Jon Gruden brought halftime-speech energy to an Ohio Trump rally, taking the stage for Sen. Jon Husted before President Donald Trump stepped in front of the crowd.
The former NFL coach popped up at the Republican event in Vandalia, Ohio, where Husted presented him to supporters gathered at Butler High School, just north of Dayton.
Trump later singled out Gruden from the stage, calling the Super Bowl-winning coach one of his favorites and pointing to their 2025 golf outing.
“We even have one of my favorite coaches in the whole world here, Jon Gruden,” Trump told the crowd after Gruden’s speech.
Trump turned the praise into a mix of football and golf compliments.
“He’s a great coach and he’s a very good golfer too,” Trump said. “Right, Jon? We had a great time. He’s a great winner. He’s a winner.”
Gruden’s part of the rally felt less like a scripted endorsement than a fired-up sideline address.
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His bond with Husted began on the 1985 University of Dayton football team, where the two played together before Gruden went into coaching and Husted moved into politics.
Gruden, who coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title and later led the Raiders in Oakland and Las Vegas before resigning in 2021, started by making the Ohio crowd part of his own story.
“I came back for one reason,” Gruden called out to the crowd. “I’m from Ohio. My mom and dad are from Cleveland. I was born in Sandusky and I went to the University of Dayton and I’m damn proud of it, man!”
Gruden built his case for Husted around what the senator had done on a football field.
Husted played at Montpelier High School before becoming an All-American cornerback and kick returner at Dayton, then later held a string of Ohio offices, including state representative, Ohio House speaker, state senator, secretary of state, lieutenant governor and U.S. senator.
Gruden used Husted’s 17 interceptions as evidence that voters could trust his discipline and toughness.
“Jon Husted is a lot more than my friend; he was a great player,” Gruden said. “He intercepted 17 passes on the gridiron. He was a great player.”
“It was because of his work ethic and his commitment and his day-to-day mental toughness,” Gruden said. “He will never quit on you or anybody.”
Husted is running against populist Democrat Sherrod Brown in a high-stakes U.S. Senate race after taking heat over shifting on Trump’s tariffs.
As Nov. 3 approached, Gruden moved from character witness to get-out-the-vote coach, pressing supporters to vote early and pull more people into Husted’s column.
“Before you know it, this election is over,” Gruden said. “But what we got to do is we got to do our part. Early voting starts Tuesday. Can we be there or not? Let’s be there!”
He told the room to make the push spread through their own circles.
“I know you guys got a lot more friends than I do,” Gruden said. “Get your friends and get their friends and their friends and let’s get Husted back in action! Let’s go! Let’s go!”
Trump later used Gruden’s presence to joke that the rally scene was rougher than football.
“You know, Jon Gruden is standing here, saying, ‘I don’t believe this. This is rougher than a football game,’” Trump told the audience.
The president compared the Vandalia audience with Ohio State’s atmosphere.
“There’s more spirit. I think they have more spirit here than they did today in Ohio State, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said.
Trump spoke in a lower gear than Gruden, but the crowd still delivered one loud interruption when a protester was removed and attendees chanted “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”
The Ohio stop fit Trump’s broader habit of blending campaign politics with football culture during his second term.
At the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Trump told supporters he would be at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Oct. 10 for No. 7 Alabama against No. 2 Georgia.
“We love Alabama,” Trump told the crowd. “In fact, we love it so much I’ll be here again next Saturday to watch a football game between Georgia and Alabama.”
The crowd answered loudly when Trump asked which team would win.
“I thought you’d say that, I thought you’d say that,” Trump responded.
The Alabama-Georgia trip would put Trump at Bryant-Denny Stadium for a third football game. He was there for Alabama’s 46-41 loss to LSU in 2019 and watched Alabama’s 41-34 win over Georgia in 2024 from a suite with several prominent Republican figures.
Trump also delivered the university’s commencement address in May 2025, and he recently watched Texas beat Tennessee 20-17 at Neyland Stadium after Air Force One performed a low-altitude flyover before kickoff.
The president’s sports commentary continued at the White House, where he spoke Wednesday about injured New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, who introduced him at a May rally for Rep. Mike Lawler in Suffern, New York.
Trump: "Another one — Jaxson. Jaxson Dart. He's a little hurt right now. Good quarterback, but endorsed Trump so heavily and he took a little heat from a rather liberal group of people in the NFL. Very handsome guy." pic.twitter.com/aUTYDgDyQX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 30, 2026
“He’s a little hurt right now,” Trump said of Dart. “Good quarterback, but he endorsed Trump so heavily and he took a little heat from a rather liberal group of people in the NFL.”
Trump said Dart faced criticism after the rally, then claimed without evidence that the quarterback had the NFL’s top-selling jersey the following day.
“So, Jaxson Dart, who’s a great, talented, very handsome guy. And he loved Trump,” Trump said. “He wanted to introduce me at a big rally – I had a big rally; thousands of people – he got up and he said nice things.”
“I just want him to get better because we love him,” Trump said. “He got hurt. It’s a dangerous game.”