The hope here is that people on both sides of the political electric fence don’t blow fuses from this.
Realizing that’s as likely as tulips blossoming today in Tiffin, we’ll proceed all the same.
Last Wednesday, former U.S. president Donald Trump singled out Iowa All-America/Ray Guy Award-winner Tory Taylor during Trump’s campaign event in Coralville. Taylor was present, seated next to former U.S. Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker (a former Hawkeye football player) in the front row.
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“We have this beautiful, big, strong physical specimen,” Trump told the crowd. “I never knew they made punters this big. But he’s a big guy. All-American, No. 1 in the country. Tory Taylor from the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“Oh, he’s going to make a lot of money. I want to be his agent. Can I be your agent, please?”
How better to try to endear yourself to a Johnson County audience than to talk up one of the most-beloved Hawkeye football players? Trump did the same thing in Iowa City in 2016, days before the Iowa caucuses. About a dozen Hawkeye footballers and a dozen Hawkeye wrestlers briefly joined Trump on stage at the UI’s Field House.
Hawkeye tight end Peter Pekar told the crowd “Vote for Trump” before raising a 'Trump' jersey in UI colors and shouting, “Go Hawks!”
Trump, while introducing the athletes that included quarterback C.J. Beathard, said “They endorse Trump.”
The then-candidate proclaimed Beathard “the next Tom Brady.”
“I got a lot of backlash from that,” Beathard said months later.
“That wasn’t me coming out and saying I was voting for Trump. If he wasn’t running for president, I would have probably done the same thing, wanted to meet him.”
Anyway, about Taylor. Not many college athletes get praised publicly by current or former presidents, and when they do, people notice.
When asked why he attended the Trump event, Taylor said he was curious and simply wanted the experience.
“I don't have any political agenda or anything like that whatsoever,” Taylor said. “When I got here, was it three years ago, he was the president. I just thought my time at Iowa is nearly up. I’ll just go and see what it’s about.
“It really would be no different if I was in the UK, and I wanted to go see — is it King Charles or whatever his name is? Donald Trump came to town, he's a former president. I just sort of go see what it's all about.”
Getting mentioned by a president, Taylor said, “is obviously pretty cool, but like I said, I don’t have any political agenda. I can’t vote or anything like that, so I don’t worry about that stuff.
“It was just one of those things I wanted to experience before I was done. I’d never been to like a rally, as they say. So I just thought I’d go down there, the last couple weeks (I’m) in Iowa, so I thought why not?
“I really enjoyed the experience, I really enjoyed the talk. It’s nothing that I’ve heard before. You don’t really get that stuff back home in Australia.”
There’s the rub. As a foreigner, Taylor couldn’t participate in the caucuses even if he did want to do so.
“He’s from Australia?” Trump said. “Well, we’ll adopt him.”
By the Jan. 15 caucus night, Taylor will be in a warm-weather site training to enhance his profile in next spring’s NFL draft. He is soon to become the second of three Iowa punters from Australia.
The first was Michael Sleep-Dalton, who in 2019 increased Iowa’s punting average by almost four yards from the season before. Then came Taylor, who is the Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl from finishing his magnificent four-year career with the Hawkeyes.
Over the weekend, the news broke that Aussie Rhys Dakin had committed to Iowa’s 2024 class.
If Dakin is mentioned by a 2028 presidential candidate, Iowa special teams coordinator LeVar Woods will have brought punting gold from Melbourne to Iowa City once more.
Maybe Woods could then use his popularity among Iowa fans to launch a national candidacy to become — no, no, no. Just kidding, LeVar.
www.thegazette.com
Realizing that’s as likely as tulips blossoming today in Tiffin, we’ll proceed all the same.
Last Wednesday, former U.S. president Donald Trump singled out Iowa All-America/Ray Guy Award-winner Tory Taylor during Trump’s campaign event in Coralville. Taylor was present, seated next to former U.S. Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker (a former Hawkeye football player) in the front row.
ADVERTISING
“We have this beautiful, big, strong physical specimen,” Trump told the crowd. “I never knew they made punters this big. But he’s a big guy. All-American, No. 1 in the country. Tory Taylor from the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“Oh, he’s going to make a lot of money. I want to be his agent. Can I be your agent, please?”
How better to try to endear yourself to a Johnson County audience than to talk up one of the most-beloved Hawkeye football players? Trump did the same thing in Iowa City in 2016, days before the Iowa caucuses. About a dozen Hawkeye footballers and a dozen Hawkeye wrestlers briefly joined Trump on stage at the UI’s Field House.
Hawkeye tight end Peter Pekar told the crowd “Vote for Trump” before raising a 'Trump' jersey in UI colors and shouting, “Go Hawks!”
Trump, while introducing the athletes that included quarterback C.J. Beathard, said “They endorse Trump.”
The then-candidate proclaimed Beathard “the next Tom Brady.”
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“I got a lot of backlash from that,” Beathard said months later.
“That wasn’t me coming out and saying I was voting for Trump. If he wasn’t running for president, I would have probably done the same thing, wanted to meet him.”
Anyway, about Taylor. Not many college athletes get praised publicly by current or former presidents, and when they do, people notice.
When asked why he attended the Trump event, Taylor said he was curious and simply wanted the experience.
“I don't have any political agenda or anything like that whatsoever,” Taylor said. “When I got here, was it three years ago, he was the president. I just thought my time at Iowa is nearly up. I’ll just go and see what it’s about.
“It really would be no different if I was in the UK, and I wanted to go see — is it King Charles or whatever his name is? Donald Trump came to town, he's a former president. I just sort of go see what it's all about.”
Getting mentioned by a president, Taylor said, “is obviously pretty cool, but like I said, I don’t have any political agenda. I can’t vote or anything like that, so I don’t worry about that stuff.
“It was just one of those things I wanted to experience before I was done. I’d never been to like a rally, as they say. So I just thought I’d go down there, the last couple weeks (I’m) in Iowa, so I thought why not?
“I really enjoyed the experience, I really enjoyed the talk. It’s nothing that I’ve heard before. You don’t really get that stuff back home in Australia.”
There’s the rub. As a foreigner, Taylor couldn’t participate in the caucuses even if he did want to do so.
“He’s from Australia?” Trump said. “Well, we’ll adopt him.”
By the Jan. 15 caucus night, Taylor will be in a warm-weather site training to enhance his profile in next spring’s NFL draft. He is soon to become the second of three Iowa punters from Australia.
The first was Michael Sleep-Dalton, who in 2019 increased Iowa’s punting average by almost four yards from the season before. Then came Taylor, who is the Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl from finishing his magnificent four-year career with the Hawkeyes.
Over the weekend, the news broke that Aussie Rhys Dakin had committed to Iowa’s 2024 class.
If Dakin is mentioned by a 2028 presidential candidate, Iowa special teams coordinator LeVar Woods will have brought punting gold from Melbourne to Iowa City once more.
Maybe Woods could then use his popularity among Iowa fans to launch a national candidacy to become — no, no, no. Just kidding, LeVar.
Donald Trump touts Tory Taylor, but Iowa’s punting ace has “no political agenda”
Taylor attended Trump’s Coralville campaign stop last week and got cited by the former president, not something a garden-variety college punter typically experiences.
www.thegazette.com
