Dean Cain had a question, a theory, and one consequential mistake—he asked the internet to “do your thing.” The former and failed Superman turned MAGA try-too-hard fan took aim at Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, but this investigation had less to do with truth, justice, and the American way than high school football.
It all started when Cain took his suspicions to X and invited the internet to find the receipts:
Has anyone ever seen a photo of Michigan Senate candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El Sayed (D) playing High School football? He says he was captain of the team, but I can't find a single photo. Internet, please do your thing --
— Dean Cain (@Deancain) August 9, 2026
For those who don't know, El-Sayed is an epidemiologist and the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s 2026 U.S. Senate race. He served as director of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services from 2023 to 2025. But it was an earlier chapter of his résumé that caught Cain’s attention: his high school football career.
And here's where asking the internet to “do your thing” came back to bite him. Because X users quickly pointed out one inconvenient detail—El-Sayed had shared a photo himself on Instagram in March.
And the photographic evidence didn't require much X-Ray vision to locate:
The receipts didn’t stop at Instagram. Another X user dug up a 2002 newspaper clipping identifying El-Sayed as playing center and nose guard for the football team at Bloomfield Hills Andover High School.
As you can see, by 2003, El-Sayed was listed as a team captain in wrestling, lacrosse, and football:
2002 yearbook. He's wearing #61. pic.twitter.com/06HbZqf5Gb
— 🇺🇸⚡️UTChargerTom #3373⚡️🇺🇸 (@UTChargerTom) August 11, 2026
In 2018, he told USA Lacrosse about playing for the University of Michigan’s club lacrosse program, while also recounting growing up playing hockey and football in suburban Detroit.
He recalled his path from football to lacrosse:
“When I got to high school, I realized I was either going to start developing in football or hockey. I decided to drop hockey, and that left my spring open. I started playing my freshman year, and it was a great fit athletically. It took the speed and power of football and extended it in a very different type of game.”
At this point, even a newspaper clipping apparently wasn’t enough to close Cain’s case. When an X user produced a 2002 article from The Detroit Free Press, Cain responded with yet another question: “What newspaper?”
And yes, the internet came prepared with that receipt, too:
Newspaper from 2002 pic.twitter.com/V20XjWAFqT
— 🇺🇸 sedition sam 🍊 (@sam58820737) August 9, 2026
By then, Cain’s hunt for proof had produced more plot twists than a canceled season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
The failed Superman asked the internet to do its thing. It did—and then it did a little extra:
Perhaps Cain’s sudden fascination with high school football was a convenient distraction from what had just unfolded between El-Sayed and President Donald Trump.
Fresh off his primary victory over moderate Democrat Haley Stevens, the Egyptian-American progressive was already enjoying a surge of national attention when Trump decided to add some gasoline. The president, 80, zeroed in on El-Sayed while repeatedly using his full name, echoing his years of pointedly emphasizing former President Barack Obama’s middle name, “Hussein.”
Trump escalated things Saturday night with a Truth Social rampage, posting a side-by-side photo of himself and first lady Melania Trump alongside El-Sayed and his wife, Dr. Sarah Jukaku. His cryptic assessment of the two couples: “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s [sic].”
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, the Michigan Democrat countered:
“You’ve got two different visions of America… Donald Trump’s vision is the one you’re living in right now. Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries? Do you believe when you look your kids in the eye, that they’re going to have a better future than you did?”
With grocery prices up 33 percent, perhaps Cain can point that investigative microscope somewhere closer to the White House. In the meantime, there are two visions of America, one Senate race and, thanks to MAGA Superman, an unnecessary high school football investigation.
Just another perfectly normal weekend in American politics.















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