The Time Donald Trump Bought A Football Team
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve been entrenched in deep political discourse online against your will for the past few months. With the election ending, all of that has finally come to a screeching halt. There are no more political commercials, texts, or yard signs. It’s safe to come outside now. The United States has decided on its 47th president, Donald J. Trump.
Before becoming one of the most polarizing men in the entire world, due to his impact on the political scene, Trump has lived a million lives in one. He’s done real estate, television, philanthropy, and even bought a football team before he became the President of the United States. His ventures into the football world have been a long and complicated path.
Trump’s Attempts To Get Into The NFL
For years, Donald Trump tried to buy an NFL franchise. When it comes to business, the man is smart. He knew the NFL was the cash cow of the sports world. In 1981, Trump led a group that offered $50 million to buy the Baltimore Colts. The owners mulled the offers and Trump tried again in 1983 but couldn’t capture the Colts.
The President-Elect was rumored to be an interested buyer of the New England Patriots in 1988 but nothing ever came of it. The Dallas Cowboys were almost a suitor before Trump decided that he didn’t want them, proclaiming it a bad spot. He may have missed the mark there, as the Cowboys went on to be ultra-successful in Jerry Jones’s early days.
On a recent episode of Barstool Sports podcast Bussin With The Boys, Trump divulged his interest in buying the Buffalo Bills in 2014, when the team went up for sale after the death of founder Ralph Wilson. Trump was one of three known finalists to be the new owner of an NFL franchise.
Unfortunately for him, the Pegula family swooped in and added the Bills to their empire, which already had the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. A group led by Jon Bon Jovi was rumored to be the last finalist. The video footage of Trump calling Rex Ryan into his office in 2015, and firing him Apprentice style, would’ve been peak comedy, but he could never secure an NFL franchise.
USFL Shenanigans
Due to the NFL keeping him on the outside and never letting him in, Trump decided to take his pocketbook elsewhere. In 1984 he bought the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League for a reported $9 Million. He sprung into action exactly as you’d think he would. The team already had a young Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie, but Trump wanted more.
He decided to go fishing in the big pond. He tried to lure NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor from the New York Giants, but was unsuccessful. Trump also made a run at legendary Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula, but missed there too. The negotiations fell through when Shula asked for a free apartment at Trump Tower to be included. Trump said no and that was the end.
Imagine if Lawrence Taylor and Don Shula went to the USFL in 1984. Today’s equivalent of that would be TJ Watt and Andy Reid packing up their things and heading for the DC Defenders of the United Football League. It would never happen, but you have to appreciate Trump’s ambition. He was running the team like every kid runs their Madden franchise.
Inside the NFL, many believed that Trump was trying to use the Generals to get into the NFL via a merger. When the NFL wouldn’t have it, Trump and the USFL took them to court, claiming antitrust violations. The future president and the struggling football league were demolished in court, with the USFL unfortunately folding shortly after.
Trump is on record saying that if the purchase of the Bills had happened in 2014, there was no chance he would have run for president. The NFL may have turned the multi-millionaire away, but he’s okay with that. He moved on to bigger things on the world stage, with his NFL ownership dreams in the rearview mirror. Who needs an NFL team when 74 million Americans will vote for you to be the president?