How Republican Influencers Abandoned Football

EPISODE 154: And why Tim Walz should remember some guys.

You may have noticed that there are less than five weeks left before Election Day, somehow. And that the vice-presidential debate, between Ohio senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota governor Tim Walz, is taking place tonight.

Which helps explain why Donald Trump was at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, for Alabama’s incredible 41-34 win over Georgia, tossing chicken tenders to fans and also making fun of Walz — who was simultaneously campaigning at Minnesota-Michigan, in Ann Arbor.

Crystallizing the sport of football as a battleground state, itself.

And so today, I called up the political analyst — and unhinged University of Michigan football fan — I needed to discuss this dynamic with: Jane Coaston. Who happened to be a card-carrying member of the Libertarian Party until 2022, when she decided to register as politically independent.

Jane now works as a contributor to The New York Times and CNN and is the host of Crooked Media’s What a Day podcast. But the biggest reason I wanted to talk to her is because her beat — for years — has been conservatism, specifically.

It’s a movement that Jane has taken seriously: studying its history, reporting its evolution, cordially interviewing the likes of Texas senator Ted Cruz, for instance.

But for a few years now, something MAGA influencers have found themselves mad at is the very thing that Republicans of yore used to love, without question:

Football.

To the point where this election may well be decided by a disconnect between the two institutions that Jane has devoted herself to understanding.

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Remembering some guys,

Pablo