Who needs Trump or Harris? In hotly contested states, it was time for football

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PHILADELPHIA and GREEN BAY, WIS.  —  A bird beak perched on his nose, a Philadelphia Eagles’ fan expressed his disdain for the day’s opponent by dragging a Jacksonville Jaguars helmet on the ground by a leash.

Nearly 1,000 miles northwest, green and yellow Green Bay Packers flags punctured the otherwise dreary, rainy gray skies, as the Wisconsin faithful replaced their trademark cheesehead hats with ponchos and tried to stay dry under pop-up tents before their contest with the Detroit Lions.

On Sunday, two days before the election, in two of the nation’s most closely divided states that will determine control of the White House, football took center stage for fans who also happen to be voters.

Over cheesesteaks and Yuengling beer in Philadelphia and an inordinate variety of sausages and Miller Lite cans in Green Bay, fans were trying to put their election anxiety on hold for a few hours of tailgating and four quarters of football.

Watching the game in person meant they could escape the nonstop attack ads that have blanketed battleground states for months with increasing intensity ahead of election day on Tuesday.

“I stopped watching TV, and it’s almost impossible to listen to the radio, because you want to try to try to get a moment of peace, and you just can’t get it,” said Tim Ellsworth, 63, who lives in a suburb of Green Bay and was tailgating across from Lambeau Field.

The retiree, who previously ran paper mills, is a supporter of former President Trump, but he’s sick of the politicking by politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“It’s just who can lie more? You can’t believe any of it from either side. It’s just pathetic on either side,” he said.

A friend and fellow Packers-Trump fan whom he had been tailgating with since 10 a.m. unsteadily waved a bottle of beer and showed off rounds of spent shotgun shells to a reporter before asking Ellsworth what Trump had lied about.

“It’s all the way through,” Ellsworth replied. “All the way. At the Senate level, down to the local, state levels. They’re lying. So I just look forward to Tuesday.”

Dave Schofield, who wore the Eagle beak on his nose outside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, said he is anxious that Trump is blowing the election because “he can’t keep his mouth shut.”

“Some of the things he says, it’s all right to say it at a bar with your buddies, but you don’t say that stuff out loud,” said Schofield, a 63-year-old chemical salesman.

But Schofield and his friends weren’t stewing or scanning the latest polling averages on Sunday.

“Everybody’s worried more about the game today,” said his friend Everett Terry, a 65-year-old police officer who posted a “Trump Safety/Kamala Crime” placard on his truck. On Monday, he said, they can get wound up about politics again, then wait like everyone else for Tuesday’s results.

Despite the country’s political polarization, many people in these tailgate groups weren’t even sure who their football friends were supporting.

“We’re here to talk about the Eagles,” said Mike Warren, a 67–year old supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris in the same tailgate group as Schofield and Terry.

Warren was more eager to show off the green illustrations on the van he bought this year with his brother, with images of LeSean McCoy and other Eagles legends making spectacular catches.

But underneath, Warren is also scared.

Trump “will go against whatever the rules say that he should do,” said Warren, who works in human resources. “The majority says one thing, he disagrees. He finds a way to get around it. That’s what scares me.”

Steve Rostloch, a 41-year-old carpet installer from Mequon near Milwaukee, is a Harris supporter and said he expected to her to win.

“She’s a woman. Women always win,” he said. “I ain’t voting for that idiot.”

But if Eagle and Packers fans shared anything, it’s the recognition that Trump and Harris remain neck and neck.

“I’m hoping Trump wins, but I don’t know. This is tough to say. I mean, it seems like it’s very close in so many places,” Cyle Wanek, 42, said outside Lambeau Field.

Wanek grew up so close to Lambeau that he could hear the crowds roaring as a child. His dad entered the family into the season-ticket lottery more than two decades ago. They finally got their season tickets last year.

Grilling cheddar wieners from Konop Meats near Stangelville — “Go there for meat!” Wanek advised — the aluminum foundry worker said he predicted the Packers would win by 20 but was uncertain who is going to prevail on Tuesday. (His prediction would prove as suspect as some polls.)

Camaraderie among fans of rival teams was also on display Sunday, though with a sharp dose of ribbing.

Mike Kleczka, 60, and his wife, Debbie, a nurse, grew up in Wisconsin. They live in Kansas, but said it was nice to take their mind of politics for a few hours as they tailgated with their daughter Rachel and her husband before the game.

“It is, because we’ll be back at it tomorrow, right?” Kleczka, a direct marketer, said.

While the family largely agrees on politics, the bigger rift is sports. Rachel, 23, married Josh Forgie, 26, a Michigan native who was wearing a blue Lions jersey in the sea of Packer green and yellow. They have had some interesting conversations around the dinner table, they chuckled.

“The Lions have kind of been easy to make fun of,” Kleczka said.

Forgie smiled as he shot back, “The five games we played you guys? We won.”

(This was a few hours before the Lions once again beat the Packers 24-14.)

In Philadelphia and Green Bay, overt political displays were rare, though

Tim Biegalski, a 26-year-old contractor from King of Prussia, Pa., wore the closest thing to a political jersey, a green shirt with a “Hurts/Barkley ’24” logo. For the uninitiated, that’s the team’s quarterback and running back, Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley.

He’s voting for Trump, after supporting President Biden four years ago and Trump in 2016, but calls this year’s election “a no-win situation.”

Biegalski hopes Trump wins. But unlike most fans asked whether they would prefer a White House or a Super Bowl victory, Biegalski said if he had to choose — in a city so passionate about sports that it was home to the first NFL stadium to have a jail built into in its bowels — he’d rather have another Eagles championship.

“Super Bowl all day,” he said. “That will bring more joy than the election.”

Bierman reported from Philadelphia, Mehta from Green Bay.