President Biden blurted Wednesday that one of his childhood Catholic school teachers was drafted by the Green Bay Packers — an assertion disproven by a simple check of publicly available NFL records.
The 81-year-old president shared the false claim as he boasted of his connection to Wisconsin sports fans during a trip to the swing state.
“My theology professor at the Catholic school I went to was a guy named Reilly — last name — and he had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers,” Biden said in Racine, south of Milwaukee.
“And he decided to become a priest before that, so he didn’t go. But every single solitary Monday that Green Bay won, we got the last period of the day off.”
According to Pro Football Reference, the Packers have only drafted a single person with the last name “Riley,” “Reily,” or “Reilly” since the NFL began its annual college draft in 1936.
University of Colorado quarterback Maurice “Tex” Reilly was selected with the 202nd overall pick in the 22nd round of the 1947 draft— after his education was interrupted by World Word II, during which he commanded bombing missions over the Pacific, according to a 2002 article in the Denver Post.
Instead of playing pro football, the Bronze Star recipient rejoined the US Air Force in October 1947 as a civil engineer and was deployed to Japan and later Spain.
Reilly also served as an instructor at bases in Ohio and Alabama before retiring as a major general, according to a military biography.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
