Trump criticizes new NFL kickoff rule 

Former President Donald Trump criticized the NFL's new kickoff rule instated this season, saying the league shouldn’t have messed with something that already worked.  

‘I hated seeing what the NFL did with the kickoff return,” Trump posted on Truth Social Sunday morning. “Saw it tonight at the Steelers/Jets game. When you have something that works, don’t ‘tinker’ with it, you may end up with nothing!” 

Trump stopped by the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets on Sunday in Pennsylvania, arriving midway through the first quarter and watching the match from a suite in the stadium.

The new NFL kickoff rule comes with a variety of changes that aim to make kickoffs more safe for the players, and also to promote for kickoff returns.

The kicker kicks the ball from his own 35 yard line, but his teammates now line up with one foot on their opponent's 40 yard line.

Kicking team players also cannot move until until the ball hits another player or the ground in the end zone or designated “landing zone” or the end zone.  

Nine of the receiving team's players must line up in a zone between their own 30 and 35 yard line, with seven of them having a foot on the 35 yard line. Players in this set-up zone cannot move until the ball has hit the ground or a player in the landing zone or end zone.

Here is a list of the full set of rules.

In general, these rules reduce the amount of high-speed contact between the kicking and receiving team's players. Such plays have historically accounted for a disproportionate number of injuries.

On the football podcast “Bussin’ with the Boys,” Trump also discussed his dislike for the rule, saying the rule is “ugly.” He also added that he played football casually back in the day, but that it wasn’t for him.  

“I didn’t particularly like having some guy that was lifting weights all day long and came from a bad neighborhood [approaching me],” he said on the podcast last week. “This wasn’t high quality football, but I didn't like it too much.”  

Trump has a long connection to projessional football, having once been the owner of the New Jersey Generals of the USFL.

A Steelers fan invaded the field during the third quarter of the match with a pro-Trump sign, disrupting play. The owner of the New York Jets is Woody Johnson, who also Trump appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom during his administration.