Donald Trump apparently wants to make football great again, too.
The Republican presidential hopeful continues to have a stranglehold atop the GOP poles, running a campaign that’s been heavy on hot takes. He extended those takes to the sports world Sunday, weighing in on the NFL playoffs.
Trump said at a rally Sunday in Reno, Nevada, that football has become soft, and ranted about NFL officiating, apparently using Saturday night’s game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers as a jumping-off point.
“Now they tackle. ‘Oh, head-on-head collision, 15 yards.’ The whole game is all screwed up,” Trump lamented, per The Washington Post. “You say, ‘Wow, what a tackle.’ Bing. Flag. Football has become soft. Football has become soft. Now, I’ll be criticized for that. They’ll say, ‘Oh, isn’t that terrible.’ But football has become soft like our country has become soft.”
The assembled crowd ate it up, cheering Trump’s comparison, but he wasn’t done. Far from it.
“The outcome of games has been changed by what used to be phenomenal, phenomenal stuff,” he continued. “Now these are rough guys, these are rough guys. These guys — what they’re doing is incredible, but I looked at it and I watched yesterday in particular. So many flags, right? So many flags. And I could imagine a guy like Lawrence Taylor and Dick Butkus, who was really rough, and some of these guys sitting there watching. ‘Wow, what a beautiful tackle.’ ‘Fifteen yards! That’s — the game is over.’ You can’t kick a field goal any more.”
Trump also accused NFL referees of just wanting to “throw flags so their wives see them at home,” so there was also that.
If there’s one thing Trump still likes about the NFL, though, it’s — you guessed it — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
“It’s boring — although I love Tom Brady,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post. “I gotta tell you. I do love Tom. He’s a great guy. But it’s different. But it’s become soft and our country has become soft.”
Thumbnail photo via Glenn Russell/The Burlington via USA TODAY Sports Images
