Donald Trump opened a boisterous rally in Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday by commenting on how well football Hall of Famer Jim Brown played lacrosse for Syracuse University.
“Jim Brown I’ve always heard was a better lacrosse player than football player,” Trump told the crowd.
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Efforts to appeal to local sports sentiment have become a staple of Trump’s stump speeches, with mixed results. At a rally Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Trump referenced former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who was fired for failing to act more aggressively against Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach found to have abused minors for years.
“How’s Joe Paterno? We gonna bring that back? Right?” Trump asked the audience. “How about that whole deal?”
Trump’s campaign was left asserting that Trump knew that Patero died in 2012. They said he was arguing for replacing a bronze statue of Paterno in front of the team’s Beaver Stadium that was removed amid the scandal. Trump also had to quickly add a reference to the University of Pittsburgh, whose teams are backed by more local residents.
Brown went to the University of Syracuse, which has a statue of him now, and then on to a record-setting nine-year career with the Cleveland Browns. He has taken on gang violence in Cleveland and Los Angeles.
