President Donald Trump doubles down on 'hate' for NFL kickoff rules: 'It just is demeaning to football'

President Donald Trump did not hold back his thoughts on the NFL’s kickoff rules when he appeared on The Pat McAfee Show. Trump detailed his “hate” for the changes made to the NFL kickoff and revealed he spoke to the league commissioner, Roger Goodell, about it.

“I think it’s so terrible, I think it’s so demeaning, and I think it hurts the game, it hurts the pageantry,” Donald Trump said. “I 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’s moving. 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. They do what they want to do, but I don’t think they’ll change. I hope college football doesn’t change because the power of the kickoff were so beautiful. I don’t want to say what it reminds me of because I will get myself into big trouble, but it is not football.”

Trump added, “It’s so bad. It’s so unromantic, and it is just demeaning to football. I don’t think they have a right to do that to the game.”

More on the NFL kickoff rule and Donald Trump

The NFL implemented the dynamic kickoff in 2024 to provide a higher percentage of returns. There return rate in 2024 improved to 33 percent after being 21.8 percent in 2023, per CBS Sports. Trump is frustrated with the new rule because the players aren’t moving when the ball is in the air. By rule, the players can’t move until the ball hits the ground or a player in the landing zone or the end zone.

Before the start of the 2025 season, the NFL team owners voted to make the kickoff format permanent. “I’m just happy that the foot is still in the game,” Troy Vincent, executive VP of football operations and a retired defensive back, said at the NFL’s annual fall owners meeting in October, per the Associated Press. “We’ve brought the foot and preserved the foot in the game. We still got some work to do in some other areas like the onside kick, so we talked about that.”

Donald Trump appeared on The Pat McAfee Show a couple of days after attending the Washington Commanders vs. Detroit Lions game. He was the first sitting U.S. President to attend a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter in 1978.