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The SEC’s prize for taking over the Texas-Oklahoma game: TV ratings, and corny dogs

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The SEC’s prize for taking over the Texas-Oklahoma game: TV ratings, and corny dogs

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables has seen it all in his 15 trips to the Cotton Bowl for the Oklahoma-Texas rivalry game, long known as the Red River Shootout.

He remembers losing his first as a Sooners assistant 38-28 in 1999 but dominating the Longhorns 63-14 the next year en route to a national championship. There was Oklahoma 65, Texas 13 in 2003, the 12-0 “Red River Shutout” in 2004, and plenty of unpredictable swings and wild finishes since. The emotions, the big plays, the bus rides through the State Fair of Texas to the Cotton Bowl all make it special to him.

“It feels like time stands still,” Venables said.

But there’s one thing Venables has yet to do in this one-of-a-kind rivalry game: eat a Fletcher’s Corny Dog.

“I have never eaten anything at the fair other than what they bring me on the bus afterward,” he said.

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To some Oklahoma and Texas fans, this revelation could qualify as heresy. Fletcher’s Corny Dogs, a staple of Texas’ state fair for more than 80 years, have become almost synonymous with the rivalry game. On Saturday morning, when the gates open at Dallas’ Fair Park and tens of thousands of crimson- or burnt-orange-clad fans wander onto the fairgrounds, many of them will make a beeline for a Fletcher’s stand.

Saturday will be the 120th meeting of the Sooners and Longhorns but their first as SEC members, more than three years after their shocking decision to leave the Big 12 went public. The series began in 1900, and Dallas became the game’s permanent home in 1929. After decades as a Big Eight-Southwest Conference clash followed by 28 years together in the Big 12, the spectacle of Red River, with the fried goodness of Fletcher’s in tow, is now part of the SEC’s portfolio.

“It’s part of the tradition for us,” said Nichole Williamson, a Texas alumnus and fan who has attended the game consistently since 2010. “I’m convinced if we don’t go have our corny dog before (the game) we’re going to lose, even though I’ve had it when they’ve lost and I’ve had it when they’ve won.”

“It goes along with the game,” said Trae Anderson, former president of the OU Club of Dallas. “It’s the first thing I’ve always done. You get your corny dog and a wax cup with the beverage of your choice, and that’s how you start. I don’t know of anybody that does anything else.”

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Thousands of fans hit a Fletcher’s stand before entering the Cotton Bowl for the Red River rivalry’s renewal. (Courtesy of Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs)

The launch of Fletcher’s Corny Dogs was not an immediate success.

According to the company’s origin story, the first version of their corny dogs sold for 15 cents at a small stand at the 1942 State Fair of Texas. Neil and Carl Fletcher, brothers who were former Vaudeville performers, developed the concept four years earlier after seeing a local baker serve hot dogs baked in cornmeal in the shape of an ear of corn. The Fletchers decided to put a stick in the hot dogs and fry them to shorten the cooking process and make it easier to consume.

But when they opened their first stand at Fair Park, they had to cut the corny dogs in half and give away samples to convince fairgoers to try them. Forty-one years after their debut, Neil Fletcher told the New York Times that people would approach the stand, ask what it was and then walk away. “We didn’t make much money,” he said then.

Neil and Carl experimented with the cornmeal batter for more than a decade before coming up with the recipe that stuck. Once it did, it became a rousing success.

When Neil died in 1988, he left the business to his two sons, Neil Jr. and Bill Fletcher. Neil Jr., known as Skip, became “the Corny Dog King,” further elevating an already successful enterprise. In 1983, Fletcher’s sold an estimated 350,000 corny dogs at the State Fair of Texas. At the 2023 state fair, it sold 550,000.

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But is a Fletcher’s Corny Dog really that different and special from a traditional corn dog? Red River attendees swear it is.

“It’s one of the staples of going to OU-Texas,” said former Oklahoma offensive lineman Gabe Ikard. “People buy them because they’re delicious. … The lines are absurd; don’t care. Gotta wait in it or recruit somebody who will wait in it for you.”

Count Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione as a Fletcher’s fan. When several vendors showed an interest in selling corn dogs at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, he knew there was only one that deserved to be there. So he instructed his staff to get in touch with the company.

“Someone with OU reached out to us several years ago and said their athletic director loves Fletcher’s and ‘What do I need to do to get Fletcher’s here?’” said Amber Fletcher, who now runs the company with her brother Aaron and cousin William. The partnership with Oklahoma began in 2021, and Fletcher’s has been sold at Sooners games ever since.

“I’m sure (the other corn dog vendors) were fine, but they weren’t Fletcher’s corn dogs,” Castiglione said.

The cooking process is simple. Hand-stick a traditional hot dog — Fletcher’s gets dogs made with custom spices — and dip it in the batter, which is made on-site from a proprietary, secret mix. Stick it in the fryer at 365 degrees for three minutes until it has the right texture and color. Then six inches of hot, crunchy, corn dog heaven are ready to eat.

“Everything is the same way my grandfather did it,” Amber Fletcher said.


Texas and Oklahoma fans have their traditions. Although Fletcher’s has seven locations on the fairgrounds, many fans have a preferred source: the Fletcher’s stand at Big Tex circle.

A 55-foot-tall cowboy figure, sporting a Dickie’s shirt and jeans with a 95-gallon hat and size 96 boots, Big Tex is known as the “official greeter” of the State Fair of Texas and has been a fixture at the fair since 1952. It’s customary to see fairgoers consuming their fried goods while sitting next to Big Tex or taking selfies with him in the background.

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The Fletcher’s stand that is steps away from Big Tex will be staffed with 60 to 80 employees on Saturday to get the hordes of Sooners and Longhorns their corny dogs as quickly as possible.

