Gov. Ron DeSantis’ iconic boots are by far the most talked about footwear of the 2024 presidential campaign, and in Washington, D.C., he explained why he wears them.
As he told the Heritage Foundation, the boots delight fans of both the Florida Gators and Florida State Seminoles, albeit for different reasons.
“In Florida we have some rivalries with college football,” explained DeSantis, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.
“So these are authentic Florida Gator boots. Now, the good thing about these is that Florida Gator fans love it because it’s the Gators. But, you know, Seminole fans also like it because someone had to kill a Gator to make those boots,” DeSantis said. “So that’s the only way I found to be able to please both sides.”
Pleasing both sides hasn’t necessarily been a priority, given the Governor’s candid comments about how Florida high school players end up going to college in other states.
In comments elsewhere, DeSantis suggested that he was nettled that both in-state programs have been losing blue chip recruits to other schools.
“I realized this my first year as Governor. I asked my staff to give me letters of congratulations for all Florida’s high school blue-chip football recruits because we’ve got great high school football in Florida. And I’m signing these letters and it’s like, ‘Dear Michael, congratulations on going to the University of Georgia. Congratulations on going to Alabama.’ And I’m like, why congratulate them for leaving our state?” DeSantis said in Georgia earlier this year. “That didn’t used to be what it was.”
DeSantis then offered a prediction applicable to Saturday’s big game in Jacksonville, which he won’t be attending given that he has a political speech in Las Vegas that presents a time conflict.
“So, anyways, Florida-Georgia game, you know, let’s just say I’m going to be, you know, cheering as the Governor, but I am not going to be putting any money on the Gators this year,” DeSantis added.
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