Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Rush Limbaugh’s future as a National Football League owner will be determined by his wallet, not his words.

Big bucks trump flaming bombast, especially in this economic climate.

The conservative talk-radio personality, a Missouri native and short-lived ESPN football analyst, is part of an investor group that wants to buy a controlling stake in the St. Louis Rams.

While the Rams, winless in five games this season, aren’t a trophy property like, say, the Dallas Cowboys, they’re still part of the most watched and successful U.S. sports league. There are only so many franchises to go around.

Limbaugh’s group is led by former Madison Square Garden President and current St. Louis Blues and Real Salt Lake majority owner Dave Checketts, who brings a wealth of sports industry contacts, know-how and credibility. Checketts also brings big-time backers like George Soros, who financed the duo’s failed attempt to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003.

Checketts’s ownership of hockey’s Blues is backed by, among others, TowerBrook Capital Partners, which was formerly known as Soros Private Equity Partners before it was spun off from Soros Asset Management Group in 2005.

A spokesman for Checketts didn’t return a message left at his office seeking comment on Limbaugh.

Limbaugh’s Howlers

Predictably, some already are howling at the prospect of the NFL’s owners welcoming the loose-lipped likes of Limbaugh, who has uttered more than a few things that have raised eyebrows first, then ire. One sports banker joked that more than a few owners probably have “Rush Is Right” bumper stickers on their cars.

During his stint on ESPN, for instance, Limbaugh suggested that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was over- hyped.

“The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well,” said Limbaugh, who lost his job a few days later.

There’s more. Plenty of it.

Limbaugh during his radio show once said the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips, referring to rival street gangs.

He once poked fun at Michael J. Fox, who is stricken with Parkinson’s disease. Said the actor was exaggerating the severity of his tremors in a campaign ad for a Democratic Senate candidate.

All Meaningless

Limbaugh compared the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib to an initiation ceremony for Skull & Bones, the secretive society at Yale University. And he once said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People should buy a liquor store so that its members could practice robberies.

There have been some whoppers, all right.

And none of it will mean a thing when owners gather to decide whether Limbaugh should own the Rams.

Limbaugh can take solace in something sports industry consultant Marc Ganis said when National Basketball Association owners were deciding whether to award the expansion Charlotte Bobcats to a group that included Larry Bird or one fronted by billionaire Robert Johnson, who would become the first black owner in sports. They went with Johnson. Color played a role, yes. It wasn’t black, though.

It was green. Lots of it.

A 60 percent interest in the Rams is being sold by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on behalf of the children of former owner Georgia Frontiere, who died last year. There are as many as six groups bidding for the team, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, citing league sources.

Ownership Groups

The NFL historically has favored small ownership groups of wealthy individuals with a general partner whose sole focus would be the football team.

“The NFL owners are going to want to see a frothy bidding process,” says Gordon Saint-Denis, head of sports advisory and finance at CIT Group Inc. “You’ve got to pay full price.”

Forbes says the Rams are worth $913 million, placing them 25th out of 32 teams. Nineteen teams are worth at least $1 billion, according to Forbes.

Think of NFL teams as homes in an exclusive enclave.

Jerry Jones, whose Cowboys are worth more than $1.6 billion, has the most expensive house on the block. As such, he has a vested interest in the sale price of the homes in the neighborhood. If a neighbor accepts a lowball offer, the value of his property might be damaged.

All bidders are welcome, especially in this economy, since there just aren’t that many egomaniacs willing to spend whatever it takes for the right to own a sports team, even in the NFL.

Limbaugh, who reaches about 20 million listeners and is syndicated on about 600 radio stations, last year signed an eight-year, $400 million contract with Clear Channel Communications Inc.

The Checketts group has big bucks. A big ego. And one very big mouth that won’t figure either way in their getting the team.

(Scott Soshnick is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 11, 2009 21:01 EDT