President Donald Trump’s appearance at Sunday’s Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans will go down in history as the first sitting commander-in-chief to attend the National Football League’s title game, in which the Kansas City Chiefs will go for an unprecedented “three-peat” against the Philadelphia Eagles.What isn’t historic is his on-again/off-again decades-long feud with the NFL and its players since the 1980s.
While Trump and the NFL seem to be on the same page now, their relationship has been rocky over the decades. Here is a breakdown of Trump’s long and complicated history with the league.
Trump, the NFL and DEI
Trump will attend the big game on Sunday following the NFL’s recent decision to remove the “End Racism” message from the end zones for the first time since 2021. Instead, the league will use phrases like “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us.” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told USA TODAY Sports that the change is in response to deadly tragedies throughout the U.S. so far this year.
The NFL’s phrase change comes after Trump signed an executive order last month “terminating radical DEI” to “protect the civil rights of all Americans and expand individual opportunity,” according to the White House.
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“Our policies have been designed to be well within the law, well within the practice,” Goodell said on Monday. “There are no quotas in our system. This is about opening that funnel and bringing the best talent into the NFL.”
Donald Trump criticized NFL players over national anthem protests
When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a controversial social movement by kneeling during the national anthem before games, other NFL players followed suit, causing an outcry from Trump and several conservatives. Kaepernick said he was protesting racial inequality and the oppression of Black people in the U.S.
In September 2017, during Trump’s initial term, he made a speech in Alabama criticizing the NFL players who were kneeling during the anthem.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a (expletive) off the field right now? Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” Trump said at a rally for former Republican Sen. Luther Strange of Alabama.
During his speech, Trump also attributed the NFL’s dip in ratings at the time to several rule changes that were implemented to make the game less violent and limit concussions and other head injuries.
“The NFL ratings are down massively,” Trump said. “Now the No. 1 reason happens to be they like watching what’s happening … with yours truly. They like what’s happening because, you know today, if you hit too hard, 15 yards! Throw him out of the game!”
Donald Trump tried to purchase the Buffalo Bills in 2014
Trump tried to buy the Buffalo Bills football team in 2014, but he may not have even had the funds to do so at the time, the president’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, testified in 2019 before the House Oversight Committee.
Cohen said Trump inflated his net worth by $4 billion in financial documents, raising it from $4.26 billion to $8.66 billion from 2011 to 2013.
“Mr. Trump is a cheat,” Cohen said. “It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.”
After Cohen’s testimony in 2019, Trump described his former attorney’s words as ‘shameful’ and accused him of lying frequently.
Ultimately, Trump was outbid by Terry Pegula, a billionaire businessman and petroleum engineer, and his wife, Kim. The Pegulas’ $1.4 billion bid beat out Trump’s and a group led by singer Jon Bon Jovi.
NFL players receive backlash for supporting Trump, MAGA
Several NFL players who have openly supported Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) campaign have received backlash over the years, including San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa.
Bosa disregarded the NFL’s rule against wearing or messaging political slogans when he crashed an NBC postgame interview last year and pointed to his “Make America Great Again” cap.
The NFL fined Bosa $11,255 for violating the uniform and equipment rules policy by “wearing a hat that contained a personal message.”
According to NFL rules: “Throughout the period on game-day that a player is visible to the stadium and television audience (including in pregame warm-ups, in the bench area, and during postgame interviews in the locker room or on the field), players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration, unless such message has been approved in advance by the League office.”
In response to the fine, Bosa, who agreed to a five-year $170 million contract extension in September 2023 with the 49ers, said: “It was well worth it,” the Associated Press reported.
Other former and current NFL players and owners have supported Trump’s presidency over the years, including his longtime friend Herschel Walker, now-retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, former NFL offensive lineman Richie Incognito, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, former NFL head coach Rex Ryan, legendary New York Jets center Nick Mangold, former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre and former NFL coach Mike Ditka.
Donald Trump’s dance takes the NFL by storm
Throughout Trump’s second presidential campaign, he often did a dance that became quite popular among NFL players.
“I’ve seen everyone do it,” Bowers told USA TODAY Sports in November. “I watched the UFC fight [Saturday] night, and Jon Jones did it. I like watching UFC, so I saw it and thought it was cool.”
The dance is simple: It involves bending one’s elbows, closing one’s fists, and moving one’s arms back and forth, as Trump did during his campaign rallies. Head-tilting and facial expressions can be added for some extra oomph.
Aside from Bosa, the other players who did the Trump dance did not openly support Trump. The president did shout out to Bosa for his performance of the dance in a Truth Social post in November, calling him “A GREAT PLAYER!”
“I think you know the answer to that question,” Bosa told the San Francisco Chronicle in November about his inspiration for the Trump dance. “All the guys wanted me to do it. I wasn’t even going to do it, but the boys reminded me. And it was fun.”
Donald Trump led USFL’s anti-trust lawsuit against NFL
In the mid-1980s, Trump spent less than $10 million to become the owner of the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League (USFL), CNBC reported.
“I don’t know about the rest of you people, and I don’t know how much money you guys have, but I have the money to get into the NFL. And that’s where I plan on being,” Trump told his fellow USFL owners at a meeting in 1984, the outlet said, citing the book “Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL.”
Instead, Trump spent $6 million in 1983 to buy New Jersey Generals as part of the new United States Football League and led a lawsuit against the NFL to attempt to force a merger. According to ESPN, it was “widely considered” Trump’s strategy for the league that led to its demise in 1985.