Rush Limbaugh has a lot of thoughts about Michael Sam's decision to almost certainly become the first openly gay player in the history of the NFL. These thoughts may not be coherent, and in truth it may be a bit of a stretch to describe them as "thoughts" rather than "primeval spasms of confusion, resentment and fear" — but he has them nonetheless!
Speaking on his radio show on Tuesday, the right-wing's favorite pundit responded to Sam's coming out by saying, "Heterosexuality has no political agenda and there is no agenda attached to it." He continued: "Heterosexuality does not have activists."
And then he continued some more: "[Heterosexuals] may be 95, 98 percent of the population — they're under assault by the 2-5 percent that are homosexual."
What this has to do with Sam is not clear, although the inference listeners are supposed to make appears to be that Sam's coming out was evidence of his "political agenda" or — worse still! — proof that he was being manipulated by "activists" who are placing heterosexuals "under assault."
Limbaugh then moved on to insinuating some of Sam's supporters were hypocrites, because they celebrate Sam's decision while also criticizing football for causing brain damage among so many of its players.
"Why is it OK now for a gay man to play football?" Limbaugh asked. "I thought it was dangerous and leads to concussions, that it was barbaric. I thought that it was too dangerous and leads to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and early death, suicide, but yet ... here comes the first announced gay guy and [it's] 'Hey, cool, man, go for it!' Why is it heroic for a gay man to play football?"
Answering his own rhetorical questions, Limbaugh said the reason Sam was being celebrated was because the media wants to see a gay NFL player succeed. If this logic sounds familiar, that may be because it's basically the same argument that got Limbaugh fired by ESPN more than 10 years ago.
You can listen to Limbaugh's response to Michael Sam below, via Media Matters:
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