McCarthy is working hard for the team
| Saturday, Apr 18 2009 05:45 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Apr 18 2009 05:45 PM
The most useful attribute a college football coach can possess, aside from familiarity with the grammar of the game and a commanding game-day presence on the sideline, is the ability to convince young, agile behemoths to enroll at his university.
Right now, that's Rep. Kevin McCarthy's most valuable contribution to his team, too. Effectively outnumbered in the halls of Congress, where he and his allies fight the widespread perception that all the new ideas are currently coming from the other side of the room, McCarthy's chief concern isn't policy -- it's team development.
And the next position he hopes to fill is tight end.
With Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Livermore, having accepted an offer from the Obama administration to serve in the U.S. State Department, a special election looms in the 10th Congressional District. McCarthy would love to see Brent Jones, the middle-aged, once-agile behemoth who starred for the San Francisco 49er a decade or so ago, yank the Bay Area district back over to the Republican side.
If political success is all about the narrative -- it certainly was in 2008 -- it might be hard to beat Jones, who made the Pro Bowl four times and helped the 49ers win three Super Bowls. And, McCarthy reminds us, there was also "The Catch," that famous back-of-the-end zone snag from Joe Montana that propelled the Niners to -- er, hold it, Kev. That was Dwight Clark, six years before Jones arrived.
No matter. Jones' resume is impressive enough. Professional athletes have undeniable name recognition, and Jones', at least in the Bay Area, is golden. Football players make pretty good public servants sometimes, too. Take President Gerald Ford, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron "Whizzer" White and New York Congressman Jack Kemp, whose hair was the inspiration for McCarthy's. Enduring athletic fame is not a requirement, either. Former University of Tennessee quarterback Heath Schuler, an undeniable bust in the pros, was elected to Congress from North Carolina last fall, a rare football-playing Democrat.
Receivers are less a sure thing. Lynn Swann, the Steelers' 1970s Super Bowl hero, lost Pennsylvania's 2006 gubernatorial race by 20 percentage points to the Democratic incumbent, and four-term Congressman Steve Largent, the former Seattle Seahawk, blew a huge advantage in the polls to lose the 2002 race for Oklahoma governor.
What about tight ends, the blue-collar knuckle-draggers of the receiving corps? Hard to say -- they have almost no track record. The only former pro tight end with political aspirations I can remember is Mike Ditka, who flirted with the possibility of running for Illinois' U.S. Senate seat in 2004, but backed out at the last minute. He might have changed the course of history had he won: His would-be opponent, Barack Obama, found a better job four years later.
Jones, who was one of the NFL's leading evangelical Christians during his playing days, has been eyeing Tauscher's seat since 1996, the year she was first elected, so it's not like McCarthy put the idea into his head.
But McCarthy, his party's chief deputy whip, is cheering him on now. And with off-year congressional races often helping the minority party, McCarthy -- who's clearly taking his membership in the "young guns" leadership triumvirate seriously -- ought to be able to offer well-founded encouragement. Tauscher's departure moves the 10th Congressional District, which runs roughly from Livermore to Vacaville, to the top of McCarthy's list.
Democrats are lining up as well, of course, but none of them can equal Jones' gridiron credentials. Except perhaps for the latest (possible) entry -- Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a second-team All-American offensive guard at Cal.
Uh-oh. Game on?
Reach Robert Price at rprice@bakersfield.com.
