President Donald Trump seen attending the football game between Alabama and LSU during Louisiana Elections
Post and Courier Pool

The election in America is only less than a year from now. And with the results of the recent elections, wherine the Republicans have shown signs of slowing, it is vital for President Trump to court the American voters because his chance for reelection is becoming thinner.

In a report from the USA Today, President Donald Trump attended the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers in Tuscaloosa, Ala on Saturday. He received ovation and few boos from the audience. After the game, Trump congratulate the LSU and Alabama for the great game. Moreover, for some political analysts it seems that Trump is a little more political following his attacks to the football players who knelt at the national anthem promoting his appearance at the LSU game to Bayou state voters.

Meanwhile, the author of The I in Team: Sports Fandom and Reproduction of Identity Erin Tarver said that Trump has made his political career by getting people to think about politics in terms of fandom.

In the history of U.S. politics, it is not only Trump who used sports as part of politics. An analyst said that so long as there is sports, politicians will always associate themselves with sports because it gives them their identity most specially that Americans are known as the most sports loving country. Robert Mann, a mass communication professor at Louisiana State University said that sports is a cultural touchstone especially college football and it is also one of the ways for the politicians to say that "Hey, I am just like you".

There is a long relationship between the president and sports, and the president in the history of U.S. politics who played a key role in making what is football today is President Theodore Roosevelt. Football was once a brutal game and it produced the deaths of many players, but in 1905 President Roosevelt told the college administrators that they have to assure the welfare and safety of the players or else it will face its extinction.

The mandate from Roosevelt led them to create to what is known now as National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that governs sports and paved way to make football become popular across the country.

Former President William Howard Taft, the successor of Roosevelt, began the tradition of having the president throw out the opening pitch of the major league in baseball. Meanwhile, Former President Bill Clinton indulged himself in his passion for basketball. As a matter of fact, he travelled to Charlotte to watch his home-state Arkansas in a game against the Duke.

The history of sports and politics did not end there. Everyone can still remember that two months before the 9/11 attack, George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at a World Series Game in New York City. In addition, Bush is the former manager general partner of the Texas Rangers and even stayed in the position during his two terms in the office as the President of U.S.

Former President Barrack Obama has his own share also in sports. He attended the basketball game that features Oregon State which was coached by his brother-in-law Craig Robinson. And in 2010, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat in front row as Georgetown won over the Duke.

In a sports article in Yahoo Sports News, Trump sat in a box owned by a real estate businessman from Alabama Jim Wilson. With the president was the Louisiana Republican Representatives Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Ralph Abraham and Garret Graves, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Alabama Republican Reps. Robert Aderholt, Bradley Byrne and Gary Palmer.

Read more: Trump attends Alabama-LSU game during Louisiana election. How he, other presidents, use sports for politics and Trump soaks in Deep South cheers at college football matchup