Donald Trump will attend the Super Bowl on Sunday when the Kansas City chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl Lix in New Orleans. Three vice-presidents of the United States have already attended the Super Bowl.
Spiro Agnew had seen Baltimore Colts beat the Dallas 16-13 cowboys in Miami George HW Bush had attended the 1982 Super Bowl between the 49ers of San Francisco in 1982 and the Bengals of Cincinnati in Michigan, with the 49ers winner 26-21. Al Gore saw Dallas Cowboys to beat Buffalo Bills 30-13 in Atlanta in 1994. Fast advance until 2025, Trump should become the first president in office of the United States to attend a Super Bowl match.
Donald Trump is known to be a passionate sports fan and his love story with the NFL dates back to the early 1980s. Trump had tried to acquire the Baltimore colts in 1981, and although he failed on this occasion , Trump managed to buy a team, the New Jersey Generals, in the United States Football League (USFL), which takes place during the spring-summer period as opposed to the NFL which is maintained during the fall-winter. Trump was the main figure behind a legal action brought by the USFL. The USFL, in its trial, accused the NFL of Monopoly.
The USFL ended up winning the case but received only $ 3 in damages. The USFL was finally closed in 1986, but would return 36 years later in 2022, with eight participating teams.
In 2017, during Trump’s first presidential mandate, Trump launched a scathing attack on Colin Kaepernick, for his decision to kneel to protest against racism, while the US national anthem was played.
“Wouldn’t you like to see one of these owners of the NFL, when someone is lacking in respect for our flag, to say:” Make sure that this female dog’s son on the ground at the moment. ” He is licensed! ” Said Trump in September 2017 during an Alabama rally.
Defending Kaepernick, several NFL players finally folded the knee during the national anthem. “Division comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our big game and all our players,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
This resulted in a huge result, several teams deciding to skip the traditional white house dinner for the winning teams of the championship.
The Eagles of Philadelphia, winners of the Super Bowl during the 2017-2018 season, were darkened by the White House after several players said they would not attend.
However, just like the expansion of his electoral base during the presidential campaign, Trump gradually found a foot in sport in the past year. On Monday, he welcomed the Florida Panthers ice hockey team at the White House in recognition of his victory in the National Hockey League last season.
A day later, the White House confirmed that Trump would become the first American president to attend the Super Bowl in person, joining around 74,000 other fans during the Maîtresse on Sunday between the Chiefs of Kansas City and the Eagles of Philadelphia.
Amy Bass, professor of sports studies at the University of Manhattanville in New York, said that Trump’s decision to attend the Super Bowl is “political”.
“Even if he leaves because he loves football … It is a political decision because he is the president of the United States and all he does is political,” Bass told the press agency AFP.
Some have interpreted the NFL’s decision to delete the words “put an end to racism” of the goal area of the Super Bowl this weekend as a concession to the “anti-acknowledgment” position of the new Trump administration. However, the chief of the NFL, Goodell, insisted on Monday that the League remained firmly engaged in diversity programs, despite calls from the Trump administration on initiatives similar to the government and elsewhere to be abandoned.
“We have made diversity efforts because we estimated that it was the right thing for the National Football League … We have proven to improve the NFL,” said Goodell.
The players of the Super Bowl on Sunday reacted positively to the attendance of Trump, with the tight chefs Travis Kelce calling him a “great honor”.
This could potentially lead to a certain awkwardness between Kelce and his girlfriend from the Pop icon, Taylor Swift. Swift approved Trump’s electoral rival Kamala Harris last year, encouraging Trump to write on social networks: “I hate Taylor Swift.”
The high-level half-time concert of the Super Bowl on Sunday could also be an opportunity for anti-Trump feeling, with rapper Kendrick Lamar, who criticized the president in the past, featuring the show. Bass wonders how fans of the Superdome could react Sunday, given the recent history of the Eagles with Trump after the row of 2018.
“Here is the thing about the use of a stadium or a ball park as a political arena: you have absolutely no idea what the crowd will do, because you, the politician, is not Not the reason for which someone is there, “said Bass.
“You would find it difficult to find a city that hates Donald Trump more than Philadelphia, therefore…. Yes. And it’s a shame. Because the president’s office deserves respect. But Donald Trump changed the rules of respect, so everything is right. »»
With AFP entrances
