While liberals might dominate the big screen, the sports world is another story. Unlike actors, almost every great quarterback favors Republicans.
Knowing how cozy last night’s Superbowl quarterback Tom Brady is with President Donald Trump, you probably think I’m talking about him. After all, Brady has publicly said he and President Donald Trump have been friends for a long time (they met when Brady was a judge at Trump’s 2002 Miss USA beauty pageant), he has played golf with Trump many times, they have phoned each other many times, and he said in 2015 he hoped Trump would be elected president.
But I’m NOT talking about Brady, not specifically. I’m talking about the best quarterbacks in NFL history, an amazingly high percentage of whom are identifiably conservatives.
Who ranks among the Top 10 quarterbacks of all time?
Brady definitely does. So does Joe Montana, the best quarterback ever in the opinion of many experts until Brady and Peyton Manning came along. Brett Favre, who held most of the NFL career records before Manning broke them, is also considered among the top 10. So is Dan Marino, who held most of the career records before Favre broke them. You can also make a good argument for Fran Tarkenton, who held most of the career records before Marino broke them.
You can also make an excellent argument for John Elway, who many experts consider better than his fellow 1983 rookie Marino. Other possible Top 10 quarterbacks are Bart Starr, perhaps the best quarterback of the 1960s and the winning QB in the first two Super Bowls, and Roger Staubach, perhaps the best quarterback of the 1970s and also a QB on two teams that won the Super Bowl.
I’ve just named nine of the approximately top 14 quarterbacks in NFL history. ALL of them are also openly Republican.
Future Political Leaders?
Let’s look more closely at the politics of 10 of the greatest quarterbacks in the NFL. One of them could be following in the footsteps of Kemp, the GOP’s vice presidential nominee in 1996, a longtime congressman from New York after he played for Buffalo, and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1989 to 1993. Kemp passed away in 2009.
Listed alphabetically, the conservative quarterbacks are:
Terry Bradshaw: Endorsed Newt Gingrich for president in 2012 and has defended Tebow’s public remarks about his devout Christianity.
Tom Brady: Perhaps the least identifiably conservative on this list, but Trump has said publicly that Brady told him that he voted for him for president. Brady endorsed a Massachusetts Republican for state auditor, but has also said publicly that his wife, model Gisele Bundchen, doesn’t want him to talk about politics publicly.
John Elway: Colorado Republicans have spent a lot of time trying to convince Elway to run for office. At one point, Colorado gained a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in suburban Denver that was dubbed The Elway Seat as Republicans asked him to run for it. Elway donated $2,700 to Trump’s 2016 campaign and has publicly said he is a Republican.
Brett Favre: A Mississippi native and resident, Favre endorsed Republican U.S. Senator Thad Cochran when he ran for re-election in Mississippi in 2014 and starred in a 2018 ad for Cochran’s Republican replacement, Cindy-Hyde Smith.
Peyton Manning: When Tennessee U.S. Senator Bob Corker retired in 2017, Manning was listed as one of the leading candidates to replace him by fellow Tennessee Republicans, including at least two congressmen. He has donated $8,000 to politicians, all Republicans, including Corker, George W. Bush, and Jeb Bush.
Dan Marino: A registered Republican, he donated money to George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign.
Joe Montana: Montana is a longtime GOP donor.
Roger Staubach: While a player, he received a vote for vice president at the 1976 Republican Party Convention. Like Elway, he has been asked numerous times to run for political office, including senator, as a Republican and has campaigned for Republicans.
Bart Starr: The Alabama native and longtime resident of Wisconsin is on a list of “Alabama Republicans” and campaigned for Mitt Romney in Wisconsin in 2012.
Fran Tarkenton: A former New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings QB, Tarkenton endorsed Trump in a speech at the 2016 Republican Party Convention. In his speech, he said he has known Trump for 48 years.
Mike Ditka: Coached Super Bowl quarterbacks but was a tight end as a player, was the first choice of Illinois Republicans to run against Barack Obama for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois in 2004 after the winner of the GOP primary had to withdraw for personal reasons. Ditka considered the offer for a week before rejecting it. In the years since, he has proclaimed he would have beaten Obama and, thus, prevented his political ascent to president.
Ditka, 79, will never be president, but perhaps Elway, 58; Young, 57, a frequent rumored candidate; Manning, 42; or Brady, 41, will stop the next Barack Obama and become the same kind of leaders off the field as they were on the field.
