Sports! They're great. And sometimes, they can be hard.
But you know what else is difficult? Running for a major political party's presidential nomination.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich was one of the big winners at last week's New Hampshire primary. But perhaps his biggest challenge yet will be trying to win hearts and minds in Michigan, home of his alma mater Ohio State's biggest rivals, and a state he hasn't exactly shied away from taking shots at in the past.
To try and appease local fans while at a speaking engagement in East Lansing — home of the state's other major university, Michigan State — Kasich attempted to come across as self-disparaging:
Kasich comes on at MSU to Seven Nation Army. "Last time someone from Ohio came here and heard that song it didn’t turn out so well..."
— Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) February 15, 2016
Michigan State sure beat Ohio State, 17-14, this past football season. The only problem is the game was in Columbus.
The governor immediately followed that up by congratulating Michigan State and saying better luck next year to the Buckeyes, removing any confusion that he might've been ribbing MSU over 2014's home loss.
Kasich isn't the only prospective GOP presidential nominee to have a rough sports-related week, however.
If the dab had any pulse remaining after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did it and the Panthers lost the Super Bowl, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush may have read it its last rites:
Jeb Bush does "the dab" dance a la Cam Newton...I may or may not have had to google that. pic.twitter.com/TJsRDu93su
— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) February 17, 2016
Has a viral dance sensation and a presidential campaign ever died at the exact same time?
Former governor Bush's previous attempts at making friends in SEC country haven't gone a whole lot better. His attempts at co-opting the SEC's logo for tailgating koozies eventually drew the league's ire. Before that, he picked against his home-state Florida Gators in a rivalry game they ultimately won.
Finally, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was campaigning in South Carolina on Tuesday before that state's Saturday primary. In the midst of a stretch of a stump speech advocating for limited government, Rubio made a more-than-slightly dated reference:
The BCS's final year of existence was the 2013-14 football season. College football has had a playoff system ever since.
Given the smirk on his face afterward (as well as the crowd's reaction), one has to assume that Rubio was in on the joke. It seems logical he was simply referring to a fairly recent time in which many fans openly hoped that the government would step in and dispose of the system to make way for a playoff.
It's also possible Sen. Rubio was taking a subtle shot at President Obama, a long-time outspoken playoff advocate who reportedly once had the justice department sniffing around the legality of the BCS.
If Rubio somehow was citing 6-year-old talking points or really isn't all that current on his college football acumen, perhaps we should give him a break: His Florida Gators haven't appeared in the playoff or its predecessor since last decade.
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