You thought talk-radio agitator Rush Limbaugh bombed in his brief stint as an NFL studio analyst for ESPN? That was Emmy-winning caliber compared with his more recent work as a prospective team owner.

I'm not sure which is more embarrassing for the group led by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts trying to buy the St. Louis Rams: That it had to drop Limbaugh this week from its list of limited partners after a backlash. Or that it obliviously included him in the first place.

You think Checketts considered at all how Limbaugh's well-earned reputation for divisiveness and veiled racial bigotry might go over in a league whose share of black players is 65 percent? I wonder if ol' Dave was listening when Limbaugh said the NFL ``too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips.''

Also I wonder how many fans would be proud to have their beloved franchise owned by a man who, on the radio, sang a parody called Barack the Magic Negro to his audience of diversity-fearing lemmings.

Alas, there still are places in America to look wistfully upon the days of segregation, perhaps.

Safe to say the NFL is not one of them.

SCATTER-SHOOTING

• Latest layer of the Cowboys-Redskins rivalry is owners Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder jockeying to one-up each other on their next head-coach hires. Wade Phillips and Jim Zorn are dead-men-coaching in Dallas and Washington, respectively, sure to be fired after the season unless they make the playoffs. The coaching-hot-seat issue is especially big this season because five Super Bowl-winning marquee coaches -- Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden, Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan -- are woo-able ``free agents.'' (I'm not forgetting you, Jimmy Johnson, but I know you are ebulliently retired and content to quaff Heineken Lights in the Upper Keys). Gruden is itching to get back and supposedly is the Redskins' top pick. Holmgren and Shanahan want back in. Cowher could be tougher to convince. Dungy is said to be serious about retirement.

• League trade deadline is Tuesday. Not much activity expected. But two names to keep in mind if the Dolphins elect to deal: Chiefs receiver Dwayne Bowe and Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.

• The five unbeaten teams are the most ever through five weeks of a season. By contrast, eight teams are winless or 1-4. Whatever happened to parity? By the way, the last 1-4 team to make the playoffs was Green Bay in 2004.

MERCURY RISING

• Vintage Dolphin Mercury Morris is coming out with a book he has chosen to title Bragging Rights: A Message From the Top of the Sports World. Gawd. Sounds like the latest example of the 1972 Perfect Season Dolphins not seeming gracious about what they accomplished.

• An Oakland-based pit bull advocacy group (who knew there were such things?) reports that Michael Vick declined an invitation to visit eight of his former dogs with the Eagles in town to play the Raiders. C'mon! Isn't it pretty obvious these were not Vick's beloved pets? It would be disingenuous for him to now ``visit'' these dogs for some lame photo op, and I don't blame him for saying no.

• Rookie coaches Josh McDaniels (Broncos) and Jim Caldwell (Colts) are 5-0. The only rookie coaches to start 6-0: Chuck Knox, 1973; Red Miller, 1977; and Mike Martz, 2000.

Postscript: To any Rush Limbaugh fans planning to write me nasty letters or e-mails, remember, my last name is spelled

``Le Batard.''

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