Internet Culture

Dan Crenshaw’s Super Bowl-socialism crossover joke was a mess

People are trying to explain to him the rules of the NFL following his politics-football crossover tweet.

Photo of Andrew Wyrich

Andrew Wyrich

Dan Crenshaw NFL Patriots 70 Percent Tax

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) tried to joke about Democratic support of a 70 percent tax rate for wealthy Americans by using the NFL as a hypothetical, but as many people quickly pointed out, his joke doesn’t take into account how the sport works.

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Crenshaw, a veteran and newcomer to Congress who entered the national spotlight after accepting the apology of a Saturday Night Live actor who mocked him last year, asked his Twitter followers if the New England Patriots—who won last night’s Super Bowl—should be levied a “70% tax” so that “NFL competition is more fair and equal?”

The 70 percent marginal tax rate on extremely wealthy Americans was floated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) earlier this year during a 60 Minutes interview.

“Should someone propose a 70% tax on the Patriots so that NFL competition is more fair and equal? Asking for a friend,” Crenshaw wrote on Twitter.

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Ocasio-Cortez even fired back at her fellow lawmaker.

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“The average NFL salary is $2.1 million, so most players would never experience a 70% rate. The owners who refuse to hire Kaepernick would, though,” she wrote.

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Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t the only one with a response.

Many people pointed out to the Texas lawmaker that the Patriots are subject to a number of factors that, are for Crenshaw’s joke’s purposes, essentially a tax on their historic success.

The NFL has a salary cap for all of its teams, revenue sharing, and the team that wins the Super Bowl, like the Patriots, are given the last pick in the next NFL draft—allowing teams that are less successful the ability to (hypothetically) choose better young talent to try and rebuild their teams.

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https://twitter.com/jtylerconway/status/1092414384394113024

https://twitter.com/nicktachy/status/1092422762843521024

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https://twitter.com/knicks148/status/1092429163556945920

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And yet, with these socialist policies, success is still possible, an argument conservatives think is true.

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The Daily Dot