Did #TedCruz just call it a "basketball ring"? While trying to recreate a scene from #Hoosiers? pic.twitter.com/wPdDLpPNRr
— Daniel Altman (@dbaltman) April 26, 2016
It hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for politicians running in the 2016 election as they try to cross over into the sports world. Earlier this month while in Pittsburgh, Donald Trump asked a crowd about Joe Paterno, which is a bad idea to begin with even if Paterno died in 2012. Five days later, Trump doubled down on his mistake by saying that Rex Ryan had won championships in New York, which no.
Then again, the streak of politicians committing sports faux pas goes back as far as anyone is willing to remember. This is forgivable, though – at least to the crowd who prefers that their representatives worry about the got dang economy and not some March Madness bracket.
But as far as political/sports blunders go, Ted Cruz calling a basketball rim a “basketball ring” is about as cringe-worthy as it gets… and in Indiana, no less…while apparently trying to recreate a moment from “Hoosiers.”
That’s worth a 10-point drop, at least.
Unless Cruz can get his act together, he’s going to have a hard time regaining any ground by calling the end zone a scoring rectangle in front of a bunch of supporters in Dallas. Also, yelling “Roll Tide!” in Auburn, Alabama, won’t do him any favors. But if Cruz can recover from Tuesday’s slip-up, he might just score a house run and win the Republican nomination.