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Oh, boy.
To say that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — the running mate of the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris — is factually-challenged would be an understatement.
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A number of statements the governor has made on the campaign trail have come under intense scrutiny for always seeming to be just askew of what actually happened.
One thing, however, that hasn’t really been questioned (though it has been excoriated) is Walz’s high school football coaching career.
And that’s because, by all accounts, Walz actually got the facts right on this specific tale …
… Or did he?
Look, this writer is 100 percent, unequivocally not saying that Walz was never a football coach.
But this writer is a bit curious as to what sort of football coach Walz was, because there is mounting evidence as to why he wasn’t exactly welcomed back with a warm embrace when he recently revisited the Minnesota school he once coached at.
And it appears that at least one reason Walz wasn’t welcomed back at Mankato West High School when he went to visit earlier this month is because the Democratic VP nominee and ex-assistant football coach doesn’t actually know that much about football.
Exhibit A: Walz recently took to social media platform X to use that football knowledge to illustrate an analogy for prospective voters.
See if you can spot his blundering mistake for yourself below:
It’s a tied game. Two minutes on the clock. We’ve got the ball, and we’re driving down field.
Even if we move one inch at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time – we will win this. pic.twitter.com/SI6sohCji4
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) October 29, 2024
“It’s a tied game. Two minutes on the clock. We’ve got the ball, and we’re driving down field,” Walz wrote, and in fairness to him, so far, so good on this analogy.
But then Walz went too far: “Even if we move one inch at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time — we will win this.”
Hey, I’m not sure how to break this to you “coach,” but in the context of your analogy, moving “one inch at a time” will ultimately lead to a turnover on downs after having gained all of four inches.
That seems like terrible football strategy in a tie game with less than two minutes left to play … and social media gleefully reminded him of that fact.
“Even if we move one inch at a time”?
This guy’s team couldn’t even get a half a foot in 4 downs…
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) October 29, 2024
If you move an inch at a time, you’ll turn the ball over on downs. You idiot.
— Bojac (@HeartlessBojac) October 29, 2024
You only have four downs to move ten yards, better hope you get more than an inch, Coach
— Jon (@JonnyMicro) October 29, 2024
Now, had this lone bit of errant verbiage been it, maybe viewers wouldn’t pick apart his rhetoric.
But Walz has shown — in fundamental practice — that his football acumen may be … uh, lacking.
Some doofus on social media astutely pointed out that Walz didn’t even seem to understand rudimentary blocking schemes while he was playing New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in “Madden”:
All politics aside, why didn’t coach Walz follow all of his engaged blockers to the left?? Instead he cuts into the unblocked linebacker??? https://t.co/DDztUTO7GP pic.twitter.com/2Xgw80RA63
— Bryan Chai (@kingbeacheye) October 28, 2024
Again, from all indications, Walz was indeed a football coach (as to how good of a coach he was, that’s very much up in the air).
But given Walz’s and Harris‘ propensity for stretching the truth until it’s unrecognizable, can you blame anyone for doubting that fact, especially after Walz effectively outed his own lack of football knowledge?
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