"Is there such a thing as a liberal football guy?"
Maybe at some wuss school like Swarthmore or Amherst, but that would be it. To the extent that they have any politics at all, it seems like the overwhelming majority of those involved in athletics tend to be Conservative. This is probably because sports are competitive and the idea is to WIN, not to share an experience with your opponent. One of the few high-profile liberal coaches I can think of is former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith.
Rep. Tom Osbourne could pick just about any office serving Nebraska and it would be his for the asking. He's still worshipped in that state like JoePa is around Happy Valley.
Tommy Lasorda is another standup conservative.
Rush pointed out a couple of years ago that more and more NFL players were/are becoming conservatives(at least fiscally) because they saw their contracts being shredded by liberal taxation.