{"id":41883,"date":"2026-08-12T23:45:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41883"},"modified":"2026-08-12T23:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:45:45","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-dares-gop-rival-to-game-of-tackle-football-in-lieu-of-debate-no-pads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41883","title":{"rendered":"Abdul El-Sayed Dares GOP Rival to Game of Tackle Football in Lieu of Debate: \u2018No Pads\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5665445\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5665445\" class=\"wp-image-5665445 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2025\/10\/492018818-1211863870310892-2897386604930749293-n-png.jpeg\" alt=\"Abdul El-Sayed\" width=\"874\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5665445\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot via Abdul El-Sayed Facebook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Democratic Senate nominee <strong>Abdul El-Sayed<\/strong> dared his Trump-endorsed rival <strong>Mike Rogers<\/strong> (R) to a game of tackle football Wednesday \u2013 \u201cno pads\u201d \u2013 in lieu of the unanswered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/el-sayed-taunts-coward-gop-rival-dares-him-to-five-debates-you-will-wither-in-front-of-your-own-crimes\/\">&#8220;five debates&#8221; challenge<\/a> he\u2019d laid down for the Republican last week in his primary victory speech.<\/p>\n<p>The offer came as El-Sayed reacted to Rogers\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/video\/6403241507112\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appearance<\/a> on Fox News\u2019 <em>Hannity<\/em> Tuesday night, where the Republican attacked him over new reporting that uncovered old YouTube videos of the Democratic nominee \u201chating on\u201d fireworks, July 4th and football.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <strong>Sean Hannity<\/strong> about the report, Rogers said: \u201cThis guy spent hours hating on what most Michiganders would enjoy in their pastimes and he should be held to account for that. These are views that he held and he was pretty strong about but he knew that he had to delete them all, for if people really knew who he was they wouldn\u2019t vote for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed took to X the next day to fire back at the callout, accusing Rogers of being \u201ctoo afraid to debate\u201d him and daring the Republican to hold him \u201caccountable\u201d on the football field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d be happy to show you [how] much I love football,\u201d the Democrat quipped.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed_container\" id=\"c59ad1294234246b8be9eca272a9cc6e\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Since you\u2019re too afraid to debate me, how about you \u201chold me accountable\u201d on a football field instead. Tackle, no pads like we used to play when we were kids. I\u2019d be happy to show you much I love football. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6oQ6sunxZn\">https:\/\/t.co\/6oQ6sunxZn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AbdulElSayed\/status\/2087523110668968337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rogers had been referring to a report published earlier in the day on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/08\/11\/politics\/el-sayed-youtube-videos-fireworks-2nd-amendment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CNN\u2019s <em>KFile<\/em><\/a> which published details on El-Sayed\u2019s videos, some of which have since been deleted, including one clip, which reportedly remains online, where he questions whether football can be considered \u201csafe\u201d and \u201cethical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In another July 2024 clip the Democratic nominee declared that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/el-sayed-blasts-fireworks-football-and-the-second-amendment-in-old-youtube-videos-report\/\">\u201cfireworks suck\u201d<\/a> and urged Americans to find another way to celebrate July 4, citing concerns with pollution, pets and people with PTSD.<\/p>\n<p>Other videos showed El-Sayed downplaying the southern border as a top concern for Americans and musing about replacing the Second Amendment\u2019s right to bear arms with a right to health care.<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman for El-Sayed trashed the reporting as &#8220;cherry-picked&#8221; on Tuesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/11\/us\/politics\/abdul-el-sayed-fireworks-police-videos.html?eafs_enabled=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">telling <em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a>: \u201cAbdul is the former captain of his high school football team, loves Michigan football on Saturdays, and celebrates the Fourth of July with fireworks like the next Michigander. Cherry-picked comments from old podcasts don\u2019t reflect his beliefs today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/abdul-el-sayed-dares-gop-rival-to-game-of-tackle-football-in-lieu-of-debate-no-pads\/\">Abdul El-Sayed Dares GOP Rival to Game of Tackle Football in Lieu of Debate: \u2018No Pads\u2019<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Screenshot via Abdul El-Sayed Facebook. Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed dared his Trump-endorsed rival Mike Rogers (R) to a game of tackle football Wednesday \u2013 \u201cno pads\u201d \u2013 in lieu of the unanswered &#8220;five debates&#8221; challenge he\u2019d laid down for the Republican last week in his primary victory speech. The offer came as El-Sayed reacted&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2025\/10\/492018818-1211863870310892-2897386604930749293-n-png.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}