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What we learned in NFL Week 7: Chiefs flip the script, Steelers’ bet pays off

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What we learned in NFL Week 7: Chiefs flip the script, Steelers’ bet pays off

After the Patriots lost their sixth in a row, first-year coach Jerod Mayo called his team soft.

After the boos rained down on Saquon Barkley in his return to MetLife Stadium — one sign even read “TRAITOR” — the Eagles’ star running back torched his old team.

And after another tumultuous week in the unending soap opera that is the New York Jets, the end result — a 37-15 loss to the Steelers on Sunday night — looked and felt familiar. At 2-5, this team can’t get out of its own way, and the season feels lost before the calendar flips to November.

In a rematch of February’s Super Bowl, the champs flipped the script, and the Chiefs showed they can win without the lethal passing game they’ve built their dynasty on.

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NFL Week 7 takeaways: Are the 49ers in too deep a hole? Who are kings of the NFC North?

In Washington, rookie standout Jayden Daniels played just 12 snaps before leaving with a rib injury. No matter. The Commanders rolled 40-7 over a Panthers team that’s once again making a compelling case for the title of worst team in football.

In an NFC North clash between two of the best teams in the league, the Lions handed the Vikings their first loss of the season, 31-29, after Jake Bates converted a 44-yard field goal with 15 seconds left. It was a game of runs — the Vikings scored the first 10 points, the Lions responded with 21 straight, then Minnesota ripped off nine more in the fourth quarter before Jared Goff led Detroit 44 yards in eight plays to set up Bates’ game-winner.

Both of these teams are 5-1, and both are for real. The next time they see each other — Week 18 — could very well come with a division title and home field advantage hanging in the balance. Goff is quietly playing some of the most efficient football of his career: he’s now the fourth QB in NFL history with a passer rating of 140 or higher in three straight starts, joining Aaron Rodgers (2011), Kurt Warner (1999) and Roger Staubach (1971).

But it’s far from a two-team race in the NFC North. The Packers are 5-2 after edging the Texans at home, 24-22, despite turning the ball over three times. Green Bay has been excellent on defense of late and held Texans QB C.J. Stroud to just 86 passing yards on Sunday. Brandon McManus, whom the Packers signed on Tuesday, drilled the 45-yard game-winner with three seconds left.

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Another Super Bowl contender, the Buffalo Bills, somehow found themselves trailing 10-0 early to a Titans team that was playing backup quarterback Mason Rudolph. By game’s end it was a 34-10 victory for the Bills, who welcomed new addition Amari Cooper with a second-half touchdown. Buffalo is now 5-2, tied with Houston and Pittsburgh for the second-best record in the AFC.

In Atlanta, the Seahawks won for the first time in nearly a month, routing the Falcons 34-14 to improve to 4-3 and stay in front of all others in the NFC West. And in Indianapolis, the Colts slogged out a 16-10 win over the Dolphins despite Anthony Richardson completing just 10 of 24 passes for 129 yards.

The Rams earned their second win of the year by beating a reeling Raiders team that’s dropped three straight and four of five.

Here’s what we learned across Week 7 in the NFL:

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Steelers’ bet pays off, Jets’ doesn’t

Across 11 days in October, the Jets have fired their head coach, demoted their offensive play-caller, traded for six-time Pro Bowl receiver Davante Adams, ended a seven-month holdout with Haason Reddick and dropped a pair of nationally televised games.

This is a franchise in constant chaos, and it shows. New York is a poorly run, poorly coached football team. The Jets are 2-5 for the season, trailing a Miami team in their own division that has been without Tua Tagovailoa since Week 3.

Maybe the Super Bowl hype was a bit much, but the Jets absolutely had their sights set on a playoff berth this season. Instead, they’ve been a massive disappointment.

Adams’ much-discussed arrival netted little in Sunday night’s loss. He finished with three catches on nine targets for 30 yards. Outside of Breece Hall, who had 141 all-purpose yards and a touchdown, the Jets couldn’t sustain anything on offense. An early 15-6 lead disappeared quickly as the Steelers scored 31 unanswered points, taking control of the game late in the second quarter and never looking back.


Russell Wilson passed for two touchdowns in his Steelers debut. (Justin Berl / Getty Images)

As for Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin’s bold gamble paid off, at least for one week. He slid Justin Fields to the bench despite Fields leading the team to a 4-2 start, and Russell Wilson, making his first start since Christmas Eve — when he was still with the Broncos — got his chance. The 12-year veteran delivered, throwing two touchdowns and giving the Steelers’ offense the downfield threat that Tomlin felt had been missing.

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Pittsburgh’s defense was excellent after halftime, and the special teams unit blocked a field goal attempt for the third straight game. With the win, the Steelers (5-2) inch ahead of the Ravens in the AFC North.

Chiefs are last unbeaten

Seven weeks into the season and there’s just one undefeated team remaining, and it’s the same team that’s hoisted the Lombardi Trophy each of the last two years. No matter how unimpressive the Chiefs have looked at times this season, they’re still the team everyone’s chasing.

Sunday’s 28-18 victory over the 49ers spoke to why. Patrick Mahomes threw for just 154 passing yards — the third-fewest total of his career — and tossed two interceptions, and Kansas City still beat the defending NFC champs by double-digits. The Chiefs (6-0) have shown they can scratch out wins despite a mediocre passing game, strange as that sounds, because this is such a well-constructed, veteran roster and because Andy Reid remains as good as any other coach in football at giving his team the best chance to win every Sunday.

