Donald Trump criticized the NFL’s new kickoff rule and demanded the league “get rid of it.”
Trump won a second term as president this week after a resounding victory over Kamala Harris in a one-sided election.
Although he’s busy planning his return to the White House, Trump clearly took time out of his schedule to watch football on Sunday.
He was clearly unimpressed by the NFL’s new kickoff rule, which was introduced at the start of the season in September.
The president-elect took to his Truth Social platform and wrote, “The NFL should get rid of the ridiculous new kickoff rule!”
Donald Trump on Sunday criticized the NFL’s new kickoff rule and demanded they get rid of it.
The president-elect described the rule, which came into effect this season, as “ridiculous”
The NFL has introduced a new “dynamic” start to the 2024 season in a bid to reduce the number of high-speed collisions amid an “unacceptable injury rate.”
The change was also designed to encourage teams to run the ball backwards, rather than calling for a fair catch.
The change causes the kicking team’s players to now line up on the opponent’s 40-yard line, rather than behind the kicker.
They cannot move until the ball touches the ground or a player in the landing zone or end zone.
The designated landing zone is between the receiving team’s goal line and its 20-yard line. Any kick that lands within this area must be returned.
This is not the first time Trump has criticized the rule change. He did it at the college football game between Alabama and Georgia in September.
“I don’t know what they’re doing with the kickoff return in the NFL and I don’t want to get involved in controversy, but it looks so bad, and I realized they hadn’t done it in college, and “They shouldn’t do it, and I think that the NFL should come back,” Trump told Outkick.com’s Clay Travis.
Referencing the more traditional kickoff setup still used by the NCAA, Trump admitted that “maybe it’s a little more dangerous” before quickly contradicting himself.
“I doubt it’s any more dangerous,” he told Travis. ‘It’s, you know, it’s football. I think (the NFL) made a terrible mistake by doing that. But if you look at this, (college football hasn’t done it), it was the first thing I looked at and said, “have they done it?” It seems very strange and you can’t take something that’s working and change it.
“But this is really important football,” he said, referring to Alabama’s loss to rival Georgia. “And it’s great to see.”