As American families sit down to turkey on Thursday, many will turn on the television to catch some Thanksgiving football. If you happen to be among them, and have no inclination as to which team to root for, why not choose the franchise that’s more Republican?
After all, the results from political races and sports matches have been found to align in the past. For example, the final Washington Redskins game prior to a presidential election accurately predicted whether the incumbent party would keep the White House from 1936-2000.
As such, FrumForum has conducted an investigation into how much money each team’s Owner, Vice-President, Head Coach and Quarterback has given to federal Republican candidates, and we’ll be basing our rooting suggestions accordingly.
Green Bay Packers (6-4) @ Detroit Lions (2-8) – 12:30 on Fox
Betting Spread: Packers by 10 – FrumForum Pick: Lions
Lions: It seems we have a fan in the owner’s box! Detroit Lions Vice-Chairman William Clay Ford, Jr., has donated $112,142 to Republican candidates since 1979. Although Ford did donate $2,300 to Barack Obama, he saved some face in our eyes by donating $1,000 to John McCain.
Lions rookie QB Matt Stafford has not made any political contributions on the federal scene.
Packers: There appears to be little evidence of political life in the Green Bay Packers franchise. Vice-President Ted Thompson, Head Coach Mike McCarthy, and Quarterback Aaron Rodgers all abstained from donating to federal candidates.
Owner Mark Murphy is on record as having donated $5,000 to the Gridiron PAC, which has distributed 63% of their contributions to Democrats.
FrumForum Verdict: Lions by a landslide – $112,142 to Republicans over thirty years has to count for something!
Oakland Raiders (3-7) @ Dallas Cowboys (7-3) – 4:15 on CBS
Betting Spread: Cowboys by 13.5 – FrumForum Pick: Cowboys
Raiders: Majority Owner Al Davis give $11,000 to Republicans between 1986-1990, but nothing since. Chief Executive Amy Trask gave $2,000 to former Virginia Senator George Allen.
Head coach Tom Cable and QB Bruce Gradkowski stayed out of the political game.
Cowboys: Owners Jerry Jones has donated $16,667 to Republicans since 1984, including nearly $6,000 to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).
His son, executive vice-president Stephen Jones, has followed in his father’s footsteps, donating $19,950 to Republicans, including $1,000 to Rep. Joe Barton (R-S.C.) and $2,300 to John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid.
Head Coach Wade Phillips and QB Tony Romo have not made any donations.
FrumForum Verdict: The Joneses tip the scales in favour of the Cowboys, which Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard once declared America’s most conservative football team, albeit in a less quantitative way.
New York Giants (6-4) @ Denver Broncos (6-4) – 8:20 on NFL Network
Betting Spread: Giants by 6.5 – FrumForum Pick: Broncos
Giants: The Giants franchise seems to be one degree removed from Republican support. QB Eli Manning’s brother, Peyton Manning, donated $1,000 towards Bob Corker’s 2012 campaign, but Eli gave none himself. John Mara’s father and former Giants owner, Wellington Mara, gave $11,250 to Republican candidates throughout his lifetime, but John himself has not done the same.
Giants VP Steve Tisch is quite the Democrat – $470,250 in lifetime donations to Democratic candidates, and none to Republicans.
Broncos: The lone exception to the political apathy in the Broncos camp is Chairman and Owner Pat Bowler who gave $24,000 to the GOP, mostly in Colorado races.
GM Brian Xanders, Head Coach Josh McDaniels and QB Kyle Orton have no record of political contribution.
FrumForum Verdict: Broncos. No one in the Giants’ upper management has given to the GOP, and Tisch has given nearly half a million to the Democrats! Pat Bowler’s 24k takes it for Denver.
Commentators
Even the announcers have gotten into the act of making political campaign contributions. Fox analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman has donated $10,300 over the years, primarily to the GOP. Aikman made two different donations in 2008 to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign fund, for a total of $4,900.
Jim Nantz of CBS, who has been making headlines recently himself, has also donated to various political campaigns over the years. Nantz’s giving seems to be bipartisan, as he has given both to Republicans Fred Thompson ($2,300) and George W. Bush ($2,000) and one-time-Democrat Joseph Lieberman ($2,000).
Bob Papa and Matt Millen, who will announce the Sunday night game on the NFL Network, have no record of making campaign contributions.
5 responses so far
1 i Am Cdn // Nov 26, 2009 at 10:35 am
Ahhh the big day has arrived.
The country with one of the biggest overeating / overweight problem gets ready to sit on their duffs all day to watch their electricity pigs of 50″ HDTV’s and stuff themselves with hormone injected turkey, potato chips (Potatoe chips if you are in Dan Quayle’s house to wathc the games) and weak beer while watching the epitome of socialism (revenue sharing / salary caps), the NFL games.
And then this is followed up on the 2nd day with a journey to WalMart to max out your credit cards, buying Chinese made stuff that you do not need nor can your afford.
Way to go USA! Help out China all that you can.
2 rbottoms // Nov 26, 2009 at 3:12 pm
>Way to go USA! Help out China all that you can.
Hey, two days out of the year we can give it a rest.
Happy Thanksgiving.
3 lowandslow // Nov 26, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Mark Murphy isn’t the Owner of the Packers, he’s the President and CEO.
4 Carney // Nov 27, 2009 at 4:07 pm
i Am Cdn, if you are going to steer at anyone for spelling errors, you should avoid your own, such as “wathc “.
As for Quayle, he made the mistake of overriding his own strong instincts and trusting the wrong spelling as printed on a flashcard given to him as part of an event hosted by a public school. He made the mistake of assuming that a place of learning would have gotten this right, and what’s more, gone the extra mile to get every detail right for a visit from the Vice President, and thus set aside his own strong doubts. I find it fascinating that in the torrent of orchestrated derision that was unleashed on him immediately afterward and to this day, ZERO mention is ever made of the scandal that is such woeful ineptitude from the school.
5 sricher // Dec 1, 2009 at 9:38 am
Tim. This is brilliant. I wish I would have read closer to Thanksgiving. And congrats, 2/3 isn’t bad… Although picking the lions to win anything is pretty bold…
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