The NFL, Power, and Rush Limbaugh... seriously?

Two stories came up this weekend from completely different ends of the spectrum. One is from the NFL. On Friday we learned that the 2010 Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints had been involved in a scheme to pay their players for injuries inflicted on their opponents. Both Brett Favre and Kurt Warner, potential Hall of Fame quarterbacks, suffered serious injury at the hands of the Saints defense and their pay for pain plan. We also learned that everyone connected with team management was aware of this. The NFL is now looking into what penalties they should levy against those involved. Also this weekend, the titan of talk radio, the man who boasts about having "talent on loan from God," Rush Limbaugh, stepped in it. In response to testimony from college law student Sandra Fluke, Limbaugh called her a slut and a prostitute. He has since apologized, saying "My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.’’ Here's my take on both situations, which in my mind are part of a larger narrative where those in power get to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. They should all be fired. Yep, you heard me right... fire 'em all. Rush, any Saints players who participated and are still in the league, and any coach who knowingly went along with the plan to injure other players. Rush is in the business of pissing folks off, and that's fine. But after years of being on the air, if he did not know it was wrong the minute he said it, he is not fit for the public airwaves. And if he did know it, why did he wait three days to apologize, using two of those days to further degrade Ms. Fluke? The Saints coaches and players who were part of this debacle would never say it would be legitimate for other teams to purposefully target their QB Drew Brees. All of these folks knew exactly what they were doing and made a conscious decision to not only flaunt the rules of their employers, but decency as well. But I know I am pushing water uphill in this battle. Today Rush is back on the air, as he will be tomorrow. Sometime this week, the guilty Saints, there's an oxymoron, will receive their slap on the wrist and move on to get ready for another season. If you or I had purposefully hurt a fellow employee while on the job, or had taken part in it, what are the chances we would still have a job? If you or I had brought the values of our companies into question publicly like Rush did for all of his radio partners and sponsors, do you think we'd still be employed? Of course not. Both of these stories point up the inequities of a system where the powerful have an innate advantage over us regular folk who are just trying to keep our noses clean and our bank balances above zero. I am sickened by all of it.