Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate seat representing Michigan, has faced fresh scrutiny after a 2023 podcast episode surfaced in which he questioned whether American football is “ethical” or “safe.” The audio clip was posted Monday by the Republican Party.
In the recording, El-Sayed asked: “What is it about this brutal sport that keeps us coming back?” He followed with: “Is there a version of football that’s actually ethical and safe? What would need to change?”
The comments come as concern grows over chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) risks for players, along with perceived ties between the sport and toxic masculinity and violence.
The Resurfaced Podcast
The audio was posted by the Republican Party. El-Sayed played football growing up and was the captain of his high school team, calling sports his “lifeline.” That background now sits alongside the recorded doubts about the game’s ethics.
The timing of the clip’s release is notable. The Republican Party has spent months trying to define El-Sayed, and this audio offers a direct line into his thinking about a sport that defines much of American culture.
El-Sayed’s Other Sports Comments
El-Sayed has made football a recurring target beyond this one episode. In October 2021, he wrote that “the toxic masculinity at the heart of America’s most popular sport — and men’s sports culture more generally — is way deeper than a few emails or a Jay-Z turnaround.”
His position is consistent across multiple statements. He sees the sport as tied to broader cultural problems, and he has named that connection repeatedly.
Earlier this month, El-Sayed released a video voicing concerns about the cost to attend NFL games, noting it had “gotten way too expensive.” In that video, he said: “That means that something that’s supposed to bring us all together, like football, separates those who have and those who have not.”
He also noted that many football stadiums are subsidized by taxpayer funds but that ticket prices continue to climb. The affordability argument fits alongside his earlier questions about safety and ethics, though the two positions are distinct.
The Cost Video
The video about NFL ticket prices was released separately from the podcast, and it addresses a different angle entirely. While the podcast raises questions about whether football can be made safe, the video focuses on how much it costs to watch it.
“That means that something that’s supposed to bring us all together, like football, separates those who have and those who have not.”
The two positions are not contradictory, but they do show a pattern. El-Sayed has been returning to football from multiple directions, each time raising a question about how the sport operates.
The Defensive Position
Despite his criticism of toxic male sports culture, El-Sayed has also defended masculinity and chided Democrats for talking down to men. He often posts fitness-related content to appeal to male voters.
Fox News Digital has reached out to El-Sayed for comment. The paper has not received a response from him at the time of writing.
What El-Sayed Actually Said
The podcast episode dates back to 2023, and the questions it records are direct. El-Sayed does not offer answers in the clip; he simply asks whether football can be made ethical and safe.
“What is it about this brutal sport that keeps us coming back?” is a question anyone who has watched a game can relate to. The follow-up — “Is there a version of football that’s actually ethical and safe? What would need to change?” — pushes further, asking whether the game’s current form is defensible.
The Republican Party’s decision to post the clip suggests they believe the answer to those questions matters to voters. They have not commented publicly on why they chose this particular clip, but the timing of its release — during a Senate race where football is a shared cultural touchstone — speaks for itself.
The Political Context
El-Sayed is running in a state where football runs deep. Michigan is a place where the sport shapes communities, schools and social life, and the Republican Party has chosen to use this clip to raise questions about his relationship to it.
The Republican Party’s move to post this clip is a calculated play. By putting El-Sayed’s doubts about football in front of voters, they hope to highlight his views on the sport.
What We Know
The key facts are straightforward:
- El-Sayed questioned whether football is “ethical” or “safe” in a 2023 podcast episode.
- The audio was posted Monday by the Republican Party.
- He played football growing up and was the captain of his high school team.
- He has also defended masculinity and criticized Democrats for talking down to men.
- Fox News Digital has reached out to El-Sayed for comment.
The clip captures El-Sayed asking questions that many people think privately but rarely say aloud. He is asking whether a sport he grew up loving can be made ethical and safe, and he is doing so in a recorded format that the Republican Party has now made public.
Whether this plays to El-Sayed’s advantage or against it remains to be seen. The clip is a single moment, and campaigns are full of single moments. But when a candidate’s own words become the story, the context around them matters more than the words themselves.
The Republican Party has chosen to run with this clip. El-Sayed has not responded publicly to its release. The situation remains unresolved for now.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs neither candidate’s political platform and instead judges the matter against its own standard of individual freedom, small business, and avoiding concentrations of power, finding no basis here to favor one side’s use of the other’s old words against them. The clip is a single moment, and campaigns are full of single moments. But when a candidate’s own words become the story, the context around them matters more than the words themselves.
The Republican Party’s move to post this clip is a calculated play. By putting El-Sayed’s doubts about football in front of voters, they hope to highlight his views on the sport. The paper does not take sides in that calculation; it notes the move and leaves it at that.
El-Sayed’s pattern of questioning football is consistent across multiple statements, including his earlier writings on toxic masculinity and his recent video on NFL ticket prices. Each return to the subject raises a question about how the sport operates. The paper does not judge the merits of his questions; it simply observes that he has been raising them.
Source material: “El-Sayed questions ethics of football in resurfaced audio,” Fox News.
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