WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amid the items on a giant bookshelf in Cory Booker’s high-ceilinged office is an unmistakable brown object absent from many other places on Capitol Hill. The football isn’t from any noteworthy game during Booker’s career as a Stanford tight end. It holds no sentimental value or special worth. Its purpose is quite simple. “I like to throw it around in here sometimes,” smiles the New Jersey Democratic senator.
Sports and politics? These days, the two entities are colliding more than ever, extending well beyond the walls of Booker’s seventh-floor office, seeping into congressional committee rooms and marbled hallways, finding their way even to the elegant rooms of the White House.