El-Sayed questions ethics of football in resurfaced audio

So Abdul El-Sayed thinks football is "unethical." The Michigan Senate candidate said it in a podcast years ago, and now the audio is making the rounds. For once, the resurfacing actually matters, because this isn't a throwaway line—it's a window into how a certain type of progressive sees the entire country.

El-Sayed's argument is the standard one: football causes CTE, the players know it, and the sport is essentially violence for profit. He's not wrong about the medical research, and it's fair to ask hard questions about the sport's future. But listen closely to what he's really saying. He's not just worried about brain injuries—he's uncomfortable with the game itself, with its culture, its physicality, and the people who love it. It's a view that treats millions of Americans who watch, coach, and play football as victims of false consciousness. The game didn't need his permission to exist.

Here's the part that should annoy you, regardless of your politics. El-Sayed is running for Senate in Michigan, a state where football isn't a pastime—it's a birthright. High school stadiums on Friday nights are community cathedrals. And this guy wants to look those voters in the eye and tell them their tradition is morally compromised? It's the same condescension that defines the progressive project: we know better, and we'll fix you. It's a terrible way to win an election in the Midwest. It's also a terrible way to talk to your neighbors.

Michigan voters get to decide if El-Sayed's vision is theirs. But his comments reveal a candidate who views the working class as a problem to be solved, not a community to be represented. For all the talk of "democratic socialism," there's nothing democratic about dismissing what tens of millions of Americans hold dear. Football has its flaws—so do all things human. But it also builds character, discipline, and community in ways no Ivy League lecture ever will. The son of immigrants should understand that America works better when it builds from its strengths, not when it apologizes for them. The question isn't whether football is ethical. It's whether El-Sayed is fit to represent the people he so clearly doesn't understand..