Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark appeared to dip a toe into political waters on Tuesday night when she liked Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Clark was among the more than 8 million Instagram users who liked Swift’s statement. The pop star released a statement about her support following the first presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump on ABC News.

“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most,” Swift wrote on Instagram. “As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.

“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.

ESPN STAR UPSET WITH LACK OF TIME SPENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE DURING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Taylor Swift looks on at the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Baltimore Ravens game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sept. 5, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (David Eulitt/Getty Images)

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.”

She signed off on her post referencing herself as a “childless cat lady.”

WNBA players have backed Democratic candidates for office. The Seattle Storm endorsed President Biden and his then-running mate Harris in 2020.

Clark has not appeared to outright endorse any political candidate.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump speak during the second presidential debate at The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Clark was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and played at Iowa before she turned pro and was drafted by the Fever. Trump won six electoral votes in Iowa. However, most of the votes in Polk County, where Des Moines is located, went to Biden.

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For more than 60 seconds, Hamilton High football players, dressed in suits and ties, bowed their heads in the middle of the Fairfax football field and stayed silent, some in prayer. They were honoring someone none of them knew — Christian Garcia, a 16-year-old junior varsity football player from South East who died last week after suffering an injury on Aug. 23 in a JV game against Maywood CES.

“The purpose of us doing that is we are family,” coach Elijah Asante told his players in the locker room afterward. “We like to compete, we want to win but when a kid falls from another school, we should feel that, too, and that’s what you were paying tribute to. We always have to show class.”

When coaches are making a difference, it’s not always seen on a scoreboard despite the obsession with winning.

Just seeing Hamilton players walk from their bus carrying helmets and backpacks and looking like they are headed to church because of the way they are dressed in suits and ties sends a clear message in a day and age when shorts and T-shirts are sometimes acceptable to wear at work.

“It’s being professional,” said Hamilton senior Nicholas Jacobo, who had to go with his uncle to buy his first suit and first tie.

In education-based high school sports, what’s happening at Hamilton deserves attention and praise. Asante, who previously coached at L.A. Jordan, Carson, Compton and St. Paul, had been retired since 2018. He agreed to take over the Hamilton program one week before the official start of practice at the end of July.

“I couldn’t say no,” Asante said.

Asante didn’t even have keys to open school gates or doors that first week. He borrowed some from the athletic director. He went to work starting with basic fundamentals, teaching tackling, stretching, conditioning, discipline, tying a tie. Everything was about developing good habits not just for playing football but for life as an adult.

Asante used to show up at games as the best dressed in a stadium with his suit and tie. His players now look the same until changing into their uniforms. Parents from other teams look surprised when they see Hamilton players in formal attire.

“Oh my God, you guys always wear a suit and tie to games?” a Fairfax parent asked a Hamilton player.

“Yes ma’am,” the player replied.

“I’m bringing my son to Hamilton.”

Hamilton lost its season opener to St. Monica 49-8, then won its next game against Manual Arts 12-6. It somehow was leading Crenshaw 6-0 in the fourth quarter last week after a desperation fourth-down 21-yard touchdown pass from Jacobo to sophomore Jacob Riley.

Crenshaw rallied for a late touchdown and two-point conversion to win 8-6. The Cougars have their own challenges with only 20 players dressed to play. Hamilton, which produced NFL great Warren Moon, and Crenshaw, the school of De’Anthony Thomas, are nowhere near their glory days of the past in City Section football.

And yet, coaches are committed to teaching them about football and life, and maybe it will make a difference.

“Winning doesn’t create our culture,” Asante said. “Our culture creates winning.”

Hamilton has mostly sophomores and juniors. Players are making progress considering they’ve come from the bottom not knowing who would be their coach last summer with no workouts.

“I was thinking we weren’t going to have a coach,” Jacobo said.

Asante returned to teach accountability, responsibility and old-school values. That can lead to winning and championships.

The team could end up in Division II or III and make a title run. The school is also building a new stadium complex expected to be completed next year.

The kids and the coach are certainly dressed for success.

Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock’s cheeks were soaked with some of the happiest tears of his life. He was drenched in the overwhelming joy of leading his alma mater to the biggest win in school history.

His nose was running as the pride overcame him. It wasn’t pretty, but it was beautiful.

It was college football.

“All these guys that have been with our program, been through the ups and downs and to continue to fight. It’s like they my kids. I’m happy for the adversity. The push through no matter the situation,” he said. “I just couldn’t be more proud.”

“THEY BELIEVED.”

Northern Illinois HC Thomas Hammock spoke from the heart after an incredible upset over Notre Dame. @NIU_Football pic.twitter.com/pFrS5ok5U7

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— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 7, 2024

When the 28.5-point underdogs finished their 2 1/2-hour bus ride home to DeKalb, Ill., after beating No. 5 Notre Dame, a swarm of fans waited in the dark to welcome them.

