Two icons of their sports have endorsed President Donald Trump for reelection.
NFL great Brett Favre and NHL star Bobby Orr publicly lent their support to the President’s campaign on Friday, making them among the most prominent figures in sports to do so. Golf icon Jack Nicklaus said on Thursday that he had voted for Trump and encouraged others to do the same.
In a tweet, the former Green Bay Packers quarterback praised Trump’s stances on freedom of speech, the Second Amendment and police. “My Vote is for what makes this country great, freedom of speech & religion, 2nd Amnd, hard working tax paying citizens, police & military,” Favre wrote. “In this election, we have freedom of choice, which all should respect. For me & these principles, my Vote is for @RealDonaldTrump.”
Orr’s endorsement came in the form of a full-page ad in the Manchester Union Leader on Friday. Orr is pictured with his wife, Peggy, and Trump posing with their thumbs up.
“I have never done anything like this before, but I am greatly concerned for the country in which I have raised my family — a country I have grown to love deeply,” the ad reads. “I want my grandchildren to know the America I know, a place of patriotism and opportunity.”
Orr was born in Canada but resides in the US, and donated $5,000 to the Trump campaign this summer. While his wife, Margaret, is a registered voter, Orr is not, according to public voting records. CNN was unable to determine if Orr is an American citizen. Two emails sent to Orr’s associates went unreturned.
The three endorsements came a little more than a week after Favre asked Trump during a town hall how professional sports leagues could promote an anti-racism position without alienating fans.
Trump, speaking from the White House, responded, “People don’t want to see all of the politics. They’ve got enough politics with me and everybody else and they don’t want to see it with football, on sports on Sunday or whenever they happen to be watching.”
Favre mostly avoided making political statements throughout his playing career and since retiring in 2010.
But in July, he was photographed golfing with President Trump. The two “discussed the importance of sports as a critical unifying and uplifting part of the safe reopening of America,” White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern said, according to CNN affiliate WTMJ.
The two were pictured without masks in close proximity to each other.
He also appeared in an election ad for Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in June, the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger reported.
While NFL team owners have donated millions to Trump’s campaign in the past, Favre is one of the few former or current NFL players to endorse the President.
Earlier this week, retired NFL quarterback Jay Cutler appeared to support Trump’s reelection by reposting an endorsement letter from professional golfer Jack Nicklaus with the caption “Never a doubt.”
Trump’s relationship with the NFL has been rocky. In 2017 and 2018, he criticized Colin Kaepernick and other players who knelt during the National Anthem to protest police violence against Black Americans and said they should be fired.
Earlier this year, Favre said “there’s no right answer” when it comes to players kneeling during the anthem but asserted that “we should all be treated equal.”
“If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be in America,” he told USA Today in August.
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