Making sense of Roosevelt the sideline hugger, and the reaction of the crowd to their new president, deserves some pause. On the one hand, these were just fans doing things that fans typically do at football games. And Roosevelt was simply acting with characteristic enthusiasm and gusto. But the coming together of young and virile Roosevelt, with the football squads made up of future sailors and soldiers, and the citizens of a nation still considering what it meant to lose another president to an assassination, made for a unique moment.
