Donald Trump Bashes NFL: Republican Presidential Candidate Calls League ‘Soft’ For Banning Head-To-Head Hits

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has found himself in extremely hot water in recent weeks. A video from 2005 featured Trump telling Billy Bush, “…you just kiss…when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything…grab them by the pu**y…” That video forced a number of Republicans to pull their support from Trump and multiple endorsers to pull their endorsements.

Instead of toning it down and being remorseful for what he had said, Donald chalked it up to “locker-room talk” and largely brushed it aside.

Since the video has come out, four women have accused Trump of sexual assault over the years, which adds to the previous women who have spoken out against him, including his first wife, Ivana Trump. The Independent reports that the number of women that have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault is up to 10, but one has to wonder if more will come out of the woodwork now.

Donald has, of course, denied all of the accusations and claimed that all of them are lies.

Donald Trump pushed back against what he called “false smears” from women who claimed unwanted advances https://t.co/H83VmMDdEV

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 13, 2016

As if Trump hasn’t angered enough people in the world, he decided to set his sights on the NFL recently, and its decision to place an emphasis on reducing head-to-head hits. No one really knows the full effect of concussions on a person’s brain, but through advances in medical research, doctors have determined that concussions can lead to the presence of something called CTE.

CTE is a progressive degenerative brain disease that has been a factor in suicides among athletes in certain sports that deal with repeated blows to the head. Every player who chooses to play the game of football now knows how risky it can be, but the NFL continues to make changes to the rules and equipment in order to make things as safe as possible for its athletes.

Instead of applauding the NFL for trying to make things safer and limit head injuries, Donald Trump came out and called today’s NFL “soft.” The following quotes are from the Washington Post.

“It’s a Sunday, who the hell wants to watch these crummy games? I just want to watch the end. By the way — okay, let me go there for a second. Let me end that story. So we gave them Iraq, we’re stupid. We’re stupid. I’ll change things. Believe me, I’ll change things. And again, we’re going to be so respected. I don’t want to use the word ‘feared.’ What I just said about a game — so I’m watching a game yesterday. What used to be considered a great tackle, a violent head-on [tackle], a violent — if that was done by Dick Butkus, they’d say he’s the greatest player. If that were done by Lawrence Taylor — it was done by Lawrence Taylor and Dick Butkus and Ray Nitschke, right? Ray Nitschke — you used to see these tackles and it was incredible to watch, right?”

Trump also found time yesterday to mock the NFL’s concussion protocols. Such a fake tough guy. https://t.co/77Yb8hMLvX

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) October 13, 2016

“Now they tackle. ‘Oh, head-on-head collision, 15 yards.’ The whole game is all screwed up. You say, ‘Wow, what a tackle.’ Bing. Flag. Football has become soft. Football has become soft. Now, I’ll be criticized for that. They’ll say, ‘Oh, isn’t that terrible.’ But football has become soft like our country has become soft. [Applause] It’s true. It’s true. The outcome of games has been changed by what used to be phenomenal, phenomenal stuff. Now these are rough guys, these are rough guys. These guys — what they’re doing is incredible, but I looked at it, and I watched yesterday in particular. So many flags, right? So many flags. And I could imagine a guy like Lawrence Taylor and Dick Butkus, who was really rough, and some of these guys sitting there watching. ‘Wow, what a beautiful tackle.’ ‘Fifteen yards! That’s — the game is over.’ You can’t kick a field goal any more.”

It’s interesting that these comments come from a billionaire who has never played football. He doesn’t know what it’s like to be hit in the head with a helmet at full-speed. Trump has no idea what these football players have to deal with when it comes to head injuries, and it’s pretty sad that he’s criticizing the league instead of commending it.

[Featured Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]