By admin 
Baseball might be America’s pastime, but football is the country’s passion. President Trump would likely be smart to not mess with it.
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However, the 80-year-old President of the United States has consistently spoken out against football and, more specifically, the NFL. President Trump tried and failed to buy the Buffalo Bills before he ran for President of the United States. Has he held a grudge against the league ever since?
Perhaps.
President Trump has been pushing for the NFL to make three changes, and with the 2026 NFL regular season approaching quickly – it’s less than two months away – the changes are being talked about once again.
President Trump has three main suggestions for the NFL when it comes to changes that he thinks need to be made:
- Get rid of the new kickoff rule
- Put more rules in place for streaming games online, with platforms like Netflix, Peacock, etc.
- Stop calling it “football” because that’s what soccer is called in Europe and South America
President Trump has demanded that the NFL change its name.
“When you look at what’s happened to football in the United States, soccer in the United States. We seem to never call it that (football) because we have a conflict with another thing that’s called football. But when you think about it, shouldn’t it really be called? This is football, there is no question about it. We have to come up with another name for the NFL stuff.”
President Trump wants two other rule changes put in place, too
President Trump very much hates the new kickoff rule, which puts the kick return and kickoff teams just yards apart from each other. It’s a modified kickoff, that is meant to increase returns and limit injuries.
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But President Trump hates it.
He thinks it’s “terrible.”
“I hate the kickoff in football. I think it’s so terrible; I think it’s so demeaning. I think it hurts the game and hurts the pageantry,” Trump told Pat McAfee back in October. “I’ve told that to Roger Goodell. And I don’t think it’s any safer. I mean, you still have guys crashing into each other.”
“The ball is in the air and nobody is moving,” Trump continued. “It’s supposed to be when the ball is in the air, when the ball is played, you’re supposed to be moving. The pageantry of the game is so badly hurt. The NFL, they do what they want to do. I don’t think they’ll change. I hope college football doesn’t change, because the power of the kickoff was so beautiful.”
President Trump also hates how many games are being put on streaming.
“It’s tough,” Trump said earlier this year. “You’ve got people that love football. They’re great people. They don’t make enough money to go and pay this. It’s tough. And they could be killing the golden goose.”
“They have to be careful because, you know, others have tried this, and all of a sudden you don’t have a sport anymore,” Trump warned. “There’s something very sad when they take football away from many, many people. Very sad. I don’t like it.”
NFL fans can probably agree on one of President Trump’s three suggestions – limiting the amount of games put on streaming platforms.
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Good luck convincing fans on the other two proposed changes, though.
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This story was originally published July 26, 2026 at 8:09 AM.