Something strange is happening in Texas. A Democratic challenger is within striking distance of winning the Senate seat. Even more bizarrely, the challenger, Colin Allred, is a former pro football player and is running as a Democrat.
Allred played at Baylor University and then spent four years in the NFL as a linebacker for the Tennessee Titans before entering politics. This is the centerpiece of his campaign biography – the son of a Dallas single mother who overcame long odds to make it to the NFL. The rest of his story is cut short. Work as a civil rights attorney at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama. He served a term in Congress after defeating incumbent Republican Pete Sessions in 2018 to win the House seat. His rhetoric is peppered with references to soccer. His Senate campaign launch video was shot in an empty football stadium. He even once referred to the border with Mexico as the “one-yard line.”
Politicians often rely on drainboards for shorthand. The players on the other side are always moving the goalposts. But Allred can talk about the pain that comes with sacrifice, and mean it. He collided with former Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett during a power run and had to have two vertebrae in his neck fused.
Texas only has two sports: football and spring football. (And so is what was happening when Nolan Ryan was on the mound.) For many Texans, the appeal of a politician with roots in football is obvious. The appeal of the Democratic Party, on the other hand, is not, and the Democratic Party is still sorting it out. In 2018, Beto O’Rourke capitalized on the increased national attention (and money that came with it) before losing the Texas Senate race to Ted Cruz by less than three points. O’Rourke went from being a lanky, foul-mouthed progressive to overnight celebrity. A documentary camera followed him everywhere. That’s not the case with Allred. Although he is physically imposing, he appears to be modest. It’s not that he dislikes the press, but he doesn’t immediately hold press conferences either. He prefers small audiences to O’Rourke’s style of barnstorming. His main appeal is to moderates, not to young people participating in grassroots movements. His campaign boasts a track record of confronting “extremists from both parties.”
And for months, Democrats ignored Texas. Alred was mostly alone, not that he minded it. Allred spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, but has distanced herself from the Harris campaign. When asked by Politico if he would like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz or Joe Biden to come to Texas to campaign, Allred replied: Confronting Texans and how we can solve it is all welcome. But I’ve never been a big agent. ”
This approach helped Allred unseat Mr. Sessions, and it may work again. Mr. Allred significantly outperformed Mr. Cruz. And when it became clear that Mr. Allred had a real chance, flipping the Texas seat would give Democrats a chance to keep the Senate, the party delayed and threw hundreds of votes into his campaign. Started investing $10,000. Earlier this month, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke, Greg Casar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on a campaign trip to Texas, perhaps to drum up enthusiasm among young voters. Naturally, Aled himself was not nearby.
Mr. Allred is touting his nomination as one of the most bipartisan members of the Common Ground Committee. He has opposed the party on several issues that affect voters, most notably the border and oil and gas issues, but his career has otherwise tracked the party fairly closely, and his campaign has It has put protecting abortion access at the forefront of Democratic priorities. He became the first lawmaker to take official parental leave.
That might have been easier to do when he was once captain of the Baylor University football team. No one will question your masculinity. Walz, a fellow Democratic politician, relies heavily on his football biography, but said his time coaching a high school football team gave him the right persona to sponsor LGBT groups. “What I really needed was a football coach who was a military man, straight and married,” Walz said in a 2018 interview. Football not only provides an easy way to weave common clichés about toughness and teamwork into Allred; However, when Allred describes taking off his jacket in preparation to fight MAGA looters at the Capitol on January 6th, it feels a little different. , 2021, Cruise was hiding in a supply closet. His past as a football player strengthens his claim to be bipartisan. During elections, when gender is an increasingly important factor in shaping party coalitions, having a background that men tend to admire makes it more persuasive on issues that women tend to care about most, such as reproductive rights. It may become easier to speak up.
For much of its history, football has had a vaguely conservative image. It is hierarchical and militaristic, played by men, and games are preceded by bouts of nationalism. Each U.S. flag that covers a soccer field weighs about 1,000 pounds. Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, all football players, all Republicans. (John F. Kennedy, who played on Harvard University’s junior varsity team, is the only Democratic exception among presidents.) A number of people connected to college and pro football, including Anthony Gonzalez, Jon Runyan, and Steve Nearly all current and former Representatives and Senators Largent, Burgess Owens, Tommy Tuberville, Tom Osborne, and J.C. Watts are Republicans. (In addition to Allred, former NFL quarterback and Congressman Heath Shuler and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey native who played football at Stanford University, come to mind.) And his father is an NFL commissioner. Roger Goodell is actually a Republican senator. Some NFL owners have donated money to Donald Trump, but when Trump tried to own a team himself, the NFL refused.
There was a time, not too long ago, when it seemed like the rift would only widen. As more and more evidence of the dangers of concussions emerged and rules were put in place to try to reduce the risk, many Republicans became angry that the game was becoming too “soft.” Meanwhile, sons of liberal parents left the game in droves. Then, in 2016, Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel during the national anthem at games to protest police brutality against Black Americans, and all teams in the league subsequently said they would not hire him after the season. Made a decision. above. Progressive activists praised Kaepernick and other athletes who later knelt in support. Meanwhile, then-Vice President Mike Pence went to an Indianapolis Colts game only to be ejected after several players knelt during the national anthem. By 2020, during the George Floyd protests, the league had taken steps like writing “End Racism” in small letters in the end zones of every field, but this didn’t satisfy anyone. It wasn’t, but the NFL had become a political football. But sports remained the biggest common denominator for Americans. Of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2022, 82 were NFL games. That was before Taylor Swift came out.