Grant Pinkerton, a Texas alum and superfan who owns the renowned Texas barbecue joint Pinkerton’s Barbecue, makes it his first stop every year.

“We beeline it for that very Fletcher’s stand,” said Pinkerton, who went to his first Red River at 9 years old. “We all get at least one corn dog pregame. … Then I have a rule that if Texas wins, you have to go back and get a victory corn dog after the game. It doesn’t matter how hot or soaking wet you are.

“And if they don’t win, no friggin’ dogs after the game.”

Ikard has the same order every year: a Fletcher’s Corny Dog, a funnel cake and three wax cup beers. When he played, he’d have his parents get him one, though he said former coach Bob Stoops would let the players hang out at the fair for an hour if the Sooners won. Now Ikard, who calls Oklahoma games on the Sooner Sports Radio Network, has his wife secure his refreshments while he does the postgame show.

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Cade McCrary, who played 51 games for the Longhorns from 2009 to ’13, said that after Texas beat Oklahoma in ’13, Mack Brown allowed players to stay in Dallas and enjoy the fair with their friends and families.

McCrary, who was the holder for Justin Tucker’s game-winning kick in Texas’ 2011 win over Texas A&M, said his victory corny dog was “the greatest taste in the world.”

“It’s the most unique rivalry game in college football,” McCrary said. “There may be others that are as big, but they’re not at the Texas state fair. There’s 100,000 people in the stadium and 200,000 people outside the stadium.”

Of the 550,000 corny dogs that were sold at least year’s state fair, which ran more than three weeks, 124,000 were sold on Red River weekend and 45,000 on game day alone.

Texas has joined Oklahoma in installing a Fletcher’s stand at home games. Drew Martin, Texas’ executive senior associate athletic director for external affairs, said he’s learned a lot about the culture of the game since first attending in 2018. Because less than half of a standard Texas home crowd can attend the game — the 92,000-seat Cotton Bowl is split evenly at the 50-yard line between Texas and Oklahoma fans — he wanted to bring part of the Red River experience to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. This year, for the first time, there’s a Fletcher’s Corny Dog stand at the “Smokey’s Midway” fan experience area outside of DKR and also a permanent stand inside the stadium.

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“That’s a tried-and-true tradition for that game,” Martin said. “They can get a Fletcher’s Corny Dog just like they do at the state fair.”



The football game is only part of the State Fair of Texas festivities for many fans who descend on Dallas every fall. (Bryan Terry / The Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

It’s not just about the corny dogs. The attachment is borne out of good times shared with family and friends at the fair, rooting for the Longhorns or Sooners.

Williamson said her dad turned her on to Fletcher’s and she cherishes every trip to Red River with her father and husband. “He’s why I’m a Longhorn today,” she said.

Pinkerton’s parents met at the 1977 Red River Shootout as freshmen and later had their first date the night Earl Campbell won the Heisman Trophy. Pinkerton’s first trip was in 1998, as a 9-year-old. He still has a photo from it and remembers the T-shirt his dad bought him and the cooler temperatures. “I burned my mouth on some hot chocolate,” he said.

Anderson joked that he’s trying to teach his son about corny dogs to perpetuate the unhealthy tradition. “You’re in the middle of the fair, you’re not going to get sushi,” he said. Fletcher’s stands become meeting points before or after the game. “Every year you show up and see your friends you went to school with … and it’s something you end up sharing.”

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Amber Fletcher and at least of a dozen of her family members plus 200 employees will have their hands full. “It’s the most incredible day,” she said. Amber, 37, has been going to the fair all her life. She has been part of the family business as long as she can remember, sticking dogs and serving up smiles. After Skip’s death in 2017, Amber has emerged as the face of Fletcher’s.

But she has never seen the game.

“I go to the game every year, but I’ve never seen the game,” she said. “I’ve been in the press boxes delivering corny dogs, and I may peek out to try to see the field, but then I’ve got to get back to work.

“Maybe one day when I retire, I’ll get a ticket and go watch the game. But we’re out doing what our family’s always done, which is serve corny dogs to the fairgoers.”

While fans gobble up the dogs outside the Cotton Bowl, the Longhorns and Sooners meet with plenty on the line. No. 1 Texas, which leads the all-time series 63-51-5, is one of just three teams unbeaten in SEC play entering Week 7. No. 18 Oklahoma, which made a quarterback change from Jackson Arnold to freshman Michael Hawkins Jr., would love to win its second straight over the Longhorns and remain in College Football Playoff contention.

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Neither head coach has had a Fletcher’s Corny Dog. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Wednesday that in his three years coaching the Longhorns, he hasn’t had a chance to enjoy the state fair and all its trimmings. “Maybe if we win, I’ll try to find a corny dog or something,” he said.

Venables, who was seen running stadium steps in 99-degree heat this summer, said “my body might shut down if I eat one of those fried corn dogs” when encouraged by a reporter to try one.

But, Venables said, “If we get a W, I’m gonna have one.”

(Top photo courtesy of Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs)

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue. 

Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June. 

Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male. 

 

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Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports. 

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling. 

“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.

Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case. 

(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

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“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital. 

“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13. 

Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters. 

With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.

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Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college. 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice. 

Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”

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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)

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SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.

“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said. 

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.

“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.

Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.

On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.

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Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.

Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.

(Lindsey Wasson / AP)

The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.

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Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.

His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”

Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.

Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.

A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.

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Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.

A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.

The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.

He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.

“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”

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Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.

“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.

“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”

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Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

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Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead. 

“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights. 

Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.

 

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“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann. 

One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”

Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”

Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif.  (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.

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After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.

In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020.  (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post. 

In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. 

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Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”

Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States. 

After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media. 

Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.

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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death. 

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