With the November midterms drawing near, President Donald Trump appears to be pulling out all the stops to promote Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton‘s bid for U.S. Senate. His newest allies on the campaign trail? Three former Texas college football standouts, according to a report published Monday by Axios.
Axios’ Alex Isenstadt reported Monday that former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, former Texas Longhorns signal caller Colt McCoy and former New England Patriots star and Texas Tech alum Danny Amendola will join the president on the campaign trail on Tuesday in a multi-stop campaign blitz targeting Lubbock and Corpus Christi.
The team-up may be surprising on its face, however, at least two of the former gridiron greats joining Trump this week have history with the president. In January of 2017 Manziel deactivated his Twitter (now X) account shortly after posting words of advice for the then-first-term president.
“Yo @POTUS even I know to stay away from the notifications section on twitter. S–t will drive you crazy, lead the country and let them hate,” Manziel wrote.
Manziel later reactivated his X account, and in a 2024 interview with FOX News, remarked that he didn’t see himself getting involved in politics.
“Politics is probably something I will never get involved in,” Manziel said in the wide-ranging interview.
Amendola’s connection to Trump can be publicly traced back to the Patriots’ April 2017 visit to the White House. During the visit, which Amendola skipped in order to attend a friend’s funeral, the president praised the wide receiver’s play against the Atlanta Falcons in New England’s come-from-behind Super Bowl LI victory. Amendola tweeted his thanks to the president, but later deleted the post in the face of digital backlash.
“Thanks for the shout out @realDonaldTrump! in the GYM! Funeral service for my boy Jaimie Carrillo tonight! RIP-JC,” Amendola wrote.
McCoy’s connection to Trump is less straightforward. McCoy retired from the NFL in 2024 and began working in commercial real estate in Texas in 2025. Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed the former Longhorns star to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) in January. The THECB is a state agency overseeing and coordinating higher education policy across Texas.
As for Trump, this week marks the president’s fourth trip to Texas in two months as the state’s increasingly uncertain Senate race between Paxton and his Democratic opponent James Talarico nears its crescendo. Election day is November 3.