John Yang:
Chances are that at some point in the next few days, a couch in your house will be occupied by someone watching football. It’s America’s most popular sport.
The National Football League unites much of the country in a shared passion, but, as Lisa Desjardins reports, the league faces a tricky potential threat to that, politics.
Lisa Desjardins:
The National Football League is in the middle of a ratings and profit boom. At the same time, it is also in the center of something else notable, the way President Trump engages with and wants to influence American sports.
Joining me to talk about this is Christine Brennan, a sports columnist for USA Today and friend of the show.
Christine, let’s start with the NFL itself. Roger Goodell, the commissioner, is experiencing an all-time all-star era. What is behind it right now?
Christine Brennan, USA Today:
America has really fallen in love with the new national pastime. It’s no longer baseball. It’s football. It is about the cadence of the game. Obviously, we love that, versus baseball as our attention spans gets shorter and shorter.
Also, it’s a sport, high school, college, Americans grow up with, not only the day of the week Sunday, as we all know, but now prime time. That has been going on. A public relations man named Pete Rozelle was the commissioner who just saw the NFL explode back in the ’70s. You had “Monday Night Football.”
And, again, it’s the violence. It’s the — it’s a very national game.
Lisa Desjardins:
The violence, the aggressiveness.
(Crosstalk)
Christine Brennan:
Absolutely, and because of its success, having markets like Green Bay, but also, of course, the big cities, and the superstars. Go all the way back.
I think everything about it is a marketing success, and it fits perfect American psyche and what we want, which is quick action, violent action, and then the opportunity to run to the refrigerator before the next play.
Lisa Desjardins:
I do want to come back to President Trump himself. He himself is a showman.
We know he’s had a love for sports his whole life. He was at the Washington Commanders game just two weeks ago. Let’s listen to this.
Donlad Trump, President of the United States: By the way, they’re going to build a beautiful stadium. That’s what I’m involved in. We’re getting all the approvals and everything else. And you have a wonderful owner, Josh and his group. And you’re going to see some very good things.
Lisa Desjardins:
A little name-dropping there, because he actually wants his name put on that stadium. That is the reporting here.
Christine Brennan:
Yes.
Lisa Desjardins:
He’s also rung in on everything from the new kickoff plan for the NFL.
Now, billionaire owners of the NFL seem to generally like kind of stoking this relationship. Fans are mixed. But how has Roger Goodell navigated this attention from Donlad Trump? We know, when he gives something attention, he wants to be in control.
Christine Brennan:
Exactly. Roger Goodell, the son of a senator, Charles Goodell, has been with the league his entire career. I think he understands this tiptoeing through the tulips, so to speak, with the president of the United States.
For example, there was the announcement that the NFL draft is going to be held in Washington, D.C., in 2027. So, of course, Roger Goodell was there with one of the owners of the Washington Commanders and the president. And how do you say no to the president about being a part of some kind of show like that?
Lisa Desjardins:
Any president, much less Trump.
Christine Brennan:
Exactly. And presidents have been linked with football, Richard Nixon giving play advice to the Washington football team’s coach at the time, George Allen.
Richard Nixon, Former President of the United States: Well, maybe you can put Nock in there and rest him next week.
George Allen, Washington Head Coach:
I hope so, yes.
Richard Nixon:
Who’d you lose?
George Allen:
We lost — this hasn’t even been announced, I don’t think we lost.
Richard Nixon:
Yes.
George Allen:
We lost Malinchak. He’s going to have to be operated on either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Christine Brennan:
So this is not just — he’s not the first president, but he has certainly put it on times 100 in terms of his involvement.
And I think, for Trump, he understands football, the NFL is that common denominator. All Americans love it. They all can talk about it, the watercooler or the virtual watercooler, Lisa. It is a game that all — everyone understands.
And so Trump is going there to try to change the national conversation or put his imprint on those issues and, of course, make the points that he wants to make, some of them seemingly just kind of fun, like, OK, the NFL draft is going to be in D.C., some of them much more serious, like racial issues.
Lisa Desjardins:
And let’s get to that, because this is a league, especially a commissioner, who has pushed for diversity, pushed for DEI ideas. This is a president who has pushed against that. How has that worked now? Is the NFL continuing its DEI effort now in the era of Trump 2.0?
Christine Brennan:
We saw this with the Super Bowl. By the way, the president, President Trump, was the first sitting president to ever attend a Super Bowl, which really surprised me, as someone who’s covered a lot of them.
Lisa Desjardins:
Yes.
Christine Brennan:
Again, Trump understanding the visual of going there and being a part of this incredible national pastime.Highest rated television show every year, of course, is the Super Bowl. So you have that.
So then the NFL changes. They no longer have “End Racism” in the end zone, but “Choose Love.” Coincidence? Not. Whatever. Of course, there had been the terrible terrorist attack in New Orleans, the fires in L.A., the terrible plane crash right off — at DCA. So it made sense. That was what the NFL said.
Nonetheless, “End Racism” was gone. This is a league that is a majority-Black league, a significant majority-Black league. There is no way on earth you cannot have some semblance of DEI in the thinking of the NFL because Black players are such a huge part of it and so popular with so many fans.
Again, it’s that tightrope wire, tight-wire act that Roger Goodell and the owners are doing.
Lisa Desjardins:
Right.
But they have kept the DEI program in place.
Christine Brennan:
Well, they have. They have got the Rooney Rule. Every big opening with an NFL team, there needs to be a minority who’s considered for the job.
Lisa Desjardins:
But they have dialed down that messaging of end racism, no longer those words now.
Christine Brennan:
Yes, it was “Choose Love” in the case of the Super Bowl.
Lisa Desjardins:
“Choose Love.”
Christine Brennan:
I think it’s the way that all sports leaders are trying to work with Trump in this era, while also understanding that the people who make the league, it’s a majority-Black league. So you cannot just fall in line completely with Trump on that, because you would lose the players, you would lose the coaches.
We have seen that, of course, with Trump going back to 2017, when he said kick the SOBs, without saying SOBs, off the field, fire them when they were kneeling for the national anthem. Well, two days later, you had incredible kneeling by many, many players throughout the league.
So, already, we have seen that these players will speak out.
Lisa Desjardins:
This is about American culture. It’s also about big business.
Quickly, on other sports, the president knows that the World Cup is coming in this country, the Olympics are coming in this country, and he’s made some sort of vague threats, sort of political, about where they should go. Let’s listen.
Donlad Trump:
If we think there’s any reason that — whether it’s Boston or anywhere else, that they’re not doing their job, we’re going to take — those World Cup games and move them someplace else.
Lisa Desjardins:
Are those serious threats? Are that — what is that?
Christine Brennan:
No, it’s not serious. They — those tickets are already sold. He even said it’s sold out.
This is a good signal, I think, for many people who are going to watch the two biggest sports events in the world, men’s World Cup soccer next year, the Olympic Games in 2028 back in Los Angeles. We’re going to see Trump do this time and time again. It will be fascinating to watch how these leaders try to deal with him, but also sidestep him and do the things that they were planning to do before Trump opened his mouth.
Lisa Desjardins:
Christine Brennan, thank you so much for joining us.
Christine Brennan:
My pleasure, Lisa. Thank you.
