Pablo Torre

I often think of politics now as just like a storytelling contest.

And so when I hear the story that Riley Gaines is telling in this book, it reminds me that the most helpful thing often when it comes to a movement like this is to find a victim to empathize with.

And here you have a young girl born in Nashville, Tennessee in the year 2000.

And I tried it all.

Softball, basketball, horseback riding, track.

There wasn't a sport I didn't beg my parents to put me in.

I was four years old when I started swimming.

And she's the daughter of... A former football player at Vanderbilt University who went on to play professionally in the NFL and who had multiple brothers who were also SEC athletes and NFL superstars.

But Brad Gaines is currently running for Congress, so I have to say something about this NFL superstar line.

This article, which is from the Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Phil Sheridan, to make room on the roster, the Eagles waived fullback Brad Gaines.

He was in his first NFL camp at 28.

Look, when I eventually write my autobiography, my memoirs, I too might turn my parents into superstar athletes.

Absolutely.

I do know that Riley Gaines herself, though, was like a seven-time state champion swimmer in high school, right?

Like she was legit.

This is a legitimate prospect.

Yeah, she was good.

She qualified for the Olympic trials at 15.

There's a part of chapter one of the book also where she talks about how she winds up at the University of Kentucky, where a lot of her lore took place.

And in 2016, she found herself with this decision to make.