The HUSKIE FAITHFUL gave the dawgs a warm welcome home last night!! Thank you to all of the fans‼️#SOAR | #TheHardWay 🦴🏴‍☠️ pic.twitter.com/HBWVctBovO

— NIU Football (@NIU_Football) September 8, 2024

As I watched the aftermath of the weekend’s most impactful result, it reminded me why this has been my favorite sport for decades. I enjoy the NFL, America’s most popular sport. But I love college football. I grew up on it.

To me, the difference in the two was crystallized by Hammock’s Huskies and everything they experienced: Every single weekend, some team is playing a game the players will remember for the rest of their lives.

Also on Saturday, a freshman kicker named Kyle Konrardy — who had never attempted a college kick — flipped the fortunes of the entire state of Iowa by drilling a 54-yard field goal that put Iowa State on top of Iowa for just the second time in a decade.

In Week 1, oft-downtrodden Vanderbilt snapped a 10-game losing streak by bullying trendy College Football Playoff contender Virginia Tech and surviving a furious comeback with an overtime win. It set off a flood of chest bumps, hugs and “I love you” as the sideline spilled onto the field.

This moment 🥹 pic.twitter.com/wCH8nyNDvZ

— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) September 1, 2024

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And in Week 0, Georgia Tech flew to Ireland and beat its conference’s proudest program, Florida State, which went 13-0 a season ago on the way to an ACC title. It might mean more to the players competing, but it all means a ton to the fans and alums watching around the nation and world, too.

Northern Illinois signed up to play what’s commonly known in college football as a “paycheck game,” earning $1.4 million for the experience of playing on one of sports’ most hallowed grounds and, presumably, to lose. Sometimes, though, games like these don’t play out like the architects of the contract intend.

No matter what happens this season or for the rest of Hammock’s run at NIU, reality is this: Decades from now, people will still be talking about the time their beloved Huskies walked into Notre Dame Stadium, kicked a 35-yard field goal to win it and blocked a 62-yard prayer to seal it.

In the past five years, college football has rapidly evolved (some would argue devolved) into something different than what those of us who grew up on the sport fell in love with.

Conference makeups are unnatural, the tectonic plates shifted by nonsensical moves prodded by checks from television companies at the cost of tradition, athlete experience and regional identity, once the sport’s signature.

Athletes finally have long-deserved freedom to earn money on their name, image and likeness, but because the sport had to be dragged into a more equitable landscape by the courts, that newfound freedom has also meant roster management is more difficult than ever, and for now, players’ connection with their campus is more tenuous than ever.

The NCAA is ensnared in an endless string of antitrust lawsuits that stand to continue to reshape college sports.

Northern Illinois’ entire athletic revenue last year was just over $22 million. The nation’s leaders in that particular race — Ohio State and Texas — brought in revenues more than 10 times that.

The Huskies have a collective called Boneyard Victor E., and though exact numbers are hard to come by, it’s safe to assume no Northern Illinois roster will be suiting up for $20 million like Ohio State or even $12 million like Florida State.

Schools like NIU, where Huskie Stadium seats 28,211 compared to the 77,622 seats in Notre Dame Stadium, are often helpless when bigger schools see standout players on film in leagues like NIU’s Mid-American Conference and offer a check that those schools can’t match to join a bluer blood’s roster.

Hammock’s roster wasn’t immune. Florida swiped NIU edge rusher George Gumbs. Louisville grabbed center Pete Nygra.

NIU beat Notre Dame on the scoreboard and the line of scrimmage anyway.

These are new realities that programs in lower-level conferences have to deal with. The mostly static ecosystem of the sport of the past century has quickly morphed into a merciless food chain, and those on the bottom half are left to grapple with the consequences. It’s not just players: Good head coaches at small programs leave for coordinator jobs at more well-funded programs, often seeing a clearer path to their own dreams.

Maybe moments like the ones we’ve seen the first couple of weeks will be rarer as it becomes harder for schools outside of the four power conferences to keep their best players and hire great coaches.

I suspect not. I hope not.

One secret of college football is the players at the bottom of the standings generally work just as hard as those at the top. They might be less gifted in size or skill, less well-coached or have fewer resources to maximize what ability they do have.

But they work hard. And they do it with zero promise that it will pay off with a moment like the one the Huskies got to enjoy Saturday.

So when that work pays off for everyone to see? When a moment like the one we saw Saturday arrives with no warning? It moves me. I suspect it moves you, too.

It’s why everyone in America with a microphone wants to talk to Hammock, the 43-year-old coaching in his sixth season at NIU, in the aftermath of Saturday’s shocker. He earned just over $677,000 last season to work just as hard as Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who earned over $6.5 million in 2022.

Hammock’s tears resonated with anyone who saw them. How could they not? There’s so much of our day-to-day lives that’s ordinary. Plenty that is artificial.

What Northern Illinois did was extraordinary. It was authentic.

It was beautiful.

It was college football.

 (Photo of Northern Illinois defensive end Jalonnie Williams: Brian Spurlock / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)