\"Football is like life and I know life,\" Limbaugh said in a statement. \"I am a big fan of the NFL and now I get to do what every football fan would love to do. I get to take my observations from the living room couch to the ESPN studios and talk football with the best journalists and players in the business.\"

Limbaugh, who will appear either on the show's Bristol, Conn., set or via satellite, will provide a weekly opinion piece on an aspect of the NFL making news that week, and participate in impromptu exchanges with the analysts and challenging their opinions on various issues. Limbaugh will be allotted three challenge opportunities to use at his discretion during the show.

\"Rush is a great communicator and a fan's fan,\" said Mark Shapiro, ESPN's executive vice president of programming and production. \"His acute sense of what's on the minds of his listeners combined with his ability to entertain and serve as a lightning rod for lively discussion makes him the perfect fit for this new role.

\"We want to give fans a voice, and Rush is the person who can do it.\"

George_vikingfan:
\"We want to give fans a voice...\"

Don’t encourage homosexuality by teaching it in grade school
Think of what the NYC school system was trying to teach first-graders without any objection from the ACLU. One of the books recommended, Heather Has Two Mommies, describes how two lesbians become mommies. (One of them was artificially inseminated by a “special doctor.”) Another book was Daddy’s Roommate, which pictures Daddy and his male roommate in bed together. A third was Gloria Goes to Gay Pride. In the first grade! Can anyone tell me with a straight face that such teaching is not for the express purpose of indoctrinating students with the false notion that homosexuality is as normal as heterosexuality? Surely no one can argue that it is healthy to encourage such a lifestyle. Even if you reject the moral objections to this lifestyle, you cannot honestly deny the overwhelming evidence that homosexual behavior statistically reduces one’s life span. And, if kids are learning about homosexuality in first grade, what do you suppose they are learning in high school?
Source: See, I Told You So, p.217 Jul 2, 1993

PhillyFan:
But instead, with Rush, we'll get fair and honest reporting... someone who is not afraid to tell it like it is. An actual football FAN.

Joe in Philly:
Have we learned nothing from the Dennis Miller debacle?

PhillyFan:
Well William... Blowski... polish name and white, he would be taking a job away from a hard working black man... only to have a chance to become a coach, when no black man has a chance to coach in the ever-so-racist coaching ranks. You know where ray rhodes deserves a chance to coach because he's black... rather than being fired cause he's a F'in idiot... who proved he cant coach to save his life.

But instead, with Rush, we'll get fair and honest reporting... someone who is not afraid to tell it like it is. An actual football FAN.

Then after that , they can flip over to irvin while he bangs some skanky hooker and sniffs some coke. The cowboys fans will love that!

HornFan:
No way will I let ESPN ram Rush down my throat. I'll stick with Howie (who is welcome to ram anything he wants down my throat). A voice of the Fans? Please!

George_vikingfan:
... Even the thought of drooling over Howie Long for an hour doesn't tip the scales.

Guess I'll have to forget about the pregame shows!

DCBucky:
a woman in the crowd who was spouting the virtues of living in Green Bay: \"we're a wonderful culturally diverse community ...\"

To broaden this thread a bit, in addition to Limbaugh being added to the ESPN pregame program, Justin Timberlake will provide commentary from the British Open (I am not making this up.) I know about the nursing shortage and the teaching shortage, but a SPORTSCASTER SHORTAGE!!??!! What is this world coming to??

DCBucky:

I like Wanda Sykes (but can't remember which show she's on). She did this great piece up at Lambeau last year...

Joe in Philly:
Have we learned nothing from the Dennis Miller debacle?

\"I think the sum total of what you're all saying is that Donovan McNabb is regressing, he's going backwards. And...I'm sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go.

\"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They're interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well; I think there is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of his team that he really didn't deserve.

la_meatman:
ON the subject of McNabb..the eagles showed his true value last year, by going undefeated, and making it to the championship game with a THIRD string, pocket passing QB.

PhillyFan
[QB

OH, and Young AND Elway were both running qb's, they just happened to be white... AND they won SB's.. doesnt that throw your running qb theory out the door? [/QB]

On ESPN Sunday morning, Rush Limbaugh opened his mouth and in one fell swoop attacked Donovan McNabb's ability, indicted the media and offended any person who has evolved beyond caveman.

Tomorrow he'll be in Philadelphia to give a keynote address at the 3-day National Association of Broadcasters radio convention, known as The NAB Radio Show. Hmm...

Cynics will say Limbaugh is no dummy. What better way to drum up interest in your talk than to attack the sacred cow of the city you're visiting - and everyone knows Philadelphia's holy Holstein is its football team.

Whether or not you believe he's that calculated, Limbaugh tomorrow will stroll into the center of the maelstrom he created by saying McNabb, the Eagles' quarterback, gets more credit than he deserves because he's black.

Limbaugh will kick off the day at the Pennsylvania
Convention Center ballroom at 9 a.m.; he will deliver the Radio Show's keynote speech. (For more info, go to www.nab.org/conventions/
or call 800-342-2460.)

Later he will be on the dais at the Union League, one of a number of speakers on hand for a private luncheon sponsored by WPHT (1210-AM) for folks in the business.

Limbaugh was not asked to attend Eagles practice.

Meanwhile, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz was asked yesterday whether the network had any reaction to the furor raised by Limabugh's comments. He said Limbaugh and his fellow analysts were engaged in a \"sports and media discussion, not a political discussion\" on the subject of McNabb. He said Limbaugh's target was the media, and Limbaugh did not criticize McNabb on racial grounds.