Why Colin Allred And Ted Cruz Both Talk Up Allred’s NFL Past

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) has leaned heavily on his background as a former NFL linebacker as he runs against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

A recent TV ad, for instance, shows Allred in a locker room and standing under stadium lights, reminding Texas voters that he played for Baylor University (and also about that time Cruz flew to Cancun during a deadly winter storm).

Football is an obvious boost for Allred, especially when Republicans have seized the mantle of the party of masculinity, with former president Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris among male voters.

But Cruz, too, has gone out of his way to talk about Allred’s football background — in an effort to make him seem weird and scary.

“It’s not right to have a biological male competing against our daughters. And Colin Allred is an NFL football player. He knows full well,” Cruz said last week, speaking to local media after a rally in Wichita Falls.

“Can you imagine having an NFL linebacker tackle your daughter? That’s what he voted to allow happen,” Cruz said.

Cruz has repeatedly linked Allred’s football career to the idea that Allred supports allowing boys to play in girls sports. It’s part of the Cruz campaign’s broader an anti-transgender strategy that has included multiple TV ads and frequent discussion during campaign rallies.

Trump, too, has put out several ads highlighting transgender issues, such as one commercial linking Vice President Kamala Harris to gender-affirming medical treatment for federal prisoners. It’s a surprising focus on a topic that relatively few voters rate as extremely important.

In Texas, an outside group that backs Cruz has even produced an ad that shows an Allred lookalike, in a football uniform, looming over and viciously tackling a young girl. And during their debate last week, Cruz connected Allred’s football background to transgender rights.

“Congressman Allred was an NFL linebacker,” Cruz said. “It is not fair for a man to compete against women.”

For Cruz, the attacks over girls sports may be a way of deflecting from abortion, which has been Republicans’ biggest political vulnerability since Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices overturned the federal right to abortion in 2022. Allred has hammered Cruz with stories from Texas women who were denied abortion care even when pregnancy complications threatened their health.

Though he doesn’t point to any examples of boys invading girls sports in Texas, which has already passed laws to prevent it from happening, Cruz has based his criticism on a handful of symbolic votes Allred has taken, including one against a Republican bill aimed at preventing transgender women from competing on women’s sports teams.

Allred has flatly insisted he does not support boys in girls sports, calling the suggestion “ridiculous.” And he has countered the sports-based attack with a sports-based defense, insinuating during the debate that Cruz isn’t much of an athlete.

“When Ted Cruz starts talking about team sports, you gotta watch out, because the only position he ever played was left out,” Allred said.