Key points:
- Trump criticises pros taking knees during national anthem
- NFL removes End Racism slogans stenciled on end zones
- As a student, Donald Trump played high school football
ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump, along with his daughter, Ivanka, attended the Super Bowl on Sunday, becoming the first sitting president to do so in person.
Donald Trump, as a student, played high school football. And a business baron, he owned a team in an upstart in competition with the NFL and then sued the established league, according to AP news.
While as president, Trump criticised pros who took a knee during the national anthem as part of a social justice movement.
He added to that complex history with the sport on Sunday by becoming the first president in office to attend a Super Bowl.
The Republican president, after flying from Florida to New Orleans, met with participants in the honorary coin toss after he arrived at the Superdome, including relatives of victims of a deadly New Year’s Day terrorist attack in the historic French Quarter, members of the police department as well as emergency personnel, reports AP news.
Shifting rightwards
Trump’s presence at the Caesars Superdome to see the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles came after the NFL decided to remove the “End Racism” slogans that have been stenciled on the end zones since 2021.
Moreover, Trump recently called for the cancellation of programmes that support diversity, equity, and inclusion across the federal government and some critics see the league’s decision came as a response to the Republican president’s action.
However, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league’s diversity policies are not in clash with the Trump administration’s steps to end the federal government’s DEI programmes.
Trump, who attended the Super Bowl in 1992, thinks the Chiefs will win, with Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes the difference-maker, reports AP news.
Fox News interview
“I guess you have to say that when a quarterback wins as much as he’s won, I have to go with Kansas City,” Trump said in a taped interview with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier that aired during the pregame show. Trump said Mahomes “really knows how to win. He’s a great, great quarterback.”
Trump, through social media and other public comments, insisted that players stand for the national anthem and he called on team owners to fire anyone who took a knee.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you’d say, ’Get that son of a bitch off the field right now? Out! He’s fired,’” Trump said to loud applause at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama, in 2017.
