On Tuesday's broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, the host turned his attention to the upcoming NFL season because he was addressing points made by sportswriter Jason Whitlock, a guest on Monday's Tucker Carlson program.  Limbaugh's concern is that the league will do anything to placate the Black Lives Matter movement to prevent the league from any critics' slings and arrows, whether it is the media, leftist organizations, Democrats, sponsors, or any other group.  Thus, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is thinking of implementing for the first week of the season the Black National Anthem to be followed by the National Anthem.  His take on this strategy was to chastise the NFL leadership and the franchise owners believing they are kowtowing to the protesters and political activists.

According to the transcripts of the program, Limbaugh stated:

And now they're being aided and abetted by the NFL and the ownership group, which refuses to use the same values they built their businesses with in running the National Football League, all because Nike, a big sponsor and other sponsors are upset, threatening to pull money away.  So no guardrails, nobody standing up, no morality, no virtue.  It's absent.  And the NFL doesn't know what's headed its way[.] ... Cause everybody's making a big mistake.

Unfortunately, it is Limbaugh who is making the mistake. The NFL does know what is headed its way.  These people are in a runaway car with no brakes because they refused to have them repaired.  Owners and Goodell know they are have no way out of a situation they have put themselves and by their own design.  The recognize that their product has been irreparably damaged and that the league will lose a fortune one way or another in lost revenue from sponsors or plummeting ratings.  Worse, the once racially diverse but united locker room could be torn apart.

But they know this and allowed it.

Remember: this is a league that has to contend with the constant safety factors of bodily injuries and particularly concussions, which has seen participation in the sport decline as parents push their kids into alternative sports.  On top of that, the NFL has had another public relations disaster with a number of its players running afoul of the law, with some referring to it as the National Felons League.

Don't kid yourself, either.  Deep down, the left opposes sports, especially American sports.  Sports are "affirmative action free," at least on the field of play, in which meritocracy is rewarded, no matter the color of one's skin.  Kansas City's Super Bowl–winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes just inked a ten-year, $450-million contract, surpassing MLB's Los Angeles of Anaheim's Mike Trout as the highest paid American athlete in U.S. sports history.  It is actually closer to $500 million with extensions and bonuses, but why fret over a few hundred million?

Oh almost forgot — Mahomes is black.

Sports have served not just as a career for the best athletes, but also as a means to earn a college degree though athletic scholarships.

And worse for the left, fans reward the champions both on the winning and losing sides.  Fans love their heroes and respect their team's rivals but loathe and detest the whiners.

Athletes are admired for their drive, determination, enthusiasm, skills, acumen, and talents.  Deep down, fans realize that only the best play on Sundays, no matter how many weekend warriors and Monday-morning quarterbacks think differently.

President Trump was able to rally support for the NFL, and ratings and popularity surged after he called out the owners and the league in the wake of the Colin Kaepernick events.  It seems short-lived, a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, if Goodell continues to ignore the problems the league is experiencing, professional football may not survive.  He may not overcome the optics of a league that has become increasingly politicized, chaotic, greedy, and out of control and out of touch.

Memo to Mr. Mahomes: Seriously, cash that first $100 million ASAP.