Senator Ted Cruz talks to Rece Davis on ESPN about his Protect College Sports Act. Fans booed him for nearly 10 minutes.Screenshot via ESPN
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was on the receiving end of a nearly 10-minute chorus of boos on Saturday morning ahead of the heavyweight college football matchup between Texas and Ohio State, during an interview in which he shamelessly promoted his congressional bill live on ESPN.
His proposed legislation, the Protect College Sports Act, would allow the NCAA to unilaterally enforce its own rules on issues like revenue sharing with college students and athletes transferring between schools. It also shields the NCAA from antitrust liability. Groups like the NAACP and AFL-CIO oppose the bill for further diminishing the voice and power of college athletes.
Other proponents of the bill—including former Alabama football coach Nick Saban and sports host Pat McAfee—have used ESPN airtime to support it. But the absence of an opposing viewpoint was glaring Saturday morning. As The Atlantic’s Jemele Hill wrote on Threads: “ESPN using its flagship college football show to openly advocate for this bill is egregious. Fine, have Ted Cruz on. But have on Senator Chris Murphy, who opposes this bill.”
And as sports news media site Awful Announcing points out, it’s ironic that ESPN provided room for a Republican senator from Texas to talk about politics the same week that ABC (which, like ESPN, is owned by Disney) stopped Jimmy Kimmel from airing an interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, following threats from the FCC. (Though it’s important to note that the FCC does not have oversight over cable television.)
It’s also a choice to have Cruz live on the air from Austin, Texas, given his infamous history at sporting events, particularly during the 2022 baseball postseason. During Game 4 of the American League Championship Series that fall between the team Cruz roots for, the Houston Astros, and the New York Yankees, the Yankee Stadium crowd booed and heckled Cruz, shouting “Loser!” and “Go back to Cancún!,” the latter a reference to his retreat from the 2021 winter storm that plunged Texas into a deadly power crisis. Weeks later, after the Astros took home the World Series, Cruz managed to get booed at the team’s victory parade.
