WADSWORTH, Ohio – “There are reasonable folks on both sides of the aisle who are sincerely just trying to move their communities forward.” Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R) Ohio said last night.

Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio’s 16th Congressional District held a bipartisan town hall Thursday with Representative Colin Allred of Texas’ 32nd district.

“What concerns me is when we have a disagreement on a policy issue and the disagreement then leads people to say... not only do I disagree with you on this policy, but I think there’s something wrong with you that you’re an evil person because we have a different point of view,” said Rep. Colin Allred (D) Texas. 

The former football players say they were concerned with the direction politics were going, so they ran for office.

“In our case, we call it your party is more important than your country. That deeply concerns me. I am much more interested, I promise you, I’m what’s good for the United States of America than what’s good for the Democratic Party.” 

“Both representative Gonzalez and Representative Allred say it’s their background in the NFL that actually helps them in their careers as congressmen, and helps them reach across the aisle more easily.”

“Without question, the most productive... from collective energy, moving toward one goal, no matter who you are and where you’re from, is an NFL locker room,” says Gonzalez.

Representative Gonzalez says playing football with people from all different backgrounds allows you to understand better where someone is coming from.

“There’s no reason why we should be working together, but there we are in the locker room together, and yeah, we have our differences, but you find a way to put those aside and go towards the common goal. I think we need more of that inside of our parties, but we need more of that as a country, for sure,” says Gonzalez. 

“The pair say they plan to do a similar event in Dallas, Texas sometime soon. They don’t have an exact date yet, but they say, perhaps the Fall or early 2020.