This isn’t a sports blog, but rather a political one. Ok, since Trump is so big into golf, has long been known as an epic cheater while doing so and lately keeps getting caught on camera cheating sports has seeped in. However sports, both college and pro is big business. Billions of dollars are at stake in various ways, such as the proposed merger between the NFL and ESPN. For those who don’t know because they don’t follow sports Trump has a four decade grudge with the NFL. As we learned from the Paramount deal he’s willing to interfere with corporate media mergers for his own ends. AND he’s still looking for a way to get people talking about something other than Epstein.
I wrote yesterday how slippery Trump is. That every time we think he’s finally cornered he fights a way out, making the legendary Houdini look like a rank amateur in escaping near “death.” With the new NFL season upon us and given how (too) big a freaking deal the NFL is Trump just might have a topic that while not putting him in a favorable light will still work in his favor because it could overwhelm Epstein news for months. There’s a particular GOP electoral nuance, a quirk involved which I’ll get to. Let’s start with this article from The Irish Star which gives the broad strokes.
They start out by reporting sources say ESPN is about to close a deal to acquire some major NFL media properties. Big stuff (to a ton of sports fans) like the NFL Network, RedZone, and the league’s fantasy football divisions. In return the NFL would get as much as a 10 percent ownership position in ESPN. It’s said to be a multi-billion dollar deal, and comes as Trump is already feuding with the NFL over the Washington Commanders and their own $3.7 Billion stadium deal. He’s insisting they change their name back to being the “Redskins.” Oh, and not for nothing keep in mind Disney, ESPN’s parent company just coughed up fifteen-million bucks to get Trump off their backs!
Then there’s the extortion visited on Paramount recently. It’s clear Trump ordered the govt. to withhold approval of their merger until his demands were met. Trump is out of control and clearly willing to use his control of the federal government including supposedly independent agencies both to enrich himself and settle grudges. Well, he never actually settles them. His mind is mostly gone but one thing I believe he will remember till the day he dies are those who offended him in some way. In any case, here is the NFL’s and ESPN’s problem:
Given that the transaction encompasses both the transfer of federal communications properties and corporate equity, it must secure clearance from the Federal Communications Commission as well as the Justice Department’s antitrust unit.
This requirement has created an opening for President Trump to intervene, particularly considering his track record of leveraging sports for political influence.
An anonymous insider revealed to ‘Front Office Sports’: “What if Trump decides to stick his beak in? This is a massive deal. It will require government oversight and approval. And we all know how Trump likes to poke the NFL from time to time.”
This isn’t just another grift for Trump. His animus towards the NFL is four decades old. He wanted to own a team. The owners of NFL teams which had (and still do) the power to decide who gets to join their ownership club said no. Predictably Trump didn’t take the rejection well and kept trying. In the process his efforts led him to buying a team in a rival league (the United States Football League) and gaining enough influence to lead it to disaster. As in BANKRUPTCY and dissolution! If you want to learn the whole sordid history it’s well covered in a Wikipedia entry. (It’s a long but fascinating tale which tells you a lot about Trump and how he was even then)
If not in New York (Wellington Mara would have laughed in Trump’s face) he at least clearly wanted an east coast team. He went after the then Baltimore Colts first, and later he tried for the Bills and the Patriots. And failed. His best chance might have been the Dallas Cowboys when original owner Clint Murchison Jr. decided to sell. Trump offered 50 million ($151M in 2024 dollars) but it’s unclear if Murchison would have sold to him or other owners would have approved the sale. I think Trump got word they’d say no because he publicly trashed the franchise and it’s financial prospects. Jerry Jones probably laughs his ass off whenever he thinks about Trump having acquired the team instead of him. It quickly became one of the highest valued sports franchises in the world!
So, even if you just skim the Wikipedia attachment it’s easy to see Trump had an obsession with being an NFL owner and was rejected multiple times. Worse, the NFL humiliated him. Trump got his fellow USFL owners to sue the NFL and did actually win a judgement against them. The jury awarded ONE DOLLAR. I’m not kidding. Due to some legal technicalities the judgement was increased. To THREE dollars. By the time the appeals were done (which Trump lost) the interest accrued meant the NFL had to pay him $3.72. Three dollars and seventy-two cents! So anyone who doesn’t think Trump hasn’t dreamed of payback is delusional.
Now he’s got the powers of the Presidency, in fact near dictator like powers to get some payback. Is there anyone who doubts he’ll inject himself into this deal? Now think about the Epstein mess Trump can’t seem to get out of the news. Messing with the NFL and publicly screwing with them at the start of a new season won’t go over well. The NFL generates huge ratings and revenue. People in this country LOVE their football and the NFL. Trump messing with THAT will generate tons of outrage. Perhaps even enough to distract from Epstein.
Remember what I said about there being a nuance to all this? Even if you’re not a football or even sports fan you probably know that in the south, the source of the “southern strategy’ Nixon crafted and which the GOP has relied on ever since football is its own religion. The thing is, while the NFL has teams in southern cities the “true believers” worship COLLEGE football. The NFL is nice, but what they truly care about is their favorite college team. There’s an old joke (which pisses off NASCAR) that the top two sports southerners care about are (college) football and spring football – those weeks in the spring that are effectively training camps for college teams. Trump can mess with the NFL and they won’t much care – as long as he leaves COLLEGE football alone.
So I’m saying here and now COUNT on Trump and his people publicly messing with this NFL-ESPN deal. Under the best of circumstances as the Irish Star article tells us it would take nine months to a year to get the necessary regulatory approvals. Trump will extract a heavy price to allow that approval to happen and that’s assuming he doesn’t decide to completely f**k over the NFL and reject it. More importantly he will I predict soon start making bigly noises about withholding approval. Lots of trashing of the ‘failing’ NFL and ESPN. You know the drill.
Tens of millions of football fans will suddenly be up in arms, screaming about Trump messing with their football! That just might form a ‘critical mass/chain reaction’ that takes attention away from Epstein. We like to think that nothing could deter most people from wanting someone who took part in or at least knowingly stood by while underage teenage girls were being sex-trafficked and even raped. Trump is facing some of that outrage, but don’t be sure that if he starts messing with the NFL, all those Sundays and Monday nights (Thursday too) attention won’t shift to THAT.
The linked article from The Irish Star concludes by noting how as President Trump has demonstrated little restraint in his interactions with the NFL. Also that he’s quite willing to intervene in regulatory proceedings. The question they pose is whether Trump will attempt to postpone or completely obstruct the deal? I say yes and the sooner and louder the better to distract from Epstein.  We won’t have to wait long to find out.
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