Tim Walz allegedly told a high school football player struggling with crime and alcohol to keep playing

Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz's career as a high school football coach was the subject of a recent article in The Ringer.

One of Walz's former players on the 1998 Mankato West team shared details of his interactions with Walz while he struggled with alcoholism and problems with the law.

Former Mankato West linebacker Dan Clement told The Ringer that he began experimenting with alcohol in high school. Then, in the summer between his junior and senior years, Clement said he was arrested multiple times for underage drinking. Clement was banned from football at the start of his senior high school season and said he decided, “I'm just not going to play at all.”

But Clement said Walz repeatedly approached him in the hallways this year and told the teen, “We need you.”

“He knew I had problems,” Clement told the outlet, adding that Walz told him, “I don’t care about the other things.”

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Clement said after Walz's intervention that he ultimately returned to the team for the second half of the season.

However, Clement said he didn't get sober until a full decade after Walz urged him to return to the field for his final season, The Ringer reported. Still, Clement thanked Walz for his influence on his life.

“The caring attention that he gave, that positive support, can carry you through really dark times in your life,” Clement said, adding that he told Walz, “I'm leaning on you. I trust you here. I think it’s parties.” You don’t believe that. And I trust you on that.'

“And he was right. I was wrong. And later in life, when I continued to do that, when I continued to trust other people who loved me, then it took my life in this beautiful direction. Just like back then.” “

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris Walz campaign and the Minnesota governor's office for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Walz's short tenure as an assistant football coach has been a talking point in the Harris campaign since he was announced as Harris' running mate on August 7.

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Minnesota Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks at a campaign stop Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

The campaign has made several attempts to link the Minnesota governor's candidacy to his work as an assistant coach at Minnesota Mankato West High School football team in Minnesota in the 1990s. During Walz's tenure as an assistant on the staff, the team won the 1999 state championship.

On Sunday, Walz livestreamed playing Madden NFL with Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But the event was mocked by football fans after Walz made a now-deleted post

When Walz attended a game between Mankato West and rival Mankato East in early October, pro-Palestinian protesters were spotted at the venue at the same time as Walz's appearance, according to contributions from Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter JP Lawrence.

During his speech at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21, when he formally accepted the nomination, Walz introduced members of Mankato West's 1999 state championship team. During this speech, Richard Grenell, former US ambassador to Germany, criticized the depiction in a post on X.

“He was the assistant coach, not the coach,” Grenell wrote.

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Minnesota Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

When Walz attended a game between on September 28th Minnesota and Michigan In Ann Arbor, Michigan, fans waited outside and said a harsh goodbye. Several people in attendance booed him, and another fan even shouted, “Get out of here!”

Although Walz had never coached beyond the high school level or even been a head coach in high school, Walz compared his football coaching background to that of Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who served as a head coach in four different NCAA Power 5s coached football programs from 1995 to 2016. Tuberville led Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati as head coach and even won an SEC championship with Auburn in 2004.

“I feel like one of my jobs now is to be the anti-Tommy Tuberville and show that football coaches aren't the stupidest people,” Walz said during a fundraiser in Boston in early August.

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