Donald Trump blasts new NFL kickoff rules and credits college football for refusing to cave in to player safety

Donald Trump has once again taken aim at the NFL’s tweak to kickoffs.

Speaking to Outkick.com’s Clay Travis at Saturday’s Georgia-Alabama game in Tuscaloosa, the GOP‘s presidential candidate bemoaned the NFL’s efforts to make kickoffs safer for players.

‘… 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 noticed they haven’t done that in college, and they shouldn’t do it, and I think the NFL should go back,’ Trump told Travis, an outspoken supporter of the 45th President.

The NFL has been tweaking kickoff rules in recent years due to safety concerns, but noticed fewer kicks being returned as a result. For instance, last season, just 21.8 percent of kickoffs were returned. Back in 2010, that figure stood at 80 percent.

So to revive the kickoff, the NFL tweaked the rules once again. 

For a standard kickoff, the ball is kicked from the 35-yard line with the 10 kick coverage players lined up at the opposing 40 – five on each side of the field. This structure theoretically will reduce the number of high-impact collisions on kickoffs. 

Donald Trump, Herschel Walker (center) and Clay Travis are pictured during Georgia-Alabama

New NFL kickoff rules no longer allow the kicking team to get a running start before contact

Meanwhile, the return team has at least nine blockers lined up in the ‘set up zone’ between the 30- and 35-yard line with at least seven of those players touching the 35. 

Up to two returners are allowed inside the 20. 

Only the kicker and two returners will be allowed to move until the ball hits the ground or is touched by a returner inside the 20. 

And any kick that reaches the end zone in the air can be returned, or the receiving team can opt for a touchback and possession at the 30. Any kick that reaches the end zone in the air and goes out of bounds or out of the end zone also will result in a touchback at the 30.

Speaking about the rule change in the offseason, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell crowed that ‘it will bring the play back into a relevant play… and I think we can do it where the injury rate will drop.’

But through the first four weeks of the season, Trump has been unimpressed.

Referencing the more traditional kickoff setup still utilized by the NCAA, Trump conceded ‘maybe it’s a little more dangerous’ before quickly contradicting himself.

‘I doubt it’s any more dangerous, he told Travis. ‘It is, you know, it’s football. I think [the NFL] made a terrible mistake of doing that. But you look at this, [college football hasn’t] done it, it was the first thing I was looking at, I said, ”have they done it?” It looks so strange and you don’t take something that’s working and change it.

‘But this is really big-time football,’ he said, referring to Alabama’s upset of rival Georgia. ‘And it’s great to see.’

GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump waves flanked by former Georgia Bulldogs player Herschel Walker, recording art Kid Rock, professional golfer John Daily, Alabama senators Tommy Tuberville (R) and Katie Britt (R) during the second half of the game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs at Bryant-Denny Stadium

Trump isn’t entirely pessimistic about the 2024 NFL season. In fact, he’s particularly encouraged by the arrival of first-year announcer, Tom Brady.

Asked by Travis for a review of Brady’s early work, Trump said ‘he’s done really well.’

‘And I think he’s going to do well and he’s a winner and a champion,’ Trump said of Brady, whom he’s previously played golf with. ‘There’s always going to be people who are jealous of him. So no matter how well he does, they’ll say as negative as they can. I think he’s doing fantastically well.’

Travis ended the interview by fawning over Trump.

‘You’re gonna do fantastic in a little over 35 days,’ he told Trump of his chances in the general election. ‘We know you’re gonna win.’