The only reason Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 was to retaliate against NFL team owners, claims Stephen A. Smith.
The year was 2014, and NBC’s biggest reality TV star was one of three qualifying bidders in the race for outgoing owner Ralph Wilson’s Buffalo Bills.
Smith, who was already known to Trump at the time, called the ESPN personality to discuss his hopes of finally becoming a team owner.
“He called me in 2014,” Smith told comedian Bill Maher Club random. ‘This is a true story.
“He says, ‘Stephen A.’” — [he] had a secretary – ”Mr. Trump is on the line,” and so on,” Smith continued. ‘[Trump] comes on the line. He says, “Stephen A., I’m trying to buy the Buffalo Bills.” The price tag was $1.4 billion.
Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 to return to the NFL, claims Stephen A. Smith
Trump was rumored to have been interested in the Bills, Cowboys and Colts at various times
“He had about $1.1 billion. I was told he wouldn’t get the team. He said, “Stephen A., if these motherfuckers get in my way” — speaking of the NFL owners — “these motherfuckers get in my way, I’ll get them all back . I’m going to run for president.” That’s what he said.’
Smith then accused Trump of targeting Colin Kaepernick and other players who knelt in protest during the national anthem “just to get back at the owners.” Trump’s focus on protesting players led to widespread criticism of the league, which nevertheless still maintained a dominant position in the ratings.
The Bills were eventually sold to Buffalo Sabers owners Terry and Kim Pegula – the parents of tennis star Jessica Pegula – for $1.4 billion.
Trump’s former friend and media ally Howard Stern offered another theory in 2019, saying Trump ran for president as a “gimmick” to gain influence over contract negotiations for “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 president. I knew him. He had a great life at Mar-A-Lago, he ran around town, he played golf, he had a great time.”
Trump’s fascination with professional football resulted in several attempts at ownership of the NFL.
In 1983, Trump expressed interest in purchasing the Baltimore Colts, which were ultimately not sold but moved to Indianapolis.
A year later, Trump reportedly had the opportunity to purchase the Dallas Cowboys for just $50 million, but declined, allowing Jerry Jones to acquire the franchise for $140 million. Now the Cowboys are the most valuable team in sports, with a $9 billion valuation from Forbes.
Terry and Kim Pegula eventually bought Ralph Wilson’s accounts for $1.4 billion
Bills players react after kicker Tyler Bass kicked the game-winning field goal against Miami
Trump’s decision to pass on the Cowboys for $50 million in 1984 allowed Jerry Jones to purchase the team for $140 million a few years later. Dallas is now the most valuable team in sports at $9 billion
And Trump didn’t just use money to get an NFL team. 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.”
Launched in 1983, the USFL was a spring football league that featured a surprising array of talent, including future Trump political ally Herschel Walker. One year into the league, Trump would buy Walker’s team, the New Jersey Generals, which he would own until the league went bankrupt in 1986.
The USFL’s abbreviated history is defined by a number of obvious mistakes, such as the decision to add six new franchises after a promising first season in 1983. But perhaps the bigger misstep was the choice to move the season to the fall of 1985 and challenge the NFL directly – a decision heavily influenced by Trump.
Donald Trump owned the New Jersey Generals for three years until the USFL declared bankruptcy when he pushed to move the season schedule from spring to fall
“Leading up to buying the team, he was all about spring football and how great the league was, and, ‘I love what the USFL is doing and blah blah blah,’” Pearlman told DailyMail.com in 2018. is approved as owner, he buys the team and immediately: ‘We have to move to fall; we have to compete against the NFL.”
“His big statement was, ‘If God wanted football in the spring, he wouldn’t have invented baseball.’
According to interviews with Pearlman, Trump’s initial plan was to dissolve the USFL and have the NFL absorb the Generals as an expansion franchise.
However, during a meeting with then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle at the Pierre Hotel in New York City in 1984, that plan was thwarted.
“He basically told Rozelle,” Pearlman explained, “I don’t really care about the USFL. I want an NFL team. What do I have to do to get into the NFL?”
“It was basically an offer to throw the USFL under the bus.”
Trump didn’t get the answer he was looking for.
“Rozelle told him, ‘As long as I’m the commissioner, you’ll never have a team,’” Pearlman continued. ‘He didn’t trust him. He thought he was an asshole. He didn’t say, “I think you’re an asshole,” but Rozelle made his feelings toward Trump very public. [Rozelle] she also announced during the trial when he testified.”
The late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle reportedly told Trump he would never own a league team
That testimony came about in 1986 after Trump convinced his fellow USFL owners to file an anti-monopoly lawsuit against the NFL.
When called to the stand, Trump had claimed that Rozelle had promised him an NFL franchise at that 1984 meeting if he could convince the USFL to stick to a spring schedule and refrain from filing the antitrust suit.
Rozelle testified that Trump’s claim was untrue, but a former USFL owner used a different term to describe the real estate mogul’s testimony.
“I got an email from another USFL owner,” Pearlman said. “And this is a man who actually voted for Trump – and he said to me, ‘I read the book. I wish you had said more about how Trump lied under oath because that always pissed me off.”
According to Pearlman, Trump had assured his fellow owners that the USFL would win the lawsuit, citing his choice of infamous former Senator Joseph McCarthy, attorney Roy Cohn. Technically, Trump was right: the NFL lost, but the USFL’s efforts were ultimately doomed by several costly mistakes.
Trump is seen as the general’s owner alongside running back and future ally Herschel Walker
“One of the other owners, Jerry Argovitz of the Houston Gamblers, begged Trump not to file the suit in New York,” Pearlman said. ‘He said [the jury] would not be sympathetic to the plaintiffs… Trump says, “No, no, New York is my hometown. I know it well.”
Apparently Trump was wrong.
Even before the jury decided to reduce the settlement to $1, Trump’s testimony and even his presence in the courtroom seemed to irritate one juror.
“I interviewed one of the judges,” Pearlman said. “She said Trump was just the worst witness of all time.
“The whole point of the USFL was to portray the NFL as the bully,” Pearlman continued. “Trump goes on the witness stand and he’s a bully, a thug. She told me she vividly remembered Trump trying to intimidate the jurors from the stands by staring them down.
Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News also reported Trump’s anthem habits in the USFL
There is another unusual accusation from Trump’s time in the USFL: he was accused of sitting during the national anthem.
“I’m sure Trump stood sometimes and sometimes he didn’t, but it’s just funny that he calls out all these guys for kneeling during the national anthem when it was common knowledge — and not even a big deal — that Donald Trump would sit down during the anthems,” Pearlman told the Ny Breaking in 2018.
‘[He would] doing work, taking calls, conducting interviews,” Pearlman continued. “Probably never thought about it.” (This statement mirrors that of the Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily Newswho tweeted in May that he once saw Trump “swearing the entire national anthem” at the president of the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars.)
The Trump White House did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment on the accusation at the time of the book’s publication.