Vance drops Ohio State’s championship trophy during White House celebration

Vice President J D Vance dropped the College Football Playoff national championship trophy during an event on the White House South Lawn on Monday, an ill-timed fumble that he laughed about later after it had spread across social media.

As the ceremony honoring the champion Ohio State Buckeyes came to an end, Vance — a former senator from Ohio who graduated from Ohio State — tried to lift the trophy, which was on a table onstage.

TreVeyon Henderson, a Buckeyes running back, stepped in to help, grabbing the top of the trophy as Vance lifted the base. As the men hoisted it off the table, the trophy split in two and Vance dropped the base, which fell to the ground. Henderson and another player managed to hold on to the top of the trophy.

According to the College Football Playoff website, the trophy consists of separate components — a 12-inch bronze base, and a 26 1/2-inch trophy made from 24-karat gold, bronze and stainless steel.

Together, the pieces weigh 50 pounds, the Ohio State Athletic Department said on social media in January, three days after the Buckeyes defeated Notre Dame to win the title.

After the base fell, some in the crowd gasped, while others laughed or clapped. Vance joked about the incident on social media.

“I didn’t want anyone after Ohio State to get the trophy so I decided to break it,” Vance said.

It was hardly the first championship trophy calamity.

In 2006, after tennis star Maria Sharapova won the US Open, the top of the trophy popped off when she hoisted it above her head. (Announcer Dick Enberg called it her first unforced error of the night.)

In 2011, as soccer club Real Madrid celebrated its Copa del Rey victory over Barcelona, a player dropped the trophy from the upper level of an open double-decker bus, which ran over the cup and smashed it into pieces.

And two years ago, at a ceremony after the Hungarian Grand Prix, British racing driver Lando Norris slammed a bottle of sparkling wine on a table onstage, sending the trophy of the race winner, Max Verstappen, tumbling to the ground.