PITTSBURGH — Inside Acrisure Stadium, dwelling of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage final Tuesday to an embrace from one of many staff’s former safeties, Will Allen, as supporters waved indicators studying “COACH” behind them.
Four days later, not removed from the Steelers coaching camp facility in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, former Steelers broad receiver Antonio Brown, an ex-teammate of Allen, was deriding Walz as not “an actual soccer coach” onstage at a rally for former President Donald Trump.
“He may by no means guard me,” Brown added.
As Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hurry by the fourth quarter of the presidential marketing campaign, the split-screen between Allen and Brown in western Pennsylvania placed on show one of many extra notable performs being run by each campaigns — their efforts to court docket and promote former gamers for the world’s beloved Steelers on the path.
The endorsements have helped increase overarching themes the campaigns wish to venture.
For Harris, who has the backing of a handful of former Steelers — together with a number of members of the famed “Steel Curtain” protection the staff employed throughout its run of 4 Super Bowl championships within the Nineteen Seventies — the endorsements have been rolled out as a part of efforts to enchantment to males and bolster the celebration’s football-related messaging, which has been leaned on extra this cycle with Walz, a former highschool soccer coach, on the presidential ticket.
For Trump, the endorsements of renegade Steelers like Brown and former working again Le’Veon Bell, two newer members of the franchise, provide additional proof of the previous president’s improved place with Black males and with celebrities who really feel emboldened to precise their assist for him publicly.
On prime of that, each campaigns are hoping to profit from their affiliation with what’s the strongest model in western Pennsylvania.
“The Steelers are largely a cultural id for the entire area,” mentioned state Rep. Nick Pisciottano, a Democrat from Allegheny County. “It’s very a lot tied to the id of oldsters who dwell or hail from western Pennsylvania.”
The political battle over the Steelers additional intensified on Sunday, when Trump attended the staff’s prime-time sport in opposition to the New York Jets. In conjunction, the Democratic National Committee put up billboards close to the stadium hitting Trump’s financial document within the state.
Meanwhile, Harris rolled out her record of endorsements from former Steelers, which included defensive lineman “Mean” Joe Greene, working again Jerome Bettis, and the household of late working again Franco Harris. Former cornerback Mel Blount and Allen have additionally come out publicly for Harris.
Trump was joined onstage in Latrobe not simply by Brown and Bell however former broad receiver Mike Wallace, all memorable gamers to a youthful technology of followers. Jack Lambert, a Hall-of-Fame linebacker from the Nineteen Seventies iteration of the staff, has additionally been posting on social media in assist of Trump for months.
The message from either side’ Steelers supporters couldn’t be extra totally different. At his rally with Walz, Allen derided Project 2025 — the conservative coverage blueprint that many former Trump administration officers contributed to however that the previous president has disavowed — and what he described as Trump’s plans “to chop taxes for all their associates.”
“They care about working individuals, they care about our seniors, they care about our youngsters,” Allen mentioned of Harris and Walz. “They’re combating for us all. They’re going to maneuver our nation ahead.”
In Latrobe, Brown lambasted Walz as “Tampon Tim” whereas Bell donned a T-shirt that learn “Trump or the Tramp?”
“I do know the media goes to name me loopy,” Brown, who was additionally selling a cryptocurrency referred to as “MAGA Memecoin,” mentioned. “Me and Trump loopy for having me talking right here. But I wish to make this clear. We should not. They are.”
Brown has a checkered authorized historical past and has constructed a web based persona in recent times round his “CTESPN” model, a play on claims that his usually erratic conduct is the results of affected by the degenerative mind illness referred to as power traumatic encephalopathy, which might develop after repeated concussions or mind accidents, although can solely be recognized after dying.
Earlier this month, Brown engaged instantly with Trump’s working mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Donald Trump Jr. on X, awarding the latter his “Cracker of the Day” moniker and joking about serving as Vance’s working mate in 2028. Brown advised The Daily Mail on Sunday at a pro-Trump voter registration drive exterior of Acrisure Stadium that he would take a job in a Trump administration.
The Trump marketing campaign had constructed up its relationship with Brown in latest months. Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump marketing campaign official who helped manage Brown’s look at Saturday’s rally, mentioned the marketing campaign had despatched him merchandise earlier this 12 months after he had proven assist on-line.
