Trump, Expected to Attend Super Bowl, Has Had a Fraught Relationship With the NFL

During President Trump’s first term, his relationship with the N.F.L. was contentious.

He downplayed the severity of concussions in football even as the league took steps to reduce head trauma in the game, and suggested that football was declining because it is not as violent as it once was. Most notably, in 2017, he urged N.F.L. owners to fire players who did not stand for the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality.

That led to a leaguewide rebuke of Mr. Trump, with many more players joining in the protests and even some of his supporters within the N.F.L., including team owners, criticizing his comments. After the Philadelphia Eagles won that season’s Super Bowl, Mr. Trump called off the traditional championship celebration at the White House when it became clear that most players would decline to attend.

“They disagree with their president because he insists that they proudly stand for the national anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country,” he said in a statement seven years ago.

Times have changed. On Sunday, Mr. Trump is expected to become the first sitting U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl in person. He will be in the Superdome in New Orleans to watch the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs as the invited guest of Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints.

He wrote about the game on Friday morning on Truth Social, praising several players and coaches (though none by name) while also taking a jab at the league’s new kickoff rules, as he has done before.

“Two great Quarterbacks in this game. Also, an unbelievable running back, and the absolute best tight end in football (Ever!). Incredible coaching! If they would only get rid of that really weird looking new Kickoff ‘deal,’ which actually makes football more dangerous, they would be doing everybody, especially the fans, a big favor. ANYWAY, IT WILL BE A GREAT GAME!!!” Mr. Trump wrote.

Most politicians like to be around football because of its overwhelming popularity and the number of constituents they can reach just by appearing at a game or alongside a star player or coach. Mr. Trump is an outlier because his connection with the league dates back decades and has ranged from aspirational to openly antagonistic.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Mr. Trump showed interest in buying a team, including the Baltimore Colts, the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills. Unable to land a franchise, he bought the New Jersey Generals of the fledgling United States Football League in 1984. He pushed the other owners to sue the N.F.L. for trying to prevent the U.S.F.L., a spring league, from playing in the fall. After a bitter trial, the U.S.F.L. was awarded three dollars in damages. The U.S.F.L. collapsed soon after.

Mr. Trump — who enjoys attending sporting events like U.F.C. fights and college football championship games — was also a regular guest of the Patriots owner Robert Kraft before he entered politics. When running for president in 2015 and 2016, he used his connections to the team to help raise his profile with football fans. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady briefly kept a Make America Great Again cap in his locker and the team’s coach, Bill Belichick, wrote a letter in support that Mr. Trump read on television. After he was elected, Mr. Kraft and six other N.F.L. team owners each donated $1 million to his 2017 inauguration.

Then came his criticism and the backlash from the players. But the N.F.L. is in a different place now than it was back then. Players are no longer kneeling in protest. And the league will not stencil the phrase “End Racism” in one of the Super Bowl end zones for the first time since 2021, a decision that comes as the Trump administration has moved aggressively to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

On Sunday, Mr. Trump will once again have a chance to speak out about football.

“Historically, it’s been a time to talk about unity and togetherness and just celebrate this magnificent holiday in our national civic religion,” Michael MacCambridge, author of “America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation,” said. “It’s complicated to have Donald Trump celebrating football, especially because of his somewhat troubled relationship with the N.F.L. and its players.”

Vice presidents have attended Super Bowls in the past, but presidents have limited their connection to the game to a traditional TV interview the airs in the hours before kickoff with the network airing that year’s matchup. Those interviews, which date to 2009, are a way to reach a massive TV audience, and convey their love of the game and the notion that the Super Bowl is one of the few events in American life that pulls diverse groups together. (President Biden opted not to take part in a TV interview the last two years and President Trump declined in 2018.) In his Truth Social post, Mr. Trump noted that he would be appearing in an interview with Fox before the game.

Mr. Trump is also expected to meet survivors of the attack in the city’s French Quarter on New Year’s Day, and the emergency medical workers who helped them. He will also certainly be shown on the video screens inside the Superdome.

Many presidents, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, have played football and spoken of the game and the N.F.L. fondly. President Richard Nixon was particularly obsessed with football, and sent plays to coaches, including George Allen and Don Shula. He also called to congratulate Shula after the Dolphins won Super Bowl VII in 1973.

Like other presidents, Barack Obama invited Super Bowl champions to the White House. But he said if he had a son, he would “have to think long and hard” before letting him play football because of the violence.

Three vice presidents have attended the Super Bowl. Spiro Agnew, who had been governor of Maryland, was the first. He went to Super Bowl III as a guest of Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom.

Vice presidents and presidents have also attended regular-season games from time to time. In 2017, Vice President Mike Pence went to a Colts game in his home state of Indiana and stood for the national anthem as a counterpoint to Colin Kaepernick and other players who were kneeling during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In October, during the campaign, Mr. Trump attended a game between the Jets and the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

The Super Bowl on Sunday, though, will have a far larger audience, with more than 100 million viewers in the United States and many millions more overseas.