Mitt Romney and Barack Obama appeared last night during Monday Night Football for separate interviews with ESPN presenter Chris Berman that briefly touched on both politics and sports.
The pre-taped interviews, which ran during the halftime broadcast of the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints matchup, consisted of Berman asking each candidate a mix of political and sports questions. Both men were witty and poised as they comfortably answered Berman’s questions.
Berman asked Obama what he now knows about America that he may not have known four years ago.
Obama said he got “a lot of confirmation about what I believed about America.” He continued, “There are a lot of differences, but at their core, Americans are hard-working, they are self-reliant, they are decent… we’ve had four hard years with the economic crisis that we went through, but watching the resilience of the American people bouncing back from hardship has been remarkable.” Obama added that sports, particularly football, are one of the country’s big unifiers.
Berman then asked Obama about football, in particular the college football playoff system, which Obama had called for during his 2008 campaign. Berman asked, “Four years ago, Mr. President, you called for a college football playoff. Now, you’ve got that. It starts in two years, with four schools involved. Did that go far enough?”
Obama, in a moment of levity, responded. “Promises made, promises kept. This was something I said needed to get done, and this is change you can believe in.”
Obama also made a comparison between sports and politics, specifically sports and political reporters. “Political reporters are a lot like sports reporters, and, you know, you lose a game and you’re a bum. You win a game, you’re a god.”
During Romney’s interview, Berman asked him what he had learned about himself during his campaign. Romney replied that he has been surprised by how energized the campaign has made him.
“You know, I wondered if I would get tired out. I mean, this campaign goes on for a couple years, lots of flights, lots of trips, and what I found that surprised me is, the more events I did, the more energy I seemed to get. The more passion that comes from the people, their desire for change, if you will, gives me more energy and more commitment to the process.”
In his own moment of levity, Romney took credit for the success of the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox in recent years.
“I’ve lived in Massachusetts now 40 years and I take personal full responsibility for their two Super Bowl wins, as well as the Red Sox winning the World Series. Hey, look, as a governor, you get blamed for everything that goes wrong, you might as well get credit for what goes right.”
When asked what he would fix or change in sports today, Romney pointed to the “specter” of performance enhancing drugs, stating that “We’re going to have to change the culture that says to people, using performance enhancing drugs is acceptable. It is simply not.”
Berman wrapped up Romney’s interview by asking him how the experience of being around the athletes at the 2002 Winter Olympics would serve him well in the White House.
“Well, I got a chance at the Olympics to see the great qualities of the human spirit,” Romney said. “And you see greatness come out. You see people when they are pushed to their limit are able to dig extraordinarily deep with determination and with passion and conviction, sometimes patriotism, and loyalty to their teammates. It is a place where you see what is beneath the surface of an individual human being and you come away inspired.”
Berman wrapped up the halftime show poignantly.
“Both men have given us quite a choice tomorrow. Having the chance to vote is one of America’s greatest privileges. It’s an honor and it’s our duty to go to the polls. Make your vote count.”