“This is new to us, having athletes and celebrities who’re nonetheless widespread,” Bruesewitz mentioned. “I imply, Brown is the Pittsburgh Steelers’ [second] all-time main receiver. It’s not like he was the backup punter, proper? He is likely one of the biggest gamers on one of many biggest franchises in historical past, and he’s with us, and he needs to assist us, and he’s actively working to assist us, and that’s cool.”
Bruesewitz mentioned he sees the Brown endorsement as additional proof that there was a change within the social acceptability in being a Trump supporter. The former president has landed assist from rappers Kodak Black, Sexxy Red and Waka Flaka Flame, whereas different present and former NFL stars together with Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Giants’ Lawrence Taylor have backed Trump too.
“I believe the resistance is useless,” Bruesewitz mentioned. “You don’t have the hatred you had, the animosity you had, the cancel tradition that you simply had, if a star was for us previously. And that offers celebrities the flexibility to really communicate their thoughts and be sincere with themselves, politically.”
But Brown has been producing controversy in his post-Steeler profession. Last 12 months, he had an arrest warrant issued in Florida over unpaid little one assist. He pled no contest in 2020 in a battery case stemming from an altercation with a transferring firm. He’s settled lawsuits with a former coach who accused him of sexual assault and a person who claimed his little one was nearly hit by furnishings Brown allegedly tossed from a balcony.
“Former Pittsburgh Steelers are break up on the Presidential election,” Ryan Clark, an ESPN persona and former Steelers security, posted on X. “One facet has Mean Joe Greene, Jerome Bettis, and the household of Franco Harris supported her… and the opposite has Leveon Bell & Antonio Brown. Different class of oldsters for positive.” (Brown responded that Troy Polamalu, who lined up subsequent to Clark for years, “carried the secondary.”)
The Trump marketing campaign and its allies dismissed any issues about Brown showing on the path with him given his previous.
“That fan base loves him, that group loves him, he loves that group,” Bruesewitz mentioned. “I believe it was a no brainer to place him on the market. Nobody’s good.”
Dave McCormick, the GOP Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, mentioned he felt Brown’s endorsement was indicative of Trump’s capability to convey “nontraditional voters” into the fold.
“I truthfully am not even that near his historical past, however I believe, huge image, the extra those that come up and embrace President Trump from … nontraditional components of the coalition, I believe that’s higher,” he mentioned.
Voters who spoke with NBC News on the Sunday voter registration drive additionally didn’t specific issues over Brown becoming a member of the Trump staff.
“We have been voting for Trump earlier than them,” Gregg Paladina, a college superintendent from New Castle, Pennsylvania, who’s backing Trump however voted for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2022, mentioned, including, “I don’t assume you possibly can decide any person. Obviously, Antonio Brown’s not a job mannequin, however plenty of the those that assist Harris aren’t function fashions both.”
Dok Harris, Franco Harris’ son, who has endorsed the vice chairman, mentioned Brown has “sadly” made some “questionable” selections in his post-Steelers profession, however he nonetheless praised the pro-Trump Steelers for being prepared to become involved within the political course of.
“My coronary heart goes out to them,” he mentioned. “I like the truth that they’re getting concerned. Now I don’t agree with them. They aren’t actually speaking about the identical classes that my father taught me.”
This isn’t the primary time soccer and politics have blended in Pittsburgh.
Franco Harris, who performed a number one function on the franchise’s 4 Super Bowl winners within the Nineteen Seventies, was politically energetic for many years and campaigned for distinguished Democrats throughout the area in latest cycles. His former teammate, broad receiver Lynn Swann, was the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania in 2006. And the staff’s late proprietor, Dan Rooney, shocked many when he got here out publicly and campaigned for Barack Obama throughout his 2008 marketing campaign. Rooney later served as Obama’s ambassador to Ireland.
For Pisciottano, the distinction between Trump’s and Harris’ Steelers backers is that Harris’ have rather more substantial ties to Pittsburgh and the area than Trump’s do.
“A variety of the oldsters endorsing Kamala Harris are long-time Pittsburgh natives or individuals who have been closely concerned in our group,” he mentioned. “Those individuals perceive Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania and their political opinions or their ethical compass has been influenced by the tradition in western Pennsylvania, and that instructs their political selections. … I don’t assume that both Mr. Brown or Mr. Bell have these long-standing ties.”