On at least three separate occasions, President Donald Trump has been linked to the potential purchase of an NFL team, only to never see any of his bids be selected.
It is that -- and not the polarizing national anthem protests -- that former NFL receiver Donte Stallworth believes is at the core of President Trump's true issue with the league.
"The President has used the seat of the Oval Office, he's used the power of the executive branch to lash out at his political adversaries, to air his personal grievances," Stallworth, who now works as a political columnist, told MSNBC. "Obviously with the NFL not allowing him in the cool kids club on multiple occasions attempting to buy an NFL team and they did not let him so he obviously has been lashing out at the NFL and the players.
"It's a history of this president kind of flirting with authoritarianism."
Stallworth's comments come on the heels of the NFL owners approving a new rule which will allow players to stay in the locker room during the national anthem or risk being penalized should they choose to protest -- kneeling, or otherwise -- on the sideline. President Trump has been one of the most vocal critics of the national anthem protests, which began with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016 and grew in prominence during the 2017 season.
"I think that's good," President Trump told 'Fox and Friends' of the NFL's new anthem rule. "I don't think people should be staying in the locker rooms, but still I think it's good. You have to stand proudly for the national anthem. Or you shouldn't be playing, you shouldn't be there. Maybe you shouldn't be in the country."
After previously stating he considered buying the Dallas Cowboys 1983, Trump submitted unsuccessful bids to buy the New England Patriots (1988) and Buffalo Bills (2014), according to The Washington Post. During his campaign in 2016, Trump told the Associated Press that had his bid to buy the Bills been successful, he ultimately never would have wound up running for president.
Had that been the case, Stallworth believes the conversation -- and potentially, the rule change -- concerning the national anthem would have taken on a much different tone.
"I think there's a direct correlation between what the NFL decided to do today and what the president has been saying for the last year or so," said Stallworth, who spent 10 years in the NFL, including a season with the Cleveland Browns in 2008. "He's used the seat of the Oval to intimidate people and he's done it to the NFL and the NFL has kowtowed to him."
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