Kansas City’s run game carried the load, finishing with 184 yards (a 4.7-per-carry average) and four rushing touchdowns, the most for the team since the 2019 season opener. Sunday’s onslaught included one by Mahomes, who trucked 49ers safety Malik Mustapha at the goal line. Steve Spagnuolo’s defense was stellar, intercepting 49ers QB Brock Purdy three times and stifling the 49ers offense all game long.

It didn’t help San Francisco that its roster wasn’t close to full strength. Already down Christian McCaffrey and Jauan Jennings, the 49ers lost Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel during the game. It’s been the story of their season. The injuries keep piling up, and San Francisco (3-4) hasn’t found its typical rhythm. Without all of his top-tier weapons healthy, Purdy hasn’t looked like the same player. Up next: a Dallas team coming off a bye after being embarrassed the last time out.

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Deshaun Watson ran onto the field Sunday in Cleveland to a smattering of boos, an indication of where the beleaguered quarterback stood with disgruntled Browns fans. He left it on a cart before halftime with tears in his eyes.

And with one non-contact injury — Watson’s right leg buckled during the second quarter of the Browns’ 21-14 loss to the Bengals — the league’s messiest quarterback situation got a whole lot messier.

No longer is Watson merely a struggling, overpaid QB. Now he’s a struggling, overpaid quarterback who’ll be coming off a major injury whenever he’s able to return in 2025, due a whopping $92 million over the next two seasons. Reminder: that’s a fully guaranteed $92 million.

The fear is that Watson ruptured his Achilles tendon, which would sideline him for the rest of the season and perhaps into 2025. It’d be the third time in five years Watson has had a season end prematurely due to injury.

“Let’s get the tests first, but that’s what it looks like,” coach Kevin Stefanski acknowledged.

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Deshaun Watson’s season appears to be over after what is feared to be an Achilles injury. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)

The Browns have time before making a decision, but no option at this point looks promising: cutting Watson before June 1 would incur a seismic $172.7 million cap hit, an unprecedented figure in NFL history. A post-June 1 release would mean only $72.9 million against the cap in 2025, still the second-highest ever for a player who wouldn’t even be on the roster. Another route would be a trade, but it’s hard to fathom another team taking on this contract, no matter the draft capital Cleveland might be willing to part with to get Watson off its books.

Remember the original haul: the Browns sent the Texans three first-round picks, a third-rounder and two fourth-rounders for Watson in 2022, then signed him to a $230 million fully guaranteed deal. If this injury spells the end of Watson’s time in Cleveland — and it very well could — it’d be hard to consider that trade as anything short of the worst in NFL history.

Barkley runs roughshod in return to MetLife

The now-infamous quote, caught by HBO’s “Hard Knocks” cameras, felt prescient Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium. “I’m going to have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia, I’ll tell you that,” Giants owner John Mara said last spring, adding that “he’s our most popular player by far.”

No word yet on how much sleep he lost after what he saw Sunday. Saquon Barkley, the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft who piled up 7,311 yards and 47 touchdowns in six seasons in New York, had been the best player in a bad era of Giants football. Losing him was one thing. But losing him to a divisional rival? Akin to pouring salt in the wound of a damaged, at times directionless franchise.

Such was Barkley’s performance Sunday, his first at MetLife Stadium since signing with the Eagles in the offseason: 187 all-purpose yards and a touchdown in the Eagles’ dominant 28-3 win. Barkley was at his best, a brutal reminder for Giants fans of just how much talent the organization let leave: he accounted for three of Philly’s four longest plays, runs of 55, 41 and 38 yards.

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In fact, Barkley’s 761 scrimmage yards this season are the most of any player in his first six games with a team since … Barkley’s rookie season with the Giants back in 2018.

The Giants, meanwhile, pulled starter Daniel Jones in the fourth quarter. He finished with fewer than 100 yards passing on 21 attempts and was sacked seven times. New York is 2-5 and another season feels like it’s slipping away. It’s fair to wonder how long coach Brian Daboll will stick with him.

“Daniel will be the quarterback going forward,” Daboll said after the loss. But for 2025? That’s looking less and less likely.

Early race for No. 1 pick

It’s still early, but we’re starting to get a sense of which teams will be in the running for the top pick in April’s draft.

So far, no one’s looked worse on a week-to-week basis than the Panthers. The roster’s thin, the offense is devoid of playmakers and the defense is being forced to spend far too much time on the field. One has to wonder if they’re willing to trade Bryce Young, the 2023 No. 1 draft pick, before next month’s deadline.

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This is going to get even uglier as we inch into winter. Will the David Tepper era ever look any different in Carolina? So far, Panthers fans have little reason for optimism. Since the hedge fund billionaire bought the team in 2018, Carolina is 32-74 and headed for a seventh straight losing season.

The Patriots have dropped six straight and, like the Panthers, are 1-6. But at least with Drake Maye, there is hope at the quarterback position.

The Browns are also 1-6 and will either turn to Jameis Winston or Dorian Thompson-Robinson to replace Watson.

The Titans are 1-5 and their young quarterback, Will Levis, has turned the ball over 10 times in five starts before sitting out with a shoulder injury.

The Saints, who lost to the Broncos 33-10 on Thursday night, have dropped five straight after scoring 91 points the first two weeks of the season in a pair of eye-popping wins over the Panthers and Cowboys. New Orleans’ season has turned and turned fast.

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(Top photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)

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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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