{"id":817604,"date":"2026-07-23T00:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817604\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T00:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:06:12","slug":"ex-nfl-kicker-jay-feely-likely-to-face-off-against-former-new-york-jets-team-doctor-in-arizona-congressional-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817604\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NFL kicker Jay Feely likely to face off against former New York Jets team doctor in Arizona congressional race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jock vs. Doc. <\/p>\n

Former NFL kicker Jay Feely<\/a> is on track to go up against a familiar face, onetime New York Jets team doctor Amish Shah, in the hotly contested House race for Arizona\u2019s 1st Congressional District.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They both roamed the sidelines of the Meadowlands<\/a> together back in 2008 and 2009, when Feely was putting up field goals for the Jets and Shah worked as the team\u2019s emergency care physician.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ArizonaFeely played six teams during his 14 seasons in the NFL. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it ends up being Amish Shah, he and I were both with the Jets at one time together. I was playing, he was a doctor,\u201d Feely told reporters<\/a> after his GOP primary win Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an old relationship. But whoever [the general election opponent] is, I want to do this the right way. I want to run this the right way,\u201d he added.\u00a0 \u201cI want to make sure that I give them respect, I listen to them and give them the respect that they\u2019re due, but still continue to stand up for my beliefs and what I believe is best for my district and my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shah, an emergency physician at the Mayo Clinic Arizona and a former member of the state\u2019s House of Representatives, is leading the Democratic field in the 1st District primary by 7 points, but the race is still too close to call.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feely<\/a>, who played for six teams \u2014 including the Jets and Giants \u2014 during his 14 seasons as a pro, won the GOP primary in the wealthy, northeastern Maricopa County district Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dr.More than a decade ago, Shah worked on the sideline providing emergency care to New York Jets players. Amish for Arizona<\/p>\n

The district, which includes parts of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills and north Phoenix, is considered to be a toss-up in the general election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 1st District House seat is being vacated by Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), who opted to run for governor but lost Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democrats have targeted the district as a key flip opportunity as they try to regain the House majority after four years out of power.<\/p>\n

Feely, who is also a former CBS football analyst. was endorsed by President Trump in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jock vs. Doc. Former NFL kicker Jay Feely is on track to go up against a familiar face,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[5888,64,63,393115,593,84,85,3780],"class_list":["post-817604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-arizona","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-nfl","tag-politics","tag-sports","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}