Donald Trump is feeling the heat, and not just because his hairpiece gets sweaty in the summer months. The billionaire and Republican presidential nominee hopeful is losing supporters in droves after controversial remarks he made about Mexican immigrants.
This isn’t the first time Trump has made a political miscalculation, though, and a couple of the more notable instances occurred in the world of sports.
Trump was a major investor in the USFL in the 1980s, back when the startup professional football league played in the spring and attracted quite a few star college players away from the NFL. The premier league was mostly fine with the USFL stealing a few of its players as long as it operated during the NFL’s offseason, assuring the USFL also wouldn’t steal many of its fans.
But Trump’s antitrust case against the NFL effectively killed the USFL, and it appeared to hurt his relationship with the NFL in the long run, too.
When Trump tried to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014, reportedly hoping to rebuild his image as the man who saved the franchise and kept it in upstate New York, his actions on the part of the USFL almost three decades ago didn’t help him among the highly parochial NFL owners. An anonymous owner told the New York Daily News there was lingering “resentment” toward Trump, who ultimately lost his bid to Terry Pegula.
Suffice to say this isn’t the first time Trump found himself saying or doing something he regrets, nor will it be his last. On the bright side for him and his campaign managers, though, Trump clearly is no stranger to controversy.
Thumbnail photo via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports Images
