Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee with his tank.

Remember the Texas A&M regent who called for Kevin Sumlin’s firing after the Aggies blew a 44-10 lead lead against UCLA in Week 1? He’s back in the news, but for a totally different reason.

Tony Buzbee, who’s also a hotshot Texas lawyer, dropped $600,000 on an M4 Sherman Tank that was used during World War II. Buzbee is a Gulf War veteran, and his grandfather fought in World War II. So while this is just about the coolest treat-yourself gift in the world, it’s also meaningful.

Sumlin initially shrugged off Buzbee’s criticism, and rightfully so. This isn’t likely to legitimize the criticism in any way, but counterpoint: it is a big tank.

Buzbee told Fox 26 Houston he hopes to make the tank’s guns operational again:

“As a child, you played army, you had little Tonka tanks, and you’d run over trucks. When I found out it was coming up for auction, I told one of my guys ‘Lets get that tank it’d be really cool out on my ranch to blow things up and run over things.’”

“It’s fucking cool as shit. … I hope to make it operational once I get it to northeast Texas and just blow the shit out of things”

If you’re scoffing at Buzbee’s extravagant use of his wealth, you should also know he’s donated $3.5 million worth of cars plus lots of cash to charity in the past. To any neighbors or passers-by who might be offended by such a huge piece of weaponry on their street, Buzbee cited his “right to have a tank in our front yard.” That’s not in the Constitution verbatim, but we’ll give it to him.

His HOA might disagree.

[SB Nation]

About Jesse Kramer

Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.