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Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was widely mocked Wednesday for challenging his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, to a no-pads football showdown.
El-Sayed, 41, threw down the gridiron gauntlet after Rogers, 63, called out the former public health official for “advocating doing away with our fireworks, football, the Fourth of July” in since-deleted videos posted on social media.
“He should be held to account for that,” Rogers, a former FBI special agent, said on Fox News, arguing that El-Sayed “spent hours hating on what most Michganders would enjoy.”
“Since you’re too afraid to debate me, how about you ‘hold me accountable’ on a football field instead,” El-Sayed fired back on X. “Tackle, no pads like we used to play when we were kids. I’d be happy to show you [how] much I love football.”
El-Sayed compared football to slavery in a YouTube video that has since been scrubbed. REUTERSRogers’ campaign responded to the bizarre challenge by mocking El-Sayed’s height.
“That’s an awfully tall threat coming from down there,” read a post from the Mike Rogers War Room X account.
El-Sayed has previously claimed he is “only 5’9…in shoes.”
Others on social media found El-Sayed’s outsized reaction to Rogers comments strange.
“He’s really a very hostile person,” former White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair wrote on X.
“No one made him say American football is basically slavery,” Blair continued, referencing one of El-Sayed’s old YouTube videos. “That was his choice. What a baby.”
Rogers has seized on El-Sayed’s old social media posts slamming football and fireworks. Bloomberg via Getty ImagesFormer Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt reacted to the challenge by likening El-Sayed to an “Oompa Loompa” with a “serious little man complex.”
“Bro is always overcompensating for something…” Pratt wrote on X.
Former Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin was also confounded by El-Sayed’s desire to physically go after Rogers.
“Who does this appeal to? Does the toxic masculinity crowd like this?” McLaughlin tweeted.
Rogers criticism of El-Sayed came after the Dem candidate in 2023 said “Football is very much associated with a particularly masculine and oftentimes toxically masculine culture” on a pre-Super Bowl podcast.
“Is there a version of football that’s actually ethical, safe?” he also asked, according to reports.
He has also go into an on-line fight over football with actor Dean Cain, who publicly questioned if El-Sayed played the sport in High School. The democrat responded with pictures of himself in his football uniform.
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