In a week when sports have largely taken a backseat to politics, with much of the country intently following the results of the Nov. 3 elections, there was one case in which the two worlds collided. Former college football coachTommy Tuberville, a Republican, defeated Doug Jones, a Democrat, in Alabama for a seat in the United States Senate.
On Thursday, Coach Tuberville took to Twitter to endorse some of President Trump’s conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud. Tuberville communicated his message the only way he knows how: with some football lingo.
Tubervilletweeted: “The election results are out of control. It’s like the whistle has blown, the game is over, and the players have gone home, but the referees are suddenly adding touchdowns to the other team’s side of the scoreboard.”
If that alone wasn’t enough to warrant a spot on ESPN’s weekly “C’mon Man” segment, a subsequent tweet read: “I’d challenge that as a coach, and @realDonaldTrump is right to challenge that as a candidate.”
The senator-elect fumbled the comparison. A better analogy is that the red team met up with the referees before the game started and agreed not to put any of the blue team’s points up on the scoreboard until the second half began. That way the team in red’s coach, who struggles with emotional maturity, can tell his fans that he and his team are winning. Then inevitably, with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the blue team up 42–7 in victory formation, the coach of the red team starts throwing a temper tantrum on the sideline and cries out that the blue team cheated. You get the point. Not a pretty sight.
Coach Tuberville campaigned as a prototypical pro-Trump MAGA candidate. Stand for the anthem, build the wall, protect guns, drain the swamp, etc., etc., etc. Tuberville has a history of nativist and racist rhetoric, dating back to 2011 when he hopped aboard one of President Donald Trump’s favorite conspiracies by expressingdoubt about the legitimacy of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. More recently, he’s said American cities are being taken over byterrorism and Sharia law and that immigrants from theMiddle East and Africa are uneducated and bring disease to the United States.
Outside of absolute allegiance to President Trump, Tuberville hasn’t presented much in the form of a legislative agenda. During his campaign, he refused to participate in any debates and failed to answer policy-related questions in depth. Coincidentally, Tuberville has the exact same amount of political and public policy experience as Trump did before his presidential run in 2016. Since his political record is nonexistent (and this is the sports page), we have no choice but to look into his coaching career.
Tuberville coached 21 years with Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati. His most successful tenure was at Auburn where he coached for nine seasons and led the Tigers to eight bowl games. Auburn football fans have fond memories of the coach Tuberville years, which is probably why he chose to move from Florida to Alabama in 2018 to pursue a senate seat. Tuberville’s exits at Ole Miss, Texas Tech and Cincinnati likely make him a much less appealing candidate to voters in those states.
Tuberville's democratic opponent Doug Jones took note of his history of unceremonious exits andaired an ad about it during halftime of a nationally televised Alabama-Texas A&M game earlier this fall. Tuberville told his team at Ole Miss the only way he would leave Oxford was if he was carried out in a “pine box,” and then left to take the job at Auburn days later. Then at Texas Tech, Tubervillewalked out of a dinner with recruits to take the job at Cincinnati. Toward the end of his dismal final season at Cincinnati, Tuberville wasbooed and heckled by students after a bad loss to Brigham Young University. He responded by eloquently shouting into the stands: “Go to hell! Get a job!” It was right then that people should have realized this guy has all the tools to be a Republican senator.
Tuberville’s peers in the Senate might find their new colleague a bit difficult to work with. During his coaching career hemowed through different coordinators, often scapegoating them for his team’s poor performances. During one particular Texas Tech game, Tuberville got so upset with an assistant coach that heslapped him in the face, knocking his headset to the ground. Just imagine what could happen on the Senate floor if things get heated. Watch out Bernie.
Tuberville won’t be the only former college coach representing the Republican party in Congress when he’s sworn in this January. He will join Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a former Ohio State assistant wrestling coach and steadfast supporter of President Trump.
