We've been discussing radio host Rush Limbaugh's quest to purchase the NFL's St. Louis Rams for the past few days here on County Fair.

Now, St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bryan Burwell has jumped into the fray with one hell of a column, in which he writes:

Though I think it is his right to take a shot at becoming part of a new Rams ownership group, Limbaugh's American Dream is a potential nightmare waiting to happen for the Rams, the city and the National Football League.

“Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

Those are Limbaugh's words. So are these:

“I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back. I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”

I know how those words play out in Idiot America. They are embraced as gospel. But inside the locker rooms of the NFL, where the overwhelming majority of the players are descendants of slaves, Limbaugh's ignorant ramblings resonate with entirely different emotions.

His money might be green, but his words are colored with hate and intolerance. Bringing Limbaugh back into the NFL family will ultimately be met with the same disastrous effects from the last time it was tried.

[…]

That's why I keep scratching my head and wondering why so many people foolishly believe that at some point Limbaugh's mouth won't cause another embarrassing situation for the Rams and the league. This isn't about conservative politics. If that's all you could say about him, it certainly doesn't disqualify him to be a potential NFL owner. In fact, that makes him highly qualified to join the club. He would fit right in with the rest of the exclusive boys club of ultra-wealthy, ultra-conservative white men who rule the ownership suites of most professional sports leagues.

But even if he fit in with his politics, let's hope he doesn't fit in with his polarizing, racist demagoguery. And yes, that is exactly what it is, no matter how many of his blindly loyal supporters want to put the “politically incorrect” party dress on it.

“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”

Again, those are his words. I wonder how Roger Goodell, the no-nonsense NFL commissioner whose primary personal directive is to “protect the (NFL) shield,” will cope with an owner as potentially combustible as Limbaugh. If Goodell has issues with the embarrassing antics of some of his players, what will he do when Limbaugh inevitably crosses the line of good conduct?

Did you notice that I didn't say “if”?

I didn't say “if” because anyone who is even marginally familiar with Limbaugh's act knows it's only a matter of time before he says something that is at the very least embarrassing but will most likely top out at downright hateful.

So Rush Limbaugh wants to own the Rams. Well good for him. That's his right as an American. But I just wonder if the NFL has learned its lesson from the last little dance with him. Dancing with Limbaugh is like dancing with a snake. Eventually, the snake will bite you. That's his nature.

Be sure to read Burwell's column in its entirety.

UPDATE: In his October 14 column, Burwell writes in part:

Limbaugh apparently wasn't so keen on becoming the poundee after excelling for so long at being the pounder.

One particular quote seemed to bother him the most:

“Let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back. I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”

That particular quote was reported in the 2006 book by Jack Huberman, “101 People Who Are Really Screwing America.” I repeated it in a column last week. The quote was so in character with the many things that Limbaugh has said before that we didn't verify it beyond the book. The quote was repeated in the ensuing days as NFL players began to express their uneasiness with Limbaugh as a potential owner.

Limbaugh at first said he couldn't remember saying it, then after his researchers were unable to find any evidence beyond the book — which listed no sources — he stepped up his game and on his Tuesday radio broadcast said the quotes were lies. In an e-mail to the AP on Tuesday, Limbaugh said, “The totally made-up and fabricated quotes attributed to me in recent media reports are outrageous and slanderous.''

Fine, let's play along for the time being and take him at his word that he was inaccurately quoted in the Huberman book. Heck, let's go along for the full ride and believe that it was all a horrible ”fabrication."

So what are we left with?

Well, essentially, I think we just threw a deck chair off the Titanic.

There is still a huge pile of polarizing, bigoted debris stacked up on the deck of the good ship Limbaugh that he can't deny or even remotely distance himself from.

“Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.” He does not deny saying this, because it's on his own website's audio archives. He also does not distance himself from his remarks that characterized life in “Obama's America” as a place where “white kids” get beat up on school buses and black kids cheer about it. There is plenty of tape of that, too.

The bigoted nonsense is hard to ignore, which is why at Tuesday's NFL owners meetings in Boston, people like Goodell, Irsay and Blank voiced reservations about someone with Limbaugh's inflammatory point of view joining their select club.

UPDATE 2: The following editor's note has been added at the top of Burwell's October 14 column:

A quote from the following column attributed to Rush Limbaugh about the merits of slavery in the United States came from the 2006 book “101 People Who Are Really Screwing America” by John Huberman. The book does not provide specific details about the quote.

Limbaugh, who is part of a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, said Monday that he did not make that statement, which has been widely reported in recent days.

The Post-Dispatch continues to research the origin of the quote. -- Reid Laymance, Sports Editor

For more on Limbaugh's history of racially charged comments, read this.