It’s a hopelessly old and tired news story: pundit makes insensitive remark, media blitz ensues. Conservative radio blowhard and former ESPN football commentator Rush Limbaugh just happened to be the purveyor of the latest scandal.

“The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback can do well — black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well … There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve,” Limbaugh said Sept. 28 on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown.”

He carries on the tradition of late sports commentators Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder (“The black athlete is ‘bred to be the better athlete'”), and Howard Cosell (“Look at that little monkey run”).

That Limbaugh made the remarks he did regarding Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb isn’t particularly surprising.

Limbaugh makes comments like that each day on his syndicated radio program, but there, he’s preaching to the choir.

His loyal “dittoheads” worship him, and those who disagree don’t receive airtime.

It’s that notoriety that prompted ESPN to hire Limbaugh as a commentator.

The network knew they could garner higher ratings just on Limbaugh’s novelty value. And it worked all too well.

“Limbaugh was hired to be provocative about football,” said Chris LaPlaca, ESPN’s senior vice president for communication, last week. “We made that loud and clear when he was hired.”

But there’s a difference between commenting on the action on the gridiron and opening up the perpetual can of worms called the issue of race in sports.

Limbaugh resigned soon after the media blitz ensued, and he doesn’t plan to apologize for his remarks.

Instead, he continues to defend himself on his talk show, saying last week that “he must have been right” or “there wouldn’t be this cacophony of outrage that has sprung up in the sportswriter community.”

But he’s not right.

From Daunte Culpepper to Kordell Stewart to Michael Vick to ISU’s own Seneca Wallace, black quarterbacks in the NFL and elsewhere have proved their worth, even though they shouldn’t have to be held to different standards by pundits like Limbaugh.

Thankfully, Limbaugh won’t be making acerbic commentary to NFL fans on Sunday anytime soon. But his remarks will be filed in the annals of poor sports journalism for eternity.