Former President Trump criticized the NFL’s new kickoff rule instated this season, saying the league shouldn’t have messed with something that already worked.
“I hated seeing what the NFL did with the kickoff return,” Trump posted Sunday night on Truth Social. “Saw it tonight at the Steelers/Jets game. When you have something that works, don’t ‘tinker’ with it, you may end up with nothing!”
Trump stopped by the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home game against the New York Jets on Sunday night, arriving midway through the first quarter and watching from a suite in the stadium.
The NFL implemented a variety of changes this season aiming to promote kickoff returns without excessively increasing injury risk.
The kicker still kicks the ball from his team’s 35-yard line, but his teammates now line up with one foot on their opponent’s 40-yard line.
Kicking team players cannot move until the ball hits another player, the ground in the end zone or the designated “landing zone.”
Nine of the receiving team’s players must line up in a zone between their own 30- and 35-yard line, with seven of them having a foot on the 35-yard line. Players in this zone cannot move until the ball has hit the ground or a player in the landing zone or end zone.
In general, these rules reduce the amount of high-speed contact between the kicking and receiving team’s players. Such plays have historically accounted for a disproportionate number of injuries.
On the football podcast “Bussin’ with the Boys,” Trump also discussed his dislike for the rule, saying it is “ugly.” He also added that he played football casually back in the past, but it wasn’t for him.
“I didn’t particularly like having some guy that was lifting weights all day long and came from a bad neighborhood [approaching me],” he said on the podcast last week. “This wasn’t high-quality football, but I didn’t like it too much.”
Trump has a long connection to professional football, having once been the owner of the New Jersey Generals of the USFL.
A Steelers fan invaded the field during the third quarter of the match with a pro-Trump sign, disrupting play. The owner of the New York Jets is Woody Johnson, whom Trump appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom during his administration.
