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Former Minnesota Vikings and University of Minnesota football player Jack Brewer shared a grievance with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The AG is waging a legal battle against President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice to ensure transgender athletes can continue participating in girls sports in the state. The state’s ongoing defiance of Trump’s executive order to keep girls sports female has resulted in a controversy involving a transgender pitcher who has dominated a girls softball season.
“Clearly, Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, has never played any major sports,” Brewer told Fox News Digital.
“It’s like he’s never stepped foot in a real locker room, especially not one where the sport demanded true athleticism, grit and toughness. It’s embarrassing to watch a Black man stand before the nation and promote boys competing against girls.”
The White House has responded to the lawsuit, condemning Ellison for taking legal action to enable trans inclusion.
“Why would a grown man sue the Trump administration to allow other biological males to participate in women’s sports? This is creepy and anti-woman,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital.
Brewer played four seasons for the Golden Gophers from 1998-2001, then started his NFL career with the Vikings in 2002. He also raised his children in the state.
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“The state has veered so far off course that it’s doing the exact opposite of what it once stood for. It used to be a national leader on Title IX and women’s rights. Now, it’s destroying women’s sports, degrading women and promoting situations where men are physically dominating women,” Brewer said.
“It’s heartbreaking for any former Gopher, any former Viking, any professional athlete who’s lived in that great city. It’s embarrassing. It’s shocking. And, to be honest, it’s just devastating.”
Reports of a trans softball pitcher winning 14 straight games heading into the playoffs and earning first-team All-State honors rocked the state in recent weeks.
For Brewer, it is a difficult situation to witness as a Minnesota resident and former pro athlete.
“In any sport — especially something like softball — people can get seriously hurt. A man hits the ball harder. A man throws the ball faster. So, the idea of allowing men to compete in women’s softball — especially now, when that sport has grown in visibility and opportunity — is insane,” Brewer said.
“Women’s softball is one of the fastest-growing sports in America. If every high school varsity baseball player decided to go play Division I women’s softball, there would be no women left on the field. Anyone who supports that agenda is either ignorant or pushing politics over people.
“And that’s exactly what Keith Ellison is doing. They don’t care about the girls. They care about fundraising and staying in power, and they’re doing it at the expense of young athletes all across America.
“President Trump understands exactly what’s happening. He said it best. If you put a bunch of MLB players on a women’s softball team, they’d win the championship.”
Ellison made the announcement of the lawsuit at a press conference after months of the state defying Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. Ellison claimed he received notice from the Department of Justice threatening legal action if the state did not follow the executive order.
“I’m not going to sit around waiting for the Trump administration to sue Minnesota. Today, Minnesota is suing him and his administration because we will not participate in this shameful bullying,” Ellison said. “We will not let a small group of vulnerable children who are only trying be healthy and live their lives be demonized.”
Ellison’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, argues the Trump administration does not have the authority to set states’ athletic gender eligibility policies through an executive order.
Minnesota is the first state to sue the Department of Justice over threats of funding cuts for allowing trans athletes to play in girls sports and the second state to sue the Trump administration over the issue.
Maine filed a lawsuit against Trump after the Department of Agriculture cut funding to the state April 2, and a federal judge has already ruled the USDA must release the funding to Maine.
After Trump’s executive order, the Minnesota State High School League announced it would defy federal law by allowing transgender athletes to continue playing in women’s sports.
Ellison’s office said “based on the plain language of the statute, educational institutions and the Minnesota State High School League would violate the MHRA by prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in extracurricular activities consistent with their gender identity.”
Minnesota’s state legislature failed to pass the Preserving Girls’ Sports Act in early March, which would have stated that “only female students may participate in an elementary or secondary school level athletic team or sport that an educational institution has restricted to women and girls.”
A New York Times/Ipsos survey found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women’s sports.
Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports. Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democratic, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
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