Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Washington Secrets, your guide to what’s going on behind the red and blue curtains. First of all, apologies if you are finding delivery of Secrets to be sporadic. We are upgrading our systems, which will make the whole experience much more straightforward … once we get past some initial hiccups. Today, we hear from a former pro football player making the leap into politics and drill into Donald Trump’s Iran off-ramps.
Suppose you were a professional football players’ association rep who called out the NFL commissioner as untrustworthy and took the opposite side to the league and the owners during the 2011 lockout. A proper thorn in their sides.
Then you run for Congress.
If you are Jay Feely, a 14-year kicker in the NFL, you ask Roger Goodell for a donation.
And if you are Feely, you get it.
Goodell contributed the maximum $3,500 for Feely’s primary and general election campaigns in Arizona, where he is running as a Trump-backed Republican.
Today, there is no awkwardness about that history, Feely told Secrets.
“I think he knew that I had a job to do as the player rep, and I did it in a way that was respectful,” he said by phone as he drove to meet another donor. “And you know, I’m a logical, thoughtful, reasonable person, even when you’re negotiating a [collective bargaining agreement], which can be contentious at times.
“I think that I always tried to keep the big picture in mind. And I think it’s similar in politics.”
His four seasons playing for Arizona, where he once scored 25 points, including a touchdown, in a game, and subsequent career as a CBS commentator — he has thoughts on what it is like to be a Republican in the broadcast world, more on that below — mean he comes with a head start in name recognition.
FORMER NFL KICKER JAY FEELY ANNOUNCES RUN FOR HOUSE SEAT IN ARIZONA
His Federal Election Commission filings look like something from the sports pages. They are made up of names he got to know first as a player — with the Falcons, both New York teams, and the Cardinals, among others — and then in the commentary booth.
The filings show four-figure contributions from former players such as John Elway, Brian Urlacher, Ken Whisenhunt, and Mark Sanchez; team owners including Bob Kraft (Patriots), Arthur Blank (Falcons), and Jimmy and Dee Haslam (Browns); and former NBA star Charles Barkley, as well as golfers Fred Couples and Chez Reavie.
It is the Goodell donation that stands out.
In 2012, Feely was among league veterans who worried the commissioner was not doing enough to protect player safety.
“A lot of players don’t believe he has their best interests at heart,” he told ESPN at the time. Feely was also a key figure during the 2011 lockout, when owners wanted to take more of the revenue for their operating costs.
That was when Feely got to know Kraft.
“You know, he was one of the guys that was thoughtful and rational and reasonable on the owner side,” he said, without listing the other type of owner.
It meant Feely already had relationships with people who could help him out. Even if it was a little awkward to ask for money.
“I’ve never asked anybody for money in my life. And you don’t even get a tax deduction for this,” he said with a chuckle.
Feely is running in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, on the northeastern side of Phoenix. (After a switcheroo from the 5th.)
David Schweikert, the Republican who has represented it since 2023, is running for governor, and Democrats are targeting it as a pick-up. The seat is currently rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report.
“They’re going to spend a ton of money, probably close to $30 million,” Feely said. “That’s why we needed somebody who already had very good name recognition.”
His TV time also helped, even if he felt his conservative views were a little out of place.
“I know they weren’t happy with it,” he said. “They wanted me to stick to football. And you know, my contention always was if these were liberal views, I think you’d be much more inclined to support those views.”
He said he approved of the shake-up at CBS News, where Bari Weiss has been brought in to drag its operation to the right or bring free thinking to a news organization that was fast becoming irrelevant — depending on your viewpoint.
“I think they were necessary changes,” said Feely, who grew up watching 60 Minutes with his family. “I think what the American people want is objective news. One of the things I hear the most often is, ‘Where do you get objective news from?’”
Trump’s Iran off-ramp
President Donald Trump and his White House press team are struggling to articulate an endpoint in Iran. On Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, tried to redefine what his demand for Tehran’s “unconditional surrender” might look like.
“President Trump will determine when Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, when they no longer pose a credible and direct threat to the United States of America and our allies,” she said.
It’s over when he says it’s over. Which is not a helpful message to appease a restless base.
Instead, Trump’s secretaries of state and war appear to be putting together a workable endpoint in the meantime. Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth are both articulating the same three goals:
- Destroy Tehran’s ability to launch missiles
- Destroy Tehran’s ability to make missiles
- Destroy Tehran’s navy
The State Department’s bullet points are here.
The Right’s antisemitic influencer problem
The National Review and the Republican Jewish Coalition held a symposium on antisemitism on Tuesday. Predictably, it ended up as another front in the MAGA civil war. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) declared Tucker Carlson to be the “single most dangerous demagogue in this country,” while Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) took aim at right-wing influencers peddling anti-Jewish sentiment.
This is the key part from Cotton’s speech, which you can read in full here.
“I know many of you are also concerned, though, about a seeming rise of antisemitism among ‘influencers’ on the erstwhile Right,” Cotton said. “Now, I use sarcastic air quotes for a reason. First off, these ‘influencers’ are perceived to be on the ‘Right.’ And maybe they once were, maybe they once wrote for center-right magazines, maybe they once worked for center-right websites or media companies, but I do not agree that I share a political movement or political party with anyone who traffics in antisemitism. And for that matter, doesn’t just traffic in antisemitism or at least adjacent to antisemitism, but shares Liz Warren’s economic policies or Rashida Tlaib’s foreign policy.”
He didn’t mention Carlson. He probably didn’t have to.
Lunchtime reading
The national security crisis no one in D.C. is talking about: This is a stinker. The nation’s capital has avoided a major contamination of its drinking water by the skin of its teeth three times in the past six years. What if a foreign adversary realized how easy it would be to shut down Congress and the administration?
Lindsey Graham’s war rhetoric complicates Trump’s push to calm MAGA base: See the off-ramps above, which notably do not mention regime change or even ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And then compare it with Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) messaging.