Kansas State University football head coach Bill Snyder apologized Saturday for endorsing Sen. Pat Roberts’ re-election in a television ad, calling it a “mistake.”
“I made a mistake,” Snyder said Saturday during a post-game press conference, according to local press. “I’m not going to delve into exactly how everything happened, but I made a mistake, and I’ve embarrassed our university.
“That’s my responsibility,” he added. “That was my error.”
Snyder was featured in an ad, titled “Coach,” released earlier this week by Roberts’ campaign.
“Pat is a dear friend and a great friend to the state of Kansas,” Snyder said in the ad. “I care about him a great deal. I think his track record speaks for itself.”
But Snyder said Saturday he now wants the ad removed from television.
The ad controversy is just the latest wrinkle in a Senate race that has been filled with plot twists, starting with the surprise challenge to Roberts by Greg Orman, an independent. Roberts now faces an existential threat to his Senate career, and has trailed Orman by a slim margin in public polling.
Should Roberts lose, it could make the Senate-majority math a bit more complicated for Republicans, who will need to net six seats to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats.
