American football as a decisive force in the US presidential election campaign? Donald Trump has a complicated connection to the NFL, but the world’s richest sports league also brings him and Kamala Harris voters and money. It’s about possible revenge and ugly messages.
As Brett Favre took the stage at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday evening, the former Green Bay Packers NFL quarterback basked in the attention of enthusiastic Trump supporters. “It’s an honor to be back where it all began to campaign with the next President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,” said the retired football legend.
The rally took place less than a week before next Tuesday’s US presidential election, in which Trump will face Vice President Kamala Harris as the Republican candidate. Favre criticized the Democrat, saying it would be “crazy to keep Kamala in office for four more years” and using sports language: “It’s time to put Kamala on the bench and bring in the star quarterback.”
Trump enjoyed the icon’s appearance to the fullest, after all, the ex-president can do important things Swing-State Wisconsin use every vote. The pick, according to all analysis, will be what they call a nailbiter in American football. A duel so close that you have to bite your fingernails off. Every decision, no matter how small, every convinced voter can make the difference in the decisive states. To tip the scales.
Most watched show since the moon landing
But there’s much more to Trump’s connection to the NFL. It’s about machismo, power and billions. And Harris is also happy to accept support from the richest sports league in the world, because American football is king in the USA. No other sport is so absorbed by the masses. The league accounted for 93 of the top 100 most-watched television shows in the U.S. in 2023, an improvement over 2022’s already impressive tally (82). This year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas was watched by an average of 123.4 million people in the United States, making it the most watched program there since the moon landing in 1969.
When Emmitt Smith, NFL record holder for yards run with the ball in hand, and 14 other former superstars loudly support Harris, the vice president politely says thank you. Back in September, more than 50 former football players and coaches, including some of the first black athletes and coaches who broke down racist systems in sports during their playing days, announced that they were supporting Harris.
What also plays into Trump’s case is that he likes to bring men, especially athletes, onto the stage who are supposed to embody the image of a hypermasculine macho man. Toxic masculinity in his “Make America Great Again” movement has become something of a lifeblood for the Republican Party and its cult of personality. At a rally in Battleground-State Pennsylvania in October, Trump touted the support of former NFL players Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, who both played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and were later given speaking time.
Trump’s search for toxic masculinity
Similar to his embrace of the sport of MMA, the ex-president continued his trend with Brown and Bell of using celebrities with controversial pasts to woo young, male and black voters. In 2021, Brown faced a lawsuit alleging sexual assault and rape, but it was settled. Bell recently attracted attention because he switched to boxing and posted a photo of himself on X in which he wore a T-shirt with an ugly message to Kamala Harris. “Trump or the Tramp,” it read. The ex-president or the bitch.
The support for Trump became more concrete from the long-time NFL kicker and current TV analyst for CBS, Jay Feely. The former Arizona Cardinals player has been a fan of the Republican for a long time and recently made it clear in an interview that he was actively trying to help Trump Swing-State To win back Arizona. Trump lost Arizona to US President Joe Biden in 2020 by 10,457 votes – after the Republicans won the state in 15 of the previous 16 presidential elections.
In Germany, Thomas Müller, Joshua Kimmich and Niclas Füllkrug are unlikely to vote for a candidate in next year’s federal election. Things are different in the United States. While the league remains impartial so as not to alienate any fans in a more divided United States, the trend is for active top athletes to influence public opinion and take a stand on various issues. They call it “athlete activism” there.
NFL-Stars for Trump!
The star defender of the San Francisco 49ers, Nick Bosa, briefly interrupted a live interview on Sunday after the win against the Dallas Cowboys, looked into the camera and, in front of an audience of millions, pointed with both hands to his hat, which was covered in white. Gold lettering read: “Make America Great Again.” “I won’t talk about it too much, but I think it’s an important time,” Bosa said at the subsequent press conference. His support for the former president has been known for years.
Harrison Butker is even clearer. The kicker for the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs recently publicly expressed his support for Trump on Fox News, calling him “the most pro-life president.” By “life” (Butker’s words: “pro-life”), the NFL professional, who is known for his strong Christian faith, means his opposition to abortion. It is fitting that Trump, who is struggling with the issue of abortion and is afraid of losing many voters to Harris, did not invite Butker to rallies.
But Trump also enjoys the current NFL attention because he has a long and difficult relationship with the league. For more than 30 years, he desperately wanted to own his own team. After his offer to buy the Buffalo Bills was rejected in 2014, he reportedly vowed to exact revenge in epic fashion. Rolling Stone magazine even published one at the end of September Article with the headline: “Is Trump’s entire political career just a crazy revenge plot against the NFL?” When he was president, he called on the public to boycott the league because some players knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racism. He called pioneer Colin Kaepernick, then quarterback of the 49ers, a “son of a bitch”.
NFL owners donate to Trump
As difficult as his relationship with the NFL is, Trump likes to surround himself with rich people who are, by his standards, successful. In this case, the very rich owners of the 32 league teams. According to Forbes, every NFL franchise is currently worth at least $4 billion, with the league average at $5.7 billion. The teams are also extremely economically profitable.
An analysis of the newspaper “USA Today” found that the owners of 31 NFL teams (the Green Bay Packers are publicly owned) donated just over $28 million this election cycle, a seven-fold increase over the amount donated in the same period before Four years ago, the majority, about 83 percent, of that money went to Republican candidates and causes.
Trump’s long-standing alliance with the NFL elite is bearing fruit. In February, Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, supported him in the Republican primary for the presidential nomination. The billionaire businessman served as US ambassador to the United Kingdom during Trump’s presidency.
Washington Rule Predicts Harris Victory
Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the NFL team New England Patriots, was also long known for his good friendship with Trump. Now, in a radio interview, he surprisingly summarized the Republican’s term in the White House with the words: “I couldn’t believe it, it was like someone who was a drunken fraternity brother becoming president of the United States.” The media mogul further admitted that he cut ties with the former president after the “dismaying” January 6 storming of the Capitol. Kraft’s former franchise quarterback, superstar Tom Brady, also distanced himself from Trump in 2020 after years of friendship.
Nothing is apolitical. Certainly not the filthy rich NFL. Kamala Harris is happy to accept the support, Donald Trump is happy to accept the money and the macho attitudes. The ballot boxes will announce who it will help in the end. But actually the US election has already been decided anyway. At least that’s how Washington Commanders fans see it.
When her team won on Sunday with a last-second Hail Mary, she believes the so-called “Redskins Rule,” named after the team’s now-banned racist original name, kicked in. It states that since the team moved from Boston to Washington, D.C. in 1937, the outcome of the election would always be determined by the last Washington home game before the election. If the team from the capital wins, the incumbent party remains in office, and if it loses, there is a change in the White House. The rule existed for almost 60 years, after which it was suspended here and there. On Tuesday everyone will know whether it is still valid.
