Limbaugh should be on the receiving end of a hit by Rice

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Kirsten Gillibrand not buying Rush Limbaugh's ‘chickifying’
By Lucy McCalmont, September 12, 2014

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ripped Rush Limbaugh on Friday, after the conservative radio host said the uproar over Ray Rice and domestic abuse is just liberals “feminizing” and ‘chickifying’ the NFL.

“Well if he believes criminals should be playing in the National Football League, he’s got a serious issue. These are criminal cases of assault and battery and sexual violence. Our players are role models, we don’t [want] young kids looking up to these folks who are beating their wives. It’s not right. And so we should have a zero tolerance policy. And he’s wrong,” Gillibrand said Friday on CNN in response to Limbaugh’s comments.

On his show earlier Friday, Limbaugh slammed a letter sent by 16 female senators—including Gillibrand—to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell calling for a zero tolerance policy toward domestic abuse.

“We’re feminizing this game. It’s a man’s game and if we keep feminizing this game we’re gonna ruin it. If we keep chickifying this game we’re gonna ruin it,” Limbaugh said, according to a transcript.

Echoing comments he made earlier this week, Limbaugh added that politics have gotten too embroiled with sports—specifically with the NFL, which he said has “become nothing more than the latest extension of the Democrat Party leftist agenda.”

“Of course I’m against wife beating. I’m also against mixing social issues with broadcast of sporting events, too. But that line has been blurred now,” the radio host said.

“Sorry, this is not why I watch football. This is going to be the death of this sport. It is no longer an escape. It’s no longer about great athletes. It’s no longer about amazing athletic achievement and drama,” Limbaugh said. “The never-ending refrain on the Washington Redskins name, and now this? Guns, gays, domestic violence, these are topics that I frankly don’t be need to be preached to about. I don’t need to be lectured, and I certainly don’t want to turn on a football game and end up being accused of all kinds of social misbehavior.”

Lawmakers have weighed in since the released [sic] of footage Monday that showed Rice knocking his wife unconscious in a February incident inside a casino elevator. Rice’s contract with the Baltimore Ravens was terminated and the running back was suspended indefinitely by the NFL shortly after the video became public. In the days since, eyes have turned to Goodell and the league, with some—like Sen. Richard Blumenthal—calling for the commissioner’s resignation.

When asked if Goodell should resign, Gillibrand said the commissioner should “lead the reform.” However, she added if it is true that Goodell was aware of the extent of Rice’s violence toward his wife, then he should go.

“He has to be fired. He has to step down because he won’t have the legitimacy, he won’t have the credibility to reform an organization that’s desperately in need of reform,” Gillibrand said.
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