Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeff Lurie took a shot at ESPN for both its hiring of Rush Limbaugh, as well as the way it portrays professional football players on its weekly sports drama, Playmakers:
ESPN had tarnished its image of being one of the most respected media outlets for NFL coverage for the sake of ratings, Lurie said. The hiring of Limbaugh and the show are examples of "racist potshots" toward the league, he said."Some of the events of this week are built with institutional racism," Lurie said. "It exists. Let's not hide it. Let's not make us believe the problem is a single person. It's far from that. . ."
"We thought we were long past this," Lurie said. "When you hire somebody like that, this is what you're going to get. It wasn't a surprise. You get what you hire."
Playmakers, which airs Tuesday nights at 9:00, 10:00 and Midnight, ET, has been averaging about 2.2 million viewers a week, according to Nielsen Media Research.
