Trump criticizes NFL’s new kickoff rule on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ – The New York Times

NFL
President Donald Trump attended the Week 10 matchup between the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions. John McDonnell / Getty Images
President Donald Trump continued his sports press tour, joining “The Pat McAfee Show” on Veterans Day.
Two days after attending the Washington Commanders game against the Detroit Lions on Sunday and joining the television broadcast in the third quarter, he appeared on one of ESPN’s signature programs to discuss several sports subjects.
Advertisement
One of them was his displeasure with the NFL’s new dynamic kickoff rule implemented in 2024, which he got a closer look at when he became the first active president since Jimmy Carter in 1978 to attend an NFL game.
“I do have to say, I’ll probably get myself in a little trouble for this. I hate the new kickoff in football,” Trump said in a telephone interview. “I think it’s so terrible, I think it’s so demeaning, and I think it hurts the game. It hurts the pageantry. I told that to (NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell.”
Previously, defensive players would line up at the 35-yard line and get running starts as soon as the ball was kicked, sprinting down the field to tackle the returner. Blockers would be essentially sitting ducks, awaiting extremely high-speed collisions from players with sometimes 40 yards of momentum.
In the interest of safety, the NFL altered the kickoff formation. The kicking team and the return team now line up closer together, and neither side is permitted to move until the ball is touched by the returner. This significantly reduces the running start for defenders in both distance and time, which lowers the likelihood of high-speed collisions.
Trump disagreed.
“I don’t think it’s any safer,” Trump said. “You still have guys crashing into each other. It’s the opposite of what the game stands for. The ball is in the air, and nobody’s moving. It’s supposed to be when the ball is in the air, when the ball is played, you’re supposed to be moving.”
Sports Medicine Weekly reported that concussions on kickoffs dropped by 43 percent compared to recent seasons, and overall lower-body strains also declined. The blog is run by Dr. Brian Cole, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Rush University Medical Center. Cole is the head team physician for the Chicago Bulls and previously served as a team physician for the Chicago White Sox.
Advertisement
Trump continued to express his thoughts on how the rule affects the grandeur of the NFL.
“It’s so bad,” Trump said. “It’s so unromantic. It’s just demeaning to football. I don’t think they have a right to do that to the game. The game is so important. I hope college doesn’t change, and I hope someday the NFL will stop it and go back to football.”
The president also offered his thoughts on a myriad of other topics of discussion with the McAfee crew.
On joining the show:
“I’m only joining you because I hear you say such nice things about me to your very large audience,” Trump said. “When people say nice about me, I join. When they don’t say nice about me, I take a pass.”
On sports being a unifier and the importance of sports in conversation:
“I did it the other night with two very nice people (on) the Fox broadcast,” Trump said. “It was a little bit of a blowout game in all fairness with the Commanders — as opposed to the Redskins, what happened to the Redskins by the way? — the game wasn’t the greatest.
“We had a good talk, and I talked about sports to me is like a microcosm of life. You see the winning and the losing and the comebacks, the routes, you see everything. You see it quickly. … Life is very much like that, you have to fight and you have to just keep fighting no matter what. No matter what the circumstance. … Ultimately, you’ve got to win; it’s about winning. You got to keep winning. … It’s ‘What have you done for me lately?’ Unfortunately, I find that a lot, certainly in politics.”
On which NFL coach might make a good president:
“We had the great Philadelphia team here,” Trump said. “(Coach Nick Sirianni) is some coach too, by the way… I’ve often said we go out and we get the best 4-5 coaches and put them in a room if you’re going to war. Ultimately, it’s all about strategy … I’ll bet you some of these coaches would make great warring generals; I would not be beneath doing that.
Advertisement
“You wouldn’t lose badly doing that, I’ll tell ya that.”
On USA Golf in the Ryder Cup:
“I play golf, I guess a lot of people play golf, and some people understand it and some people don’t,” Trump said. “The other team really sank a lot of putts. You’re looking and (Team Europe is) sinking 30-footers, 40-footers, 70-footers just one after another. It looked like it was over, and then Sunday … (Team USA) almost came back.”
“They putted unbelievably; really, they were unconscious with it. I really believe that that was unusual, because I’ve never seen so many long putts go in before. I don’t think, generally speaking, that would happen (again).”
On Nick Saban, who brought his 2017 national championship-winning Alabama team to the White House in 2018:
“He won a lot,” Trump said. “He’s a fantastic guy. He’s somebody that they should get involved in college sports to make sure it all works out. It looks like it’s not working out too well. For colleges, for most of the people.
“A lot of the lesser sports are being terminated; it’s a shame. It’s almost like a training ground for the Olympics; a lot of those training grounds are being lost. Nick knows this stuff better than anybody … from my standpoint, I’d listen to what he has to say.”
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today's puzzle
Devon Henderson is a staff writer for The Athletic. He has covered the Summer Olympics, College Football Playoffs, and the Men’s Final Four while at Arizona State University and was an intern at the Southern California News Group, where he covered the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Sparks, and LAFC. Follow Devon on Twitter @HendersonDevon_

source