A number of Cincinnati Bengals players walked past Vice President J.D. Vance largely without interacting with him on October 21 when he visited the team's practice facility with his son.

Vance, an Ohioan and longstanding Bengals fan, made the visit before a midterms campaign rally in support of Republican candidates including Vivek Ramaswamy, who is in a tight battle in the state's gubernatorial race.

In a video posted on X, most of the players were seen filing past Vance without engaging. However, tight end Drew Sample was seen shaking hands and exchanging words with the vice president.

Newsweek contacted Vance via the White House press office, and the Cincinnati Bengals' press office for comment via email outside of regular office hours.

Vance’s Cincinnati Bengals Visit

According to Fox News Vance arrived at the Bengals’ Kettering Health practice fields, by Paycor Stadium, in a convoy of six black SUVs and several police vehicles.

Vance toured the Bengals’ locker room, met coach Zac Taylor and was seen leaving with a football.

Social Media Reaction

An 18-second clip of Bengals players filing past Vance was shared on X by Charlie Clifford, the sports director of NBC 5 Cincinnati, who added: “JD Vance greets Bengals players on the way out.”

The footage was widely shared by other social media users sparking mockery and accumulated more than 2.6 million views on X.

Responding to the clip, the singer-songwriter Bill Madden wrote on X: "This is what total humiliation looks like: JD Vance attempted to greet Cincinnati Bengals players in the locker room and got snubbed and ghosted by every single player except one."

Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath, who unsuccessfully ran in the party’s Senate primary for her state, added: “I wouldn’t want to shake his hand either. Especially after he defended that disgusting ad targeting Amy Acton in Ohio’s governor’s race.”

Dov Kleiman, an NFL commentator, said: "The Bengals are under heavy criticism online for ignoring Vice President JD Vance as he tried to greet them. The large majority of the team did not shake his hand or even acknowledge Vance."

Kleiman added, without providing supporting evidence, that “Many Republicans are calling for the NFL to fine them.”

Vance’s communications director Taylor Van Kirk also shared footage of the players filing past the vice-president. Again the players largely avoided interacting except for wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase who said “nice gloves man” to the president’s son.

Van Kirk wrote: “Thank you @Bengals for welcoming @JDVance and his son to practice today. Vivek is on cloud 9 from Ja’Marr Chase complimenting his gloves! #WhoDey.”

Joe Burrow's Reaction

Speaking to reporters, star quarterback Joe Burrow said that he didn’t meet the vice-president during his visit.

Asked if the pair met, Burrow replied: “We did not. We did not. He came with everybody and left with swiftness and efficiency before the end of practice so I didn’t get to.”

Burrow added: “Yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people around, you know, that's what I love about what I do is, it brings a lot of people together, and people want to take time out of their day to come and watch what we do, watch what I do, and watch all the work that I've put in to come and watch greatness, and that's everybody in the locker room.”

One X user from Pennsylvania shared this clip adding: “A very polite ‘f*** that guy’ from Burrow here. Got to respect it!” The post went viral receiving more than 25,000 likes and 1.8 million views on the platform.

Campaign Rally

Following his visit to the Cincinnati Bengals Vance addressed a campaign rally held at the Sharonville Convention Center in support of Ohio Republicans ahead of the November midterms.

He was joined by Ramaswamy, the party’s gubernatorial candidate, and incumbent Senator Jon Husted, who was appointed to what was formally Vance’s Senate seat in January 2025. The most recent update from the Cook Political Report, which provides non-partisan election analysis, puts Husted six points behind Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown.

The report also classes the race between Ramaswamy, a businessman who boosted his profile with a failed 2024 GOP presidential bid, and Democrat Amy Acton as a toss-up.

During his address Vance said: “All I'm asking is to think seriously about who is going to fight for you and who's going to bend the knee to the far left?”

Referring to Ramaswamy, Husted and GOP House candidates he added: “What unites these guys with President Trump is a single trait that all of them share. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is common sense.”

Vance also used his address to wade into an ongoing row about an attack advert Ramaswamy’s campaign released featuring the estranged mother of Acton, who said the Democratic candidate had “lied her entire life.”

The video sparked controversy across the political divide with conservative commentator Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Senator John McCain, calling it “dastardly.”

In a statement provided to Newsweek Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, accused Ramaswamy of exploiting his sister's childhood sexual abuse for political ends.

According to local network WKBN27 Acton’s parents divorced when she was three-years-old and by the age of 12 she had lived in around 18 different homes. Court records show Acton’s stepfather was charged with sexually abusing her after which her mother lost custody.

Vance rejected criticism of the advert during Wednesday’s rally, commenting: “A person who is more worried about whether somebody says something mean about them, that person could never serve in the governor's mansion of the great state of Ohio.”

Polling

The most recent analysis of the Ohio gubernatorial race by polling website RealClearPolitics, published on Wednesday, gave Acton a 3.6 percentage point lead with 48.5 percent of the vote to Ramaswamy’s 44.9 percent.

According to a CNN study released on Monday, Ramaswamy had a net rating with independents of minus 25, the worse for any GOP Ohio gubernatorial candidate this century.

For the Ohio Senate seat RealClearPolitics had Husted 2.9 percentage points behind, with 44.8 percent against Brown’s 47.7 percent.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.