Donald Trump really, really doesn’t like the NFL’s new kickoff format

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as they attend a Washington Commanders game on Sunday. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP via CNN Newsource)

President Donald Trump called into Pat McAfee’s show on ESPN on Tuesday, discussing his admiration for the nation’s veterans on Veterans Day, the impending end of the government shutdown, the role of sports in his political life and the big money in college sports.

But there was one topic that really got the president fired up: The NFL’s new kickoff format.

“I hate the kickoff,” Trump said to protestations from McAfee.

“I think it’s so terrible. I think it’s so demeaning, and I think it hurts the game. It hurts the pageantry. I’ve told that to Roger Goodell, and I don’t think it’s any safer. I mean, you still have guys crashing into each other, and … it’s the opposite of what the game (is supposed to be). The ball is in the air, and nobody’s moving. It’s supposed to be when the ball is in the air, when the ball is played, you’re supposed to move.

“You walk in and the pageantry of the game is so badly hurt. And I don’t think NFL, you know, they don’t, they do what they want to do, but I don’t think they’ll change.”

Trump has been a frequent critic of the NFL’s revamped kickoff format, adopted for the first time last season in an effort to decrease the intense collisions that frequently resulted in injuries.

CNN has reached out to the league for comment on Trump’s latest criticism on the so-called dynamic kickoff.

Under the old rules, the kicking team started at its 35-yard line and tried to kick the ball as far downfield as possible to give their defense a better chance of stopping the offense far from the end zone. Meanwhile, the receiving team tries to move the ball as far as they can up the field. With two teams running at each other at top speed, collisions between players were often devastating.

The new version still sees the ball kicked from the kicking team’s 35-yard line, but every player on the kicking team other than the kicker himself now lines up with at least one foot on the returning team’s 40-yard line.

Players must also wait to move until the ball hits the ground or is touched by a returner inside the 20-yard line. Any kick that is caught or lands in the landing zone must be returned, while any kick that falls short of the landing zone will be ruled a touchback and spotted at the returning team’s 40-yard line. If a kick hits the landing zone and then goes into the end zone, it has to be returned or downed by the receiving team.

Among other things, it basically means players are closer together and are not colliding into each other with as much speed.

Trump has complained about the rule almost since it first debuted. But on Tuesday, he went even further with his lamentations.

“I hope college football doesn’t change, because the power of the kickoff is, we’re so beautiful, and now it, you know, I don’t want to say what it reminds me of, because I’ll get myself into big trouble,” Trump said. “It is not football, and I have no idea what you guys – you guys may disagree with me. I don’t think it’s going to help.”

“It’s so bad. It’s so bad. It’s so unromantic, and it just is demeaning to football. I don’t think they have a right to do that to the game,” Trump went on to say. “You know, the game is so important. I don’t think the people that approve that. I don’t think anybody has the right to do that to the game. And I hope college doesn’t change, and I hope that someday the NFL will stop it and go back to football.”

The league has maintained that the new system is safer than the old and also results in more exciting plays.

Kickoffs have long been one of the most dangerous plays in the game and were four times more likely to cause a concussion than a play that involved running or passing, according to data from the NFL. Since the change in format, the league has been buoyed by the early results.

In January, the NFL published data from the 2024 season that showed a “significant decrease in concussions.” As intended, the new rule slowed average player speeds, which led to a lower concussion rate – down 43% from 2021-2023.

The NFL said returns increased 57% in the 2024 regular season and that there were seven kickoffs returned for touchdowns – the most since 2021.

In October, Allen Sills, the chief medical officer of the NFL, told CNN that the new rule makes the game safer.

“It’s been an overwhelming success,” Sills said.

He added, “Last year, if you look at our data, significantly higher return rate but the injury rate was one of the lowest that we’ve seen. So, that was what we were looking for with the play, is to make it more exciting yet also safer. So, we looked at space and speed. It went down, which is what we expected from the play. We, again, saw more excitement. And here’s an unexpected benefit: Because the average starting point for drives was further out, closer to the 30-yard line, we had fewer punts, which is also good from a health and safety standpoint because pun is one of our more injurious plays.”