COLIN PERRY
Editor in Chief
Writing in the Chicago Tribune earlier this year, Leonid Bershidksy claimed that the U.S. elections have become a sport. Americans divide themselves by team and spend month after month rooting for their pick. We eat up statistics every day and play armchair campaign manager when things head south. If you find yourself wishing on election night that the World Series was on instead, this guide is just the thing for you.
Clinton’s calculated fandom
Democratic nominee for president Hillary Clinton has been criticized over the years for allegedly changing her positions based on what gives her a political advantage. Her complicated history as a baseball fan only adds fuel to the fire.
Born in Chicago, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that she’s a lifelong supporter of the Chicago Cubs. But according to the New York Times, it was mere days after she began seriously considering a run for the Senate in New York in 1999 that she was seen wearing a New York Yankees hat. Clinton claims that she rooted for both teams they were in separate leagues, but her detractors call foul to this day.
Trump’s football flop
Republican nominee for president Donald Trump established his campaign being a successful businessman, while his opponents have attempted to paint the opposite picture. His past dealings with the former United States Football League certainly aren’t doing him any favors.
Trump was the first owner of the USFL team the New Jersey Generals and owned the franchise until 1986, when the entire league folded. Many blame its collapse on Trump himself, who lobbied for it to move schedules from the spring to the fall and directly compete against the NFL.
The Buffalo connection
It wasn’t too long ago that Trump threw his hat in the ring to steer a different ship — one that might have even higher stakes than the presidency in western New York. Before losing out to Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula, Trump was one of the final contenders to own the Buffalo Bills. In the years since, he hasn’t hesitated to voice his displeasure with the team on Twitter, claiming that they won’t produce “a winner” without him and “Boring games, too many flags, too soft!”
But if there are any hard feelings, you wouldn’t have known it in April when head coach Rex Ryan introduced Trump at his Buffalo rally. According to The New York Times, Ryan continues to decline commenting on his endorsement further and doesn’t see it as affecting the team, saying “That thing’s been a non-issue with us.”
The Kaepernick factor
One of the biggest controversies to enter mainstream discourse as of late has been San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s continued protest during the national anthem. Beginning in the preseason, Kaepernick has sat or taken a knee while the anthem played as a response to the alleged oppression of black people and non-white races across the country and, in particular, in response to police brutality resulting in the loss of black lives.
While the debate over whether the football player is in the right or not still rages on, the candidates have reacted quite differently. Trump said in August that Kaepernick should “find a country that works better for him,” while Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine suggested in September that he be treated with “respect” mere days after the quarterback said that Clinton herself should be in jail, according to the Washington Times.
Taking on the odds
Some observers to this election don’t just want to predict who is going to win. They want to make money while they do it. Betting on the presidential race is popular enough that statisticians are taking note of the markets to see whether they might be useful in predicting the eventual winner.
According to the website oddsshark.com, Clinton’s odds of becoming the 45th president are at -300 while Trump’s have risen to +200, or 75% versus 33%. The odds were much steeper until this past weekend when FBI director James Comey sent his now-infamous letter to Congress re-opening Clinton’s email scandal in the court of public opinion.
Ratings, ratings, ratings
Viewers have seemingly gone back and forth in recent weeks when it comes to choosing between the presidential debates and tuning out the noise with their favorite pastimes. The first debate between Clinton and Trump garnered well over 80 million viewers according to CNN, making it the most-watched debate in history and leaving Monday night football in the dust.
But the second presidential debate, competing with football again on a Sunday, dropped 20 percent according to The New York Times. NBC opted to carry sports instead of the candidates’ sparring. For the third debate, ratings landed somewhere in the middle, with observers noting that there was no football on that Wednesday but there was a playoff baseball game.