Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz looked to the gridiron to push his vision for politics on Sunday as he and Vice President Kamala Harris dropped by a high school football team’s practice in western Pennsylvania on Sunday.

Harris’ running mate ― a former high school football coach in Minnesota ― told the squad at Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School that politics have been “pretty ugly” and “pretty negative,” adding that he fears young people will turn away from it rather than turning into it.

“Politics isn’t so much different than this,” declared Walz, who was a defensive coordinator when he helped lead the Mankato West varsity team from a reputation of losing to a state championship in the late 1990s.

He continued, “It’s about something bigger than themselves. It’s about setting a future goal and trying to reach it. It’s about doing it with dignity and hard work. It’s about doing it with humility and when you lose, you walk across the field, you shake hands with the other team and know they played hard, too. But we’re all in it together to try and make it better.”

Walz then described the fourth quarter of a football game at the high school where “somebody has to step up” before teammates realize that they trust each teammate to the side of them.

“Our country’s not that different,” Walz said as he addressed the team on their field.

“Our neighbors wanna be with ya, our neighbors wanna do what’s right and the more we figure out that we’re in this thing together and we have more in common than we have separated, we’re gonna do a heck of a lot better.”

Social media users praised Walz for comparing politics and football, noting that such a speech shows him to be a “stunning speaker and communicator.”