actually, if you take the replay, at the moment we all figure out what's going on, those guys flinch, cover their mouths with a "Holy toejam" look on their faces.
The sports media is weird. One the one hand, they don't have the pretentions to objectivity that news outfits claim, and yet they make a good deal of their hay on opinionated idiots commenting on issues they know nothing about.
At the same time, there are people who take their job seriously, and who see themselves as news professionals who cover sports issues.
And all of this is to cover a sports world that's the oddest collection of a group of players who are there on athletic merit, some of whom become overhyped superstars and who are managed by one of the most visible old-boys-network out there.
Still, I'm sure that when someone in ESPN decided to bring in Rush Limbaugh, there was a great deal of resistance. After all, in the "opinionated prettythang" category, there are plenty of people with a sports background. Rush's qualifications have nothing to do with sports competence: he's just there to be an prettythang and make money. So I'm sure this misstep made many folks in ESPN upset who didn't think he should have been there to begin with. Add to that the fact this is a network that often has all-black anchors on sportscenter, and even a female calling football play-by-play, and slipping out a comment like that is going to piss people off.
Rush's radio m.o. is to take the right-wing p.c. line ("Political Correctness" = "adhering to a popular body of doctrine without understanding the reasoning behind it"), and cover his ignorance by appealing to popular prejudices. That works on the radio, preaching to the choir, but bring it to the morning football discussions, and you're in a world of hurt.