media, saying that we were racists, that we were...
COLLINS: We, meaning?
KING: We, the sports media. That we were allowing our personal opinions about wanting some group of people -- the black quarterback, the black coach -- to rise up over the white people.
And I have to tell you something. When I heard that and I read his statements, I just was -- I was floored. It's the most -- he's basically calling us reverse racists, because not only are we trying to keep -- we aren't only trying not to keep the black man down. You know, we're trying to raise him above white people. I don't -- I think it was so illogical what he said.
Now, I do believe that the NFL does have a concern about getting more black coaches in the seats of NFL coaching jobs. You know, there are 32.
COLLINS: Right.
KING: And there are 65-70 percent of the players in the NFL are black. They're definitely -- I've written extensively on the NFL, it should be ashamed of its black head coach hiring policy. But, you know, to say that, you know, we're going to give Tony Dungy (ph) and Herman Edwards (ph) and Dennis Green (ph) the black coaches a pass is utterly ridiculous.
COLLINS: All right, Peter King, we appreciate you being here very much this morning to talk all of this. Senior writer for "Sports Illustrated".
KING: Thanks, Heidi.
COLLINS: Thanks, again.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired October 2, 2003 - 07:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Our top story again, Rush Limbaugh saying there was -- quote -- "No racist intent" in remarks he made Sunday on ESPN about the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, Donovan McNabb. He is African-American.
Nonetheless, Limbaugh will not be on the pre-game show this Sunday. He resigned his job as football commentator.
To Philadelphia, our first stop this morning, and Michael Okwu with more on this.
Good morning -- Michael.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Rush Limbaugh is expected to address the National Association of Broadcasters right here in Philadelphia in about two hours. No doubt his resignation will be fresh on the minds of everybody.
Late last night, he issued the following statement -- quoting now: "My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret. Therefore, I have decided to resign."
Now, George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN and ABC Sports, issued the following response: "We accept his resignation and regret the circumstances surrounding this. We believe that he took the appropriate action to resolve this matter expeditiously."
Now, the resignation comes hours after McNabb had a press conference in which he said he did not mind the criticism of his performance. He just minded the fact that Limbaugh introduced a whole notion of race into the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOVAN MCNABB, EAGLES QUARTERBACK: Pretty, pretty heavy. You know, something obviously that I've been going through ever since I was young, you know, through high school, through college and through the NFL that, you know, you figure that it would have been over by now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OKWU: Now, this is a remarkable development. What appeared to be a slow brew came to a sudden boil. The comments were made on Sunday. Absolutely nothing happened with this story for at least 24 hours. McNabb came forward with his press conference yesterday. And then, Limbaugh, in what was a very vocal radio show, stood by his comments, absolutely showing no signs of backing down, and then the resignation late last night -- Bill.
HEMMER: Michael Okwu in Philly this morning, thanks for that -- Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: For more now on the Limbaugh controversy, we are joined by "Sports Illustrated" senior writer, Peter King.
Peter, good morning to you. Thanks for being here.
PETER KING, SENIOR WRITER, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning, Heidi.
COLLINS: I want to go ahead and go back to the very beginning for just a moment, if we could, to hear exactly what Rush Limbaugh said that has gotten him into so much trouble. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, "SUNDAY NFL COUNTDOWN," ESPN: You know, I think the sum total of what you're all saying is that Donovan McNabb is regressing. He's going backwards. And my -- I'm sorry to say this. I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Peter, do you think Limbaugh was being targeted by the very liberal media that he claims was backing Donovan McNabb?
KING: No, I don't think so, Heidi. I think the whole story here is that you knew at some point that Rush Limbaugh was going to say something that would be indefensible -- at least I knew it. And I thought it was only a matter of time.
The thing that mystifies me about this is I thought this is what ESPN wanted.
COLLINS: Well...
KING: I thought ESPN wanted outrage, headlines, AMERICAN MORNING, today...
COLLINS: Certainly...
KING: ... you know, and all of that stuff.
COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) talk about, though. Why did they hire him, in your mind? What did they want him to do?
KING: I think, you know, Disney, you know,, ABC, ESPN, Fox, CBS, the rights holders for NFL football are desperate to up the ratings, so that they can make a better deal in their next television contract after the 2005 season when the NFL contract comes up again. They want the ratings to spike, so that they can make a better deal on the next contract. That's what this was an attempt to do.
And to me, I'm -- you know, I thought that this would be a firestorm through next Monday, and then we'd all just sort of go back to normal. And it surprises me a little bit that ESPN -- I believe ESPN, you know, I'm pretty sure that it probably asked him for his resignation.
COLLINS: You think so. What about that? I mean, do you think that now that he has resigned, it's going to put an end to it? Or is this going to go on and on?
KING: No, it will put an end to it. I mean, you know, the NFL is sort of a 17-week soap opera during the season, and this happens to be the mid-week story in week four.
COLLINS: Right.
KING: You know, by Monday, there will be something else. Somebody will -- you know, somebody else will say something stupid, and we'll start covering that.
COLLINS: All right, let's listen for just a moment if we could to Warren Moon, obviously a former Pro Bowl quarterback. We want to hear a little bit about what he had to say about Limbaugh's comments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN MOON, FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK: As a quarterback coming up during the '70s and '80s that I had to endure some of these same racial things. I thought we were over this by now. I thoughts racial comments about black quarterbacks had ended way back when.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: So, what about that? I mean, is this something that is just going to continue and continue? Or was McNabb and is McNabb overrated?
KING: Heidi, this was not a story, to me, about as much about Donovan McNabb being overrated. A lot of people have that feeling. I have that feeling that he's slightly overrated. But this was a story of calling Peter King and "Sports Illustrated" and national media, saying that we were racists, that we were...
COLLINS: We, meaning?
KING: We, the sports media. That we were allowing our personal opinions about wanting some group of people -- the black quarterback, the black coach -- to rise up over the white people.
And I have to tell you something. When I heard that and I read his statements, I just was -- I was floored. It's the most -- he's basically calling us reverse racists, because not only are we trying to keep -- we aren't only trying not to keep the black man down. You know, we're trying to raise him above white people. I don't -- I think it was so illogical what he said.
Now, I do believe that the NFL does have a concern about getting more black coaches in the seats of NFL coaching jobs. You know, there are 32.
COLLINS: Right.
KING: And there are 65-70 percent of the players in the NFL are black. They're definitely -- I've written extensively on the NFL, it should be ashamed of its black head coach hiring policy. But, you know, to say that, you know, we're going to give Tony Dungy (ph) and Herman Edwards (ph) and Dennis Green (ph) the black coaches a pass is utterly ridiculous.
COLLINS: All right, Peter King, we appreciate you being here very much this morning to talk all of this. Senior writer for "Sports Illustrated".
KING: Thanks, Heidi.
COLLINS: Thanks, again.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
