Kirsten Fleming
usa news
Barstool Sports personality Bill Cotter, aka “Billy Football,” has spent the better part of the past seven years “joking” on the Internet.
Now, the 25-year-old Republican wants to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing New York's 3rd District, the Queens and Long Island seat once held by the infamous George Santos.
“My integrity should not be questioned,” Cotter told me. “I want to do the right thing. I want people to be proud… to better our district, our country, and my generation than to have a voice in the House of Representatives.” We need a lot of young people.”
Political upstarts have many hurdles to overcome, but Cotter points out that they have a strong track record when it comes to punching up.
“I was in a real David vs. Goliath [battle]“When I fought Jose Canseco,” he said. “He was 100 pounds heavier than me. And I beat him.”
Back in 2021, Cotter went head-to-head with a scandal-plagued former MLB star on Barstool's pay-per-view boxing series “Rough and Rowdy,” which features amateur fighters. He knocked out Canseco in less than 20 seconds and walked away with a $50,000 prize, $20,000 of which he used to launch his campaign, Cotter said.
“[Canseco] He underestimated me so much that he drank beer the night before the game. I was training hard and eating well. I felt great,” Cotter said. Cotter is a regular on Barstool's most popular podcast, Pardon My Take, and currently appears on the podcast Macrodosing.
The political pugilist is set to face Nassau County Republican Party-backed Mike LiPetri in the June 25 Republican primary and is aiming for victory. The winner will then face Democratic incumbent Tom Suozzi, who won the seat in February after Congress expelled Santos after he was accused of stealing money from his campaign. (Santos has pleaded not guilty.)
On the campaign trail, Cotter said he saw a shadow of his earlier fight against Conseco and that neither LiPetri nor the Republican Party was taking him seriously.
“I think when you have a lot of institutional investors drinking money, it kind of erodes the idea of, 'I have money, I have institutional investors behind me,'” Kotter said. Ta. “There are people in Congress making millions of dollars. Are they really serving their constituents?”
But he insists he is “serious” about a move into politics. Cotter said he was driven by the immigration crisis, a decline in law and order, rising inflation and disillusionment with the bleak economic outlook among young Americans.
The breaking point for Cotter came in August 2023, when the city built an immigrant shelter on part of the Randall Island soccer field. The complex, which is home to 2,000 people, has been plagued by violence ever since., That includes a stabbing in January.
“How could a place that gave me such great childhood memories change so quickly? This is a competitive place,” said Cotter, who was born and raised in Manhattan. Westchester suburb of North Salem.
“There are huge migrant camps now, and you can’t drop your kids off at a game and go home for coffee. A crime occurred less than a mile from the park where children were playing soccer and baseball, and the atmosphere of the place had completely changed. ”
Cotter, whose paternal grandfather was an NYPD officer, said law enforcement officers, like veterans, are treated poorly in New York and across the country.
He also worries about his generation and how out of reach the American dream now feels.
He quoted Zach Bryan's song “Burn Burn Burn.”
“I want a few acres of land and a well-trained dog. A kind and gentle woman to take me to. I have very few good friends that I can count on one hand.”
“[Bryan] Very popular throughout America. He’s actually a good friend of mine,” he said of the Americana singer, who is dating Barstool’s “Brianna Chickenfry” LaPaglia. “I know he's from Oklahoma. But we all want the same thing. People want to settle down and have a home and hopefully start a family, but in their 30s… I pay rent and live with multiple roommates.”
Cotter was an all-state football player and attended Williams College, where he studied political economy. He began interning at Barstool His Sports at the age of 18 and is an avid Jets fan blogging about all areas of the pigskin. Last year, he also traveled to Africa with another Barstool employee to coach the Ugandan soccer team.
If Cotter wins, he said he would reevaluate his role at Barstool, something he has already discussed with Barstool founder Dave Portnoy.
Mr. Santos last week endorsed Mr. Cotter, who counts John F. Kennedy and Teddy Roosevelt among his political heroes.
As for Portnoy's endorsement, Cotter said it's not yet definitive.
“I have to earn his support, just as I have to earn every vote in District 3,” Cotter said. “Dave doesn't like supporting losers. He likes winners.”
