President Donald Trump continued his sports press tour, joining \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show\u201d on Veterans Day.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s signature programs to discuss several sports subjects.<\/p>\n
One of them was his displeasure with the NFL\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do have to say, I\u2019ll probably get myself in a little trouble for this. I hate the new kickoff in football,\u201d Trump said in a telephone interview. \u201cI think it\u2019s so terrible, I think it\u2019s so demeaning, and I think it hurts the game. It hurts the pageantry. I told that to (NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Trump disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s any safer,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou still have guys crashing into each other. It\u2019s the opposite of what the game stands for. The ball is in the air, and nobody\u2019s moving. It\u2019s supposed to be when the ball is in the air, when the ball is played, you\u2019re supposed to be moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Trump continued to express his thoughts on how the rule affects the grandeur of the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so bad,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s so unromantic. It\u2019s just demeaning to football. I don\u2019t think they have a right to do that to the game. The game is so important. I hope college doesn\u2019t change, and I hope someday the NFL will stop it and go back to football.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president also offered his thoughts on a myriad of other topics of discussion with the McAfee crew.<\/p>\n
On joining the show:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m only joining you because I hear you say such nice things about me to your very large audience,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWhen people say nice about me, I join. When they don\u2019t say nice about me, I take a pass.\u201d<\/p>\n On sports being a unifier and the importance of sports in conversation:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI did it the other night with two very nice people (on) the Fox broadcast,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt was a little bit of a blowout game in all fairness with the Commanders \u2014 as opposed to the Redskins, what happened to the Redskins by the way? \u2014 the game wasn\u2019t the greatest.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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. \u2026 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. \u2026 Ultimately, you\u2019ve got to win; it\u2019s about winning. You got to keep winning. \u2026 It\u2019s \u2018What have you done for me lately?\u2019 Unfortunately, I find that a lot, certainly in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n On which NFL coach might make a good president:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe had the great Philadelphia team here,\u201d Trump said. \u201c(Coach Nick Sirianni) is some coach too, by the way\u2026 I\u2019ve often said we go out and we get the best 4-5 coaches and put them in a room if you\u2019re going to war. Ultimately, it\u2019s all about strategy \u2026 I\u2019ll bet you some of these coaches would make great warring generals; I would not be beneath doing that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t lose badly doing that, I\u2019ll tell ya that.\u201d<\/p>\n On USA Golf in the Ryder Cup:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI play golf, I guess a lot of people play golf, and some people understand it and some people don\u2019t,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe other team really sank a lot of putts. You\u2019re 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 \u2026 (Team USA) almost came back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey putted unbelievably; really, they were unconscious with it. I really believe that that was unusual, because I\u2019ve never seen so many long putts go in before. I don\u2019t think, generally speaking, that would happen (again).\u201d<\/p>\n On Nick Saban, who brought his 2017 national championship-winning Alabama team to the White House in 2018:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHe won a lot,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe\u2019s a fantastic guy. He\u2019s somebody that they should get involved in college sports to make sure it all works out. It looks like it\u2019s not working out too well. For colleges, for most of the people.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the lesser sports are being terminated; it\u2019s a shame. It\u2019s almost like a training ground for the Olympics; a lot of those training grounds are being lost. Nick knows this stuff better than anybody \u2026 from my standpoint, I\u2019d listen to what he has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump continued his sports press tour, joining \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show\u201d on Veterans Day. 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