Donald Trump clearly doesn’t have the NFL vote locked down.
The Republican presidential nominee made himself pretty unpopular with football players after a comment he made Thursday during a campaign event in Florida. A woman at the rally fainted but rejoined the event after getting help, which led to Trump mocking the NFL’s “softer” concussion rules.
But the guys who are on the gridiron every week disagree with Trump’s sentiment.
“That’s very disrespectful for him to even speak on that matter,” New York Jets safety Calvin Pryor told The New York Daily News on Thursday. “Guys who go out there and risk their lives and play for greater things, just to say some foolishness like that, man, it’s not right. For someone who (could be) one of the presidents someday, it’s not right. It’s kind of sickening, honestly.
“The NFL, it’s very serious, man. There’s a lot of people who have head problems and a lot of injuries that can relate to football after this. So for him to say that, it’s not a good thing.”
NFL players have to go through the concussion protocol for head injuries, and it’s vital to their health. With neurologists learning more about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, and what it does to NFL players later in life, the athletes don’t take their brain health lightly.
“It’s important just because your head is your life,” Jets cornerback Buster Skrine told The News. “So everybody that gets a concussion should go through a protocol, because at the end of the day, football is only so much of your life. You still got a whole life to live afterward. To me, it’s a serious matter.”
But New York Giants tight end Larry Donnell put it most bluntly.
“Let him get hit like that one time,” Donnell said. “He won’t be on that microphone talking after that.”
Thumbnail photo via Sam Greene/The Cincinnati Enquirer via USA TODAY NETWORK
