Stephen A. Smith has claimed that the only reason Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 was to get back at NFL team owners. According to Smith, Trump’s bid for the presidency was motivated by a desire for revenge after being denied an opportunity to buy an NFL franchise.
In 2014, Trump, who was one of NBC’s biggest reality television stars at the time, was in the running to purchase the Buffalo Bills. He was among the three qualifying bidders vying to buy the franchise from outgoing owner Ralph Wilson. Smith, who was already acquainted with Trump, shared that Trump had reached out to him to discuss his hopes of finally becoming an NFL team owner.
“He called me in 2014,” Smith recounted while speaking to comedian Bill Maher on the podcast “Club Random.” “This is a true story. He says, ‘Stephen A.’ — [he] had a secretary — ‘Mr. Trump is on the line,’ etcetera. Trump gets on the line and says, ‘Stephen A., I’m trying to buy the Buffalo Bills.’ The price tag was $1.4 billion.”
Smith explained that Trump had about $1.1 billion at the time and was being informed that he was unlikely to secure the team. Frustrated by the situation, Trump told Smith, “If these mother***ers get in my way” — referring to the NFL owners — “I’m gonna get them all back. I’m gonna run for president.” Smith recalled that Trump’s resentment toward the NFL owners was clear.
Smith also accused Trump of targeting players like Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled in protest during the national anthem, as a way to get back at the NFL owners. Trump’s harsh criticism of protesting players stirred significant controversy, drawing the league into a political storm, even though the NFL continued to dominate in TV ratings.
Ultimately, the Bills were sold to Buffalo Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula for $1.4 billion. Interestingly, the Pegulas are also the parents of tennis star Jessica Pegula. Following the loss of the bid, Trump’s animosity towards the NFL owners seemed to grow even stronger.
Trump’s former friend and media ally, Howard Stern, offered a different theory about Trump’s motivations for running for president. In a 2019 interview, Stern suggested that Trump’s presidential campaign started as a “gimmick” to gain leverage during contract negotiations for his show “The Apprentice.” “I firmly believed that Donald did not want to run for president,” Stern told Stephen Colbert. “I don’t think he was serious. I don’t think he wanted to be the president. He had a great life at Mar-a-Lago, running around, playing golf, and enjoying himself.”
Trump’s interest in professional football extended well beyond the Buffalo Bills bid. Over the years, he made several attempts to become an NFL owner. In 1983, Trump expressed interest in buying the Baltimore Colts, but the team was ultimately relocated to Indianapolis rather than sold.
A year later, Trump reportedly had the opportunity to buy the Dallas Cowboys for just $50 million, but he declined. The franchise was later acquired by Jerry Jones for $140 million, and the Cowboys are now valued at $9 billion, making them the most valuable sports team according to Forbes.
Trump didn’t just try to use money to get into the NFL; he also tried to use leverage. According to Jeff Pearlman’s 2018 book, “Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL,” Trump was heavily involved in the USFL, a spring football league that launched in 1983. Trump bought the New Jersey Generals, a team that featured future political ally Herschel Walker, and owned it until the league folded in 1986.
The USFL’s short history was marked by several poor decisions, including an ill-fated move to play games in the fall to compete directly with the NFL. This decision was heavily influenced by Trump, who shifted gears from initially praising the idea of spring football to advocating for direct competition with the NFL. “His big line was: ‘If God wanted football in the spring, he wouldn’t have invented baseball,’” Pearlman recalled.
According to Pearlman, Trump’s ultimate plan was for the USFL to fold and for the NFL to absorb the New Jersey Generals as an expansion franchise. However, during a 1984 meeting with then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle at New York City’s Pierre Hotel, Trump’s ambitions were thwarted. Rozelle reportedly told Trump, “As long as I’m the commissioner, you’re never going to have a team.” Rozelle did not trust Trump and made it clear he had no interest in letting him into the NFL’s exclusive circle.
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Trump subsequently convinced the USFL owners to file an anti-monopoly lawsuit against the NFL, which resulted in a highly publicized court battle. During the trial, Trump claimed that Rozelle had promised him an NFL franchise if the USFL continued as a spring league and avoided filing the lawsuit. Rozelle denied this under oath, and Pearlman noted that Trump’s testimony was characterized by one USFL owner as deceitful. “I got an email from another USFL owner,” Pearlman said. “This is a guy that actually voted for Trump, and he said to me, ‘I wish you would have talked more about how Trump lied under oath because that always pissed me off.’”
Despite winning the lawsuit technically, the USFL was awarded just $1 in damages, which spelled the end for the league. Pearlman recounted how the case’s outcome was negatively influenced by Trump’s behavior in the courtroom. One juror reportedly found Trump to be “the worst witness of all time” and remembered him as coming across as a bully, undermining the USFL’s case.
One of the more ironic anecdotes from Trump’s time in the USFL involved his stance on the national anthem. Pearlman shared that Trump was accused of sitting during the anthem at USFL games—something that contrasts sharply with his later criticism of NFL players like Kaepernick for not standing during the anthem. “I’m sure sometimes Trump stood and sometimes he didn’t stand,” Pearlman said. “But it’s funny that he’s calling out all these guys for kneeling when it was well known—Trump would sit during the anthems, do work, take calls, conduct interviews, and probably never gave it a second thought.”
This claim was echoed by Philadelphia Daily News’ Paul Domowitch, who tweeted that he once saw Trump berate the president of the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars throughout the entire anthem.
Stephen A. Smith’s comments on Trump’s motivations have added a new perspective to Trump’s complex relationship with professional football, suggesting that Trump’s desire for revenge against NFL owners may have influenced his decision to run for president.
Though other theories exist about Trump’s motivations, Smith’s claims offer an intriguing look at the intersection of politics, ego, and professional sports.
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