Donald Trump Is Not A Fan Of The NFL's New Kickoff Rules

While we got a taste of it during the preseason, the new kickoff rules in the NFL will be one of the biggest talking points as we get the 2024 season underway.

Now, everyone has their opinion on the matter, but one thing is sure, and that's that former President Donald Trump absolutely hates them.

The former president of the United States and current Republican presidential candidate may be in the midst of a campaign, but that doesn't mean he can't sit back and unwind with some football.

However, he made it clear ahead of the Eagles-Packers game in Brazil that he is not a fan of the NFL's new kickoff rules, or "dynamic kickoff" as the league likes to put it, by blasting them on Truth Social.

This has me wondering what Trump thought of the XFL's old "Scramble" way of starting games that his old pal Vince McMahon cooked up. 

Now, it is important to note that the NFL didn't implement these rules in an attempt to get rid of kickoffs. It was the exact opposite. The new rules were supposed to make kickoffs more dynamic (there's that word they like) by making a return a more attractive option to the returning team than letting the ball bounce through the end zone.

However, Trump noticed the same thing that we all noticed in the first game of the season between the Chiefs and Ravens, and that is that kicking teams would still rather boot it through the end zone than give the receiving team a chance for a return, especially now that kickoff returners have some room to build a head of steam.

So, he's right, they have "effectively" gotten rid of kickoff returns in the sense that 9 of 11 in the Chiefs-Ravens games resulted in touch backs, and we some similar things happening between the Eagles and Packers.

I don't know if there's enough time to add bringing back the old kickoff rules to the Republican campaign platform, but it would probably net a few votes.