By Darlene Superville
West Palm Beach, Florida (AP) – As a student, Donald Trump played football in high school. As a business baron, he had a team in a rival reached at the NFL, then continued the established league. As president, he disparaged the pros who took a knee during the national anthem in the context of a movement of social justice.
On Sunday, he added to this complicated story with sport when he became the first president in power to attend a Super Bowl.
The appearance of Trump to the Superdome of New Orleans to watch the double reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs Facing the Eagles of Philadelphia follows the NFL decision to remove the slogans from the “final racism” which were stencil on the zones end since 2021.
Trump recently ordered the cancellation of programs that encourage diversity, equity and inclusion through the federal government and some criticisms consider the league decision in response to the action of the republican president. But the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that the League diversity policies are not in conflict with the Trump administration efforts to end the Federal Government Dei programs.
Trump, who attended the Super Bowl in 1992, avoided choosing teams in Sunday’s match despite public comments and social networks that suggest an affinity for Kansas City.
Last week, when they were asked which team would win, Trump said, “I don’t want to say, but a certain quarter is a pretty good winner.” It seemed to be a reference to chefs Patrick Mahomes.
Trump also published congratulations to the Chiefs in January after winning the AFC championship.
The president played football as a student at the New York Military Academy. As New York Business Man in the early 1980s, he owned the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. Trump had continued to force a merger of the USFL and the NFL. The USFL finally folded.
The friction existed between Trump and the NFL during his first mandate as president.
Trump challenged players on his knees during the national anthem to protest against social or racial injustice. This movement began in 2016 with the 499ers quarter-arre, Colin Kaepernick, taking a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner” during an exhibition match in Denver.
Trump, through social media and other public comments, insisted that players represent the national anthem and called on team owners to dismiss any player who took a knee.
“Wouldn’t you like to see one of these NFL owners, when someone is lacking in respect for our flag, you would say:” Make this female dog’s son on the ground at the moment. ” Out! He was dismissed, “Trump told applause during a rally in Hunstville, Alabama, 2017.
Trump is expected to watch the match from a box with the president of the Mike Johnson room, R-La., among others. Trump won Missouri and Pennsylvania – States represented in the game – on the way to a second term in November.
His interest in sport extends beyond football. Trump is a passionate golfer who has several golf courses and organized tournaments. He sponsored boxing matches in his former Atlantic City casinos, New Jersey, and attended a UFC match at Madison Square Garden Weeks after winning a second term.
Some NFL team owners have made a donation to its campaigns and Trump maintains friendships with Herschel Walker and Doug Flitie, who played for the generals. Trump approved the unsuccessful offer of Walker as a republican candidate for a siege by the American Senate in Georgia in 2022, and hit him to become Bahamas Ambassador.
Trump signed an order last week which aims to prevent transgender women and girls from participating in female sports by targeting federal funding for schools that do not comply.
Alvin Tillery, political professor and diversity expert at the Northwestern University, said in an interview that NFL’s decision to suppress slogans from “racism” was “shameful” since the league “made dozens of billions of billions Dollars largely on the bodies of black men. “”
He said the NFL should explain who it was aimed at please. The NFL said that it was stifled “to choose love” in one of the end of the Super Bowl ends to encourage the country after a series of tragedies so far this year, including a truck attack on the new Year in the host city of New Orleans who killed 14 people and injured dozens more.
Tillery was not convinced. “I think they deleted it because Trump arrives,” he said.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
