Looks like all those people proposing alternate names for the National Football League's St. Louis Rams -- for use if case an ownership group that includes Rush Limbaugh succeeds in buying the team -- will have to find something else to do with their time. If the group does buy the team, Limbaugh will reportedly not be part of it.
ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that Dave Checketts, who's leading the effort, will drop Limbaugh from the group, perhaps in the next week. The odds that Checketts' bid will be successful are still small, but Limbaugh has become radioactive over the past week, and his presence in the group dooms its chances. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made that crystal clear by coming out against the idea of having the radio host as a part owner of a team, a strong signal that there's no chance the other owners, who must approve any sale, would let it happen.
Limbaugh isn't likely to take defeat lying down. That's not his style, for one thing, and hes' already drawn a line in the sand.
"I'm not even thinking of exiting," Schefter quotes Limbaugh as saying on his show Wednesday. "I'm not even thinking of caving. I am not a caver. None of us are. We have been betrayed by too many who have caved. Pioneers take the arrows. We are pioneers. It's a sad thing but our country over 200 years old now needs pioneers all over again, but we do."
Update: It's official -- Limbaugh's out.
"It has become clear that [Limbaugh's'] involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions, endangering our bid to keep the team in St. Louis," Checketts said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "As such, we have decided to move forward without him and hope it will eventually lead us to a successful conclusion."
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