Donald Trump: ‘Football has become soft, like our country’
Donald Trump may be the only person in America, outside of the residents of Cincinnati and Minneapolis, who has watched these NFL playoffs and doesn’t like what he sees.
“Football has become soft like our country has become soft,” the GOP presidential frontrunner told a campaign rally in Reno, Nevada on Sunday. “We’re going soft, just like the NFL, we’re going soft.”
Perhaps Trump didn’t see the plays in which Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown and Cincinnati’s Giovanni Bernard were apparently knocked unconscious by hits to the head, their limbs flailing as they dropped to the turf like sacks of dropped dog food. Or perhaps he fixated on the regulation of those plays, rather than the human cost of them: “You used to see these tackles and it was incredible to watch. Now, tackle — head-on-head tackle — 15-yard penalty,” he said.
It’s a lament common to those who haven’t played football — the game’s gone soft, the old days were better, et cetera et cetera. It’s a lament that doesn’t hold a whole lot of weight when you consider the pain and suffering of hundreds of NFL players who gave their bodies, and in many cases their minds or even their lives, to play football.
The major on-field problem with the NFL right now isn’t toughness or the lack thereof; it’s inconsistency, and Trump did hit on that, knowingly or not. He criticized the number of flags thrown by referees, and there’s definitely an argument to be made that the NFL’s attempts to regulate the safety of the game are inconsistent and, therefore, insanely frustrating.
Trump added one of his characteristic dismissive shots at the day’s chosen target, though the NFL is a lot tougher than his usual quarry. “It’s a Sunday,” Trump said, “who the hell wants to watch these crummy games?” We’re not suggesting that Trump might need to get some better intel, but given the fact that NFL ratings are huge and still growing, the answer would be: everybody. Everybody wants to watch these games, sir, crummy or no.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
