The NFL’s political action committee, Gridiron, gave disproportionately to Republicans in 2023, making four times the number of individual contributions, and giving three and half times more money to GOP members in Congress compared to their peers across the aisle, a review of the league’s Federal Election Commission filings show. Gridiron also contributed to 18 other PACs, 15 of which were affiliated with the GOP.
The NFL in a statement called the figures a snapshot in time and promised they would even out by the end of this election cycle.
Many of those contributions went to GOP members of the House, including three to lightning-rod Representative Jim Jordan, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and one to James Comer, who as chair of the Oversight Committee is overseeing the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Comer, when he was ranking minority member, severely criticized the committee’s then-investigation of the Washington Commanders.
Political action committees raise and spend money to defeat or elect certain candidates. The NFL, which routinely has issues before Congress from antitrust to labor concerns, formed Gridiron in 2008.
“Makes sense from many owners’ perspective but is shocking when you think of who the league employs,” said a former league executive of the heavy tilt of the NFL contributions. “Not to mention how Trump has attacked them.”
In response this week to the ’23 figure, the NFL said in a statement, “The Gridiron PAC gives equally to incumbent federal officeholders in both parties each cycle. Each cycle is two years. So, the 2023 numbers are an incomplete snapshot. By the end of the 2024 election cycle, contributions to Republicans and Democrats will be the same, which is consistent with previous election cycles.”
According to an NFL spokesperson, during the 2022 election cycle, the PAC distributed $215,000 to Democratic candidates and $215,000 to Republican candidates running for reelection in the U.S. House and Senate. Additionally, during the 2020 election cycle, the PAC distributed $241,000 to Democratic candidates and $240,500 to Republican candidates running for reelection in the U.S. House and Senate.
It’s not just who the league employs–over 60 percent of players are African-American, a demographic that has voted overwhelmingly for Democrats–it’s the league’s own initiatives that make the donations stand out.
The NFL is heavily invested in its own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) effort, a process that has come under withering attacks from many in the GOP. Just this week Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith criticized his alma mater, the University of Florida, for doing away with its DEI program. The state of Florida under GOP rule banned DEI for public institutions.
And the NFL’s professed dedication to social justice efforts in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd in 2020 is another area where the sport may not see eye to eye with the GOP beneficiaries of its largess. In 2020, as NFL ratings suffered due to the pandemic and presidential election coverage, many on the right blamed the NFL’s social justice initiatives as a “go woke, go broke” situation. NFL ratings quickly rebounded and this year’s Super Bowl broke the all-time viewership record.
In 2023, the NFL made 63 individual contributions to GOP legislators, totaling $134,000, according to a review of the league’s FEC filings. By contrast, Gridiron made 15 contributions to Democrats worth $38,500 last year, the FEC filings show. Gridiron also contributed $38,500 to Republican PACs and $8,500 to Democrat ones, according to the filings.
In 2019, Gridiron made 22 contributions to Democrats worth $72,500, according to an analysis of the league’s FEC filings. Gridiron contributed $38,500 to 10 GOP members, all senators that year, the filings reveal. That year Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, whereas today they are split.
And going back to 2015, when the GOP controlled both houses of Congress, Gridiron made 94 contributions worth $200,500 to GOP members, the NFL’s FEC filings show. By contrast, Gridiron made 78 contributions to Dems worth $180,000, according to a review of that year’s FEC filings.
Why there is such a discrepancy in contributions toward the two parties in 2023 compared to 2019 and 2015, also years before a presidential election, is unclear. In 2020, the NFL told The Athletic the contribution decisions are made by its Washington, DC office.
In 2023, Gridiron raised $395,000, largely through donations from owners, team executives and league staff. The PAC had $1.385 million in cash at the end of 2023.
The NFLPA also has a PAC, but it was inactive in 2023, making no donations or raising any money.
Among other sports, MLB has had a PAC since 2001. Last year it made 16 contributions to Dems worth $38,000, according to a review of MLB’s FEC reports. It also made nine contributions to Republicans worth $27,500, the FEC reports show.
The donations to Jordan were not the first time the NFL gave to the Congressman, but they are the first since he was accused of ignoring sexual abuse of athletes while a wrestling coach at Ohio State and was an instrumental figure in the efforts to overturn the election of President Joe Biden culminating in a riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. When NFL commissioner Roger Goodell appeared before Congress for testimony regarding the Washington Commanders’ workplace misconduct allegations in 2022, Jordan used the opportunity to ask Goodell if Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy had been banned from NFL games and whether or not he believed in the First Amendment.
The report about the Ohio State wrestling scandal came out on July 3, 2018, Jordan has denied he was aware of the sexual abuse. A week earlier on June 28, 2018, the PAC contributed $5,000 to Jordan, following a $5,000 donation in April 2018, according to FEC reports. The PAC also donated $2,500 to the Ohio Congressman in 2016, according to FEC filings. While several companies initially pledged to pull donations from congressional representatives who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election, as Jordan did, those donations have largely continued uninterrupted.
