Washington (AFP) – Donald Trump will make history by becoming the first sitting US president to attend a Super Bowl when the NFL season reaches its climax in New Orleans this weekend, the White House said Tuesday. A White House official confirmed US media reports that Trump will attend Sunday’s game at the Caesars Superdome, where the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Philadelphia Eagles. Trump will be the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl, by far the biggest annual event on the American sporting calendar.
Then-President George H.W. Bush took part in the ceremonial coin toss for the 2002 Super Bowl — also in New Orleans — and performed the duty again at the 2017 Super Bowl in Houston, won by the New England Patriots. Ronald Reagan also performed a coin toss from the White House for the 1985 Super Bowl.
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This year’s Super Bowl broadcaster Fox meanwhile will air a pre-recorded interview with Trump in the pre-game build-up to Sunday’s game, Fox News said Tuesday. Trump has often had an uneasy relationship with the National Football League, and has regularly criticized the sport’s commissioner, Roger Goodell. In 2017, Trump sparked an uproar by questioning the patriotism of NFL players who knelt during the playing of the US national anthem to draw attention to issues of racial injustice. A wave of player protests followed Trump’s criticism.
Goodell meanwhile risked incurring the White House’s wrath on Monday by insisting that the NFL remained firmly committed to promoting diversity and inclusive hiring practices — a policy that Trump is now fighting. “We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we’re going to continue those efforts because we’ve not only convinced ourselves, I think we’ve proven to ourselves that it does make the NFL better,” Goodell told a press conference. “We’re not in this because it’s a trend to get into it or a trend to get out of it. Our efforts are fundamental in trying to attract the best possible talent into the National Football League both on and off the field.”
In a separate development, the NFL has confirmed that the slogan “End Racism” — which has been stencilled onto the Super Bowl field at the back of the end zone since 2021 — would not be used at this year’s game. Instead, the slogans “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us” would be used at each end of the field. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told AFP the messages had been chosen to reflect recent tragedies in the United States. “The Super Bowl is often a snapshot in time and the NFL is in a unique position to capture and lift the imagination of the country,” McCarthy said in an email. “‘Choose Love’ is appropriate to use as our country has endured in recent weeks wildfires in southern California, the terrorist attack here in New Orleans, the plane and helicopter crash near our nation’s capital, and the plane crash in Philadelphia.”
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