So Rush Limbaugh won't be a part-owner of the St. Louis Rams after all.

This story consumed a fair amount of air last week. At least, it did until a six-year-old boy failed to seal himself up in a balloon and fly across Colorado. In these troubled times, distractions are more valuable than you might think.

I wasn't particularly interested in Rush's conspiracy theories as to why his bid failed, though his assertion that the player's union was using his potential ownership stake as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the owners is breathtaking. Utterly self-absorbed, but that's Rush's day job, so there ought to be few complaints about that.

What's most interesting to me is that big business has decided that xenophobia is bad--for business, anyway. All sorts of talk radio types, pundits and the like can decry "diversity" as unamerican or simply depraved, but the United States is a nation made up of all sorts of folks, and if you're going to make money off those folks, you don't want to drive away any significant number of potential consumers.

Rush wasn't booted from the bid because of his politics. As Michael Wilbon pointed out in the Washington Post last week, there are a number of NFL owners who view Limbaugh as far too liberal. The problem was the public expression of those politics, and in particular, the screeds against any number of folks that Limbaugh doesn't like.

Unlike many of his talk radio competitors, Limbaugh is actually funny. He uses humor to take down people he doesn't like. Some of the more incendiary comments that outrage folks are simply mean-spirited jokes. Jokes that folks like NFL owners might well find funny, but in the back room of the club and not in public discourse. These guys can't afford to be seen as robber baron racists who have little concern for the needs and interests of 99.9 percent of Americans.

Rush's politics are much more populist than robber baron, but he makes his living telling back room jokes over the air. He's paid exceptionally well for this, well enough to easily afford a stake in an NFL team. It's a conundrum. Without his boorish show, he'd never have the money to be in the same hotel as NFL owners. With the show, he can have the Presidential Suite whenever he wants, but he can't join the club.

I'm believe that Rush is truly hurt by this turn of events. Rush is from Cape Girardeau, Mo., a town that shares much more culturally with southern Illinois than the Ozarks (take what you want from that), but it is in Missouri. Three decades ago, Rush served as PR director for the Kansas City Royals. Much more recently, Limbaugh had a gig on ESPN (famously derailed for comments about Eagles QB Donovan McNabb). Rush doesn't like sports. He loves sports.

And so this really must sting. And unlike most folks, I kinda feel for the guy. Not because I think this exclusion is unjust. It's not. Rush is bad for business--unless your business is radio. This isn't a liberal or conservative conspiracy at work. As Don King might say, it's a green conspiracy. Money conspired to keep Rush Limbaugh out of the NFL. And that's really got to stick in his craw. I doubt it will change the way he approaches his show, but perhaps he might ponder the ironies now and again.

Now, Rush has to go back to telling mean jokes and making scads of money. Denigrating is his business, and business is good. Just not for the NFL. And that ain't a shame.

Jon Worley would last about an hour on talk radio before being fired for dullness beyond belief.