In football, it's called a broken play. Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh had wanted to be one of the owners of the St. Louis Rams, but blitzers appeared from several quarters.

The head of the NFL Players Association, DeMaurice Smith, expressed his concern. National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell said the commentator's "divisive" comments would not be tolerated from any NFL insider. And Colts owner Jim Irsay said he would vote against him. Between them, they did fair-minded sports lovers a great service.

The plan was for Rush Limbaugh to be a limited partner in a bid for the Rams led by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts. But Mr. Checketts said Wednesday that the commentator's participation had complicated the effort, so the group will move forward without him. Hurrah!

On his radio show earlier in the day, the Rush-man was the typical post-game loser. "This is not about the NFL, it's not about the St. Louis Rams, it's not about me," he said. "This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative."

In fact, this is about Rush Limbaugh. The NFL is no liberal-leftist organization; it is a highly profitable league of millionaires that guards its image and understands that the majority of its players are African American.

The owners and players know that Rush Limbaugh was forced to resign from ESPN's Sunday night football broadcast in 2003 after comments about Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb and black quarterbacks. They know that the Limbaugh shtick has room for material with racist overtones (just last month, he said: "In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering.")

They know -- as Rush fans don't, with their delusions of his being a great conservative leader -- that he is not a respectable figure and no respectable organization would want him.

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