Football Bat

Just now on CNN—

James Carville, reacting to the news that CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria wrote an editorial suggesting that the administration is *overreacting* to the BP oil spill, said:

"When I read that, I wanted to hit him with a football bat!"

Okay, I don't really know sports too well but I've been trying to learn how the game of football is played and I've never heard of a football bat. Could he be talking about soccer?

[UPDATE]

"football bat":

Army slang, meaning "severely fucked up". Used in the context of comparison.