{"id":42520,"date":"2026-08-13T06:02:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42520"},"modified":"2026-08-13T06:02:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:02:54","slug":"abdul-el-sayed-challenges-mike-rogers-to-a-tackle-football-game-after-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42520","title":{"rendered":"Abdul El-Sayed challenges Mike Rogers to a tackle football game after criticism"},"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<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/El-Sayed-Rogers-08.12.png?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>Michigan Democratic <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6006337-el-sayed-wins-michigan-senate-primary\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6006337-el-sayed-wins-michigan-senate-primary\/\">Senate nominee<\/a> Abdul El-Sayed\u00a0challenged his GOP opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (Mich.), to a duel on the gridiron amid debate about the progressive\u2019s views on football.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AbdulElSayed\/status\/2087523110668968337\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AbdulElSayed\/status\/2087523110668968337\">During an appearance <\/a>on Fox News this week, Rogers said \u201cyou can almost hear a collective gasp across Michigan for all the things he\u2019s been hating on.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s advocating doing away with our fireworks, football, the Fourth of July,\u201d the Republican Senate hopeful added. \u201cThis guy spent hours hating on what most Michiganders in their pastimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>El-Sayed responded Wednesday in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AbdulElSayed\/status\/2087523110668968337\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AbdulElSayed\/status\/2087523110668968337\">post on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince you\u2019re too afraid to debate me, how about you \u2018hold me accountable\u2019 on a football field instead,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTackle, no pads like we used to play when we were kids. I\u2019d be happy to show you much I love football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have sought to highlight <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6023173-el-sayed-past-comments-resurface\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6023173-el-sayed-past-comments-resurface\/\">deleted YouTube clips<\/a> of the Democrat suggesting fireworks could be harmful to soldiers who have post-traumatic stress disorder and in conversation with a sports analyst who said football doesn\u2019t have direct ties to slavery but operates in an environment that resembles \u201csharecropping,\u201d where players benefit the least financially from a strenuous and physically demanding sport. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The campaign has pushed back on the videos, calling them \u201ccherry picked\u201d to make the candidate look unflattering.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6009490-michigan-senate-race-too-close-to-call-5-takeaways\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6009490-michigan-senate-race-too-close-to-call-5-takeaways\/\">El-Sayed defeated<\/a> Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in a tightly contested primary earlier this month and has <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6011344-el-sayed-rogers-michigan-senate-race\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/6011344-el-sayed-rogers-michigan-senate-race\/\">challenged Rogers<\/a> to debate him. The Republican has not agreed to such a forum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/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>Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed\u00a0challenged his GOP opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers (Mich.), to a duel on the gridiron amid debate about the progressive\u2019s views on football. During an appearance on Fox News this week, Rogers said \u201cyou can almost hear a collective gasp across Michigan for all the things he\u2019s been hating on.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/El-Sayed-Rogers-08.12.png?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42520","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=42520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}