Oddly enough, I was watching baseball tonight (yeah, I know: sport for thick-glassed statisticians and chronic groin-scratchers) and it was in the the top of the 11th inning between the the Red Sox and A's when I discovered what was probably the best news I've received regarding this NFL season to date: Rush Limbaugh has resigned from ESPN's NFL Sunday Countdown following fallout from his comments regarding Philadelphia Eagles Quarter Back Donavan McNabb. I now surely join legions of diehard football fans everywhere as we breathe a collective sigh of relief in response to ole' Rush-sham-bo's resignation/dismissal. h3. Dead Weight Limbaugh, notorious for his neo-conservative radio talk show, was brought onto NFL Sunday Countdown to "add spice" to the already highly successful gameday analysis show. The fact that Countdown was by far the most established and respected gameday preview show in the business made Limbaugh's addition to the show a perplexing decision at best. ABC's previous experiment with Dennis Miller doing "layman's" colour commentary for Monday Night Football went down in flames only for fans to then learn Limbaugh--who is perhaps every much as knowledgable a fan as Miller but woefully less charming--was given a panel seat on the highly respected Countdown? Rush's role on the show was to provide a fan's perspective and challange the opinions of hall-of-fame calibre ex-players Tom Jackson, Steve Young and Michael Irving three times a day. It shouldn't take you three oppurtunities to figure out what type of ballon best mimics how Limbaugh's contributions were received on the show. Less than four weeks later, Rush hammered the last nail into his own coffin by attributing McNabb's lofty status in the game to a sports media that "has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well." h3. Whose Agenda Exactly? For the sake of argument, nevermind that McNabb was on pace last season to surpass that year's NFL MVP Rich Gannon's passing stats vefore being felled by a broken ankle last November. Also, lets cast aside the NFL's well documented, historical prejudice against giving black QB's a chance to prove their worth in a starting role. Limbaugh, even with that much benefit of the doubt, still never presented any notable analysis or refreshing perspective in his short-lived role as a panel member. He could have criticized McNabb for the passer's penchant to miss a proper read on open receivers downfield. He could also have criticized McNabb for trying too hard to appease critics of his pocket passing ability instead of tucking the ball and taking advantage of his mobility. Instead, Limbaugh played on the tired stereotype of the black QB being a favoured underdog in the era when Atlanta's Michael Vick posesses the most astounding quarterbacking talent in the game. Besides, any sports fan should know, McNabb plays in Phillie! Heck, the story that haunted McNabb for his first years in that town was that Eagles fans booed him when he was drafted second overall in 1999! Nobody gets a free ride in Philadelphia and I remember being as big enough fan of former Eagles' golden boy Randall Cunningham as anybody. Even if there was not the strong tinge of racism to Rush Limbaugh's criticism, he was still vacuous with the face value of his claim. There really are no excuses for Limbaugh: his tenure as an analyst soured because his commentary was ill-conceived and a waste of time. Limbaugh's modus operandi is to preach that anti-republican or anti-conservative news coverage is the result of the liberal mass media's collective effort to sell the world on its biased agenda. That he has been booted from Countdown due to his own agenda is an irony for everyone who is not a dittohead to savour for a long time to come.