Gone soft

MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you let your son Barron play football?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's very, it's very tough question. It's a very good question. If he wanted to? Yes. Would I steer him that way? No, I wouldn't.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I wouldn't. And he actually plays a lot of soccer. He's liking soccer. And a lot of people, including me, thought soccer would probably never make it in this country, but it really is moving forward rapidly. I- I just don't like the reports that I see coming out having to do with football—I mean, it's a dangerous sport and I think it's- I- it's- really tough, I thought the equipment would get better, and it has. The helmets have gotten far better but it hasn't solved the problem. So, you know I- I hate to say it because I love to watch football. I think the NFL is a great product, but I really think that as far as my son- well I've heard NFL players saying they wouldn't let their sons play football. So. It's not totally unique, but I- I would have a hard time with it.

Donald Trump knocked the National Football League’s rules about concussions, calling them “soft,” during a Wednesday campaign rally in Florida. While speaking at an airport in Lakeland, Fla., the Republican presidential nominee witnessed a woman in the audience faint. First wondering whether she was a protester, and then asking whether there was a “doctor in the house,” Trump said he was confident she would return to the rally.

When she came back, after being treated for passing out in the tarmac heat, Trump boasted that his supporters were tough — tougher, even, than the safety rules in place to protect professional football players.

“That woman was out cold, and now she’s coming back,” Trump said from the podium. “See, we don’t go by these new, and very much softer, NFL rules. Concussions — ‘Uh oh, got a little ding on the head? No, no, you can’t play for the rest of the season’ — our people are tough.”

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But this is not the first time the GOP candidate has been unimpressed with what he sees as weakness in modern football. During a Reno rally in January, as The Post reported, he said, “football has become soft like our country has become soft.”

Regarding his nostalgia for the dangerous hits that college and pro football have been trying to take out of the game, Trump said: “Today if you hit too hard—15 yards! Throw him out of the game! They had that last week. I watched for a couple of minutes. Two guys, just really, beautiful tackle. Boom, 15 yards! The referee gets on television—his wife is sitting at home, she’s so proud of him. They’re ruining the game! They’re ruining the game. That’s what they want to do. They want to hit. They want to hit! It is hurting the game.