Trump officials push Theodore Roosevelt for Pro Football Hall of Fame

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Trump officials push Theodore Roosevelt for Pro Football Hall of Fame

“I think we’re going to see Theodore Roosevelt inducted,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at an event on Thursday.

April 18, 2026 at 2:12 p.m. EDT Today at 2:12 p.m. EDT
3 min


President Donald Trump joined NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser last year to announce plans to host the 2027 NFL Draft in Washington. (Annabelle Gordon/For The Washington Post)

By Dan Diamond
The Trump administration has urged professional football’s leaders to induct Theodore Roosevelt into the sport’s hall of fame, with one top official predicting it will happen within the year.

“I’d say keep it a secret. Keep your fingers crossed. But I think we’re going to see Theodore Roosevelt inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at an event Thursday at the National Portrait Gallery, touting the former president’s work to make the game safer.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/04/18/nfl-hall-theodore-roosevelt-trump/

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There's a payoff in here somewhere.

The New York Post was the first paper to have the story. It is not acceptable as a news source in LBN.

NFL Exclusive

Senior Trump official pushing for Teddy Roosevelt’s induction into Football Hall of Fame: ‘Saved football’
By James Franey
Published April 18, 2026, 1:35 p.m. ET

https://nypost.com/2026/04/18/sports/trump-official-pushes-for-teddy-roosevelts-football-hall-of-fame-induction/

[displacedvermoter]

1. James Caan was great in Brian's Song.

He should be inducted as well!

[ShazzieB]

19. So was Billy Dee Williams.

I say induct them together!

[displacedvermoter]

32. Same plaque, in Bears uniforms!

[Irish_Dem]

2. I attended a university with the best football team in the world.

I should be inducted too.

[Lochloosa]

6. So, you went to Florida State?

[Irish_Dem]

9. ha ha do they have a football team?

I thought they just rode on surfboards.

[rubbersole]

15. Do you know the difference between FSU's football team and a dollar bill?

You can get 4 quarters out of a dollar bill.

🙌 - Go Canes!

[Irish_Dem]

36. My football team is in the cold midwest, some players leave to go to Florida.

They go to play for Florida schools, they have been told the girls attend class in their bikinis!

Is this actually true, the girls go to school half naked?

Some of our players have fallen for this promise hook line and sinker.

I guess it is true that Florida girls aren't wearing six layers of winter clothing a lot of the time.

[rubbersole]

45. Girls in Florida wear bikinis to family reunions.

Ironically, it's the spring breakers (just over) from the Midwest and North that can't seem to show enough flesh. Very pale flesh, but flesh nonetheless. I live near the beach and going to the grocery store around Easter is always a study in "nothing left to the imagination" anatomy. Not a complaint, just an observation.

[Irish_Dem]

46. Good God, we thought the Florida coaches were lying.

Florida girls go almost naked to family reunions with grandma and the aunts in attendance?

That would not fly in Ohio. Girls would be sent out to go get themselves covered up.

Of course what the same girls do on Easter break is their own business.

Every one told the Ohio football players the the Florida coaches were lying
and the girls in Florida did not parade around in bikinis everywhere.

But come to think of it the southern cheerleaders look like working girls.

[rubbersole]

48. An Ohio State cheerleader was driving her booster sugardaddy's BMW ...

..down the road when it began to sputter and stall. She coasted in to a service station and a mechanic came out and asked "What's wrong?"
She said "I don't know. It just died."
"Pop the hood and I'll take a look." After about ten minutes he looked up and said "OK, try it now."
She turned the key and it cranked right up. "What was wrong?"
He said "Crap in the carburetor."
She asked ""Well, how often do I have to do that?"

[Irish_Dem]

49. Cheerleaders are not hired for their IQ.

Either are the football players.

[Pesky1]

53. Cold concrete stadiums huh?

I'd invite one of those cold stadium tough teams to Gainesville, Florida early in September, when it is 85 degrees in the evening. Against one of the good Florida teams. Love to watch all the cold stadium fat boys run around dripping sweat, huffing and puffing.

I'm a Tennessee fan and have seen this heat in action.

[genxlib]

51. Go Canes

Class of 88

[Permanut]

28. You got my vote!

[flashman13]

3. WTF That's real important. Something else for Trump to claim he accomplished as his legacy.

[walkingman]

4. I nominate Ted Cruz...

The "Ted Cruz Curse" is a sports superstition among Texans, holding that Texas-based sports teams lose when Senator Ted Cruz attends their games or cheers for them.

[underpants]

50. I'd never heard that. 😂😂😂

[sop]

5. Apparently, Trump doesn't have anything better to do.

[Wonder Why]

38. With peace around the world, a humming economy, happy fellow countrymen, low oil prices,

Immigration going good, no issues with corruption, an honest government and looking forward to a friendly election season, he's entitled to his first day off in a year.

[ProfessorGAC]

54. That Was My First Thought!

Why the heck are they even giving this effort a thought?
Who cares?
Besides, TR would have fought all the economic ideals they push.
He was hardly an ally to their philosophy. I would think they'd be more prone to trying to write him out of US hustory.

[Srkdqltr]

7. Insane.

[jls4561]

8. Is this meant to deflect attention from the fact that TR received an actual (not g(r)ifted) Nobel Peace Prize?

If this bunch of bozos actually wanted to honor the spirit of TR, they would preserve his legacy of reverence for the natural wonders of this country.

[GenThePerservering]

10. Shush, now!

Let them nominate a radical nature lover who supported national health care!

[blue-wave]

11. The D.C. Mayor doesn't

have just a frown on her face. That looks like a scowl to me. Did anyone coerce her to be there?

[KPN]

25. So does Goodell actually. Both of them are there because the

billionaires own own Trump told them to be there, and support Trump.

[Talitha]

12. Not the Onion?

[Brother Buzz]

13. The real football helmet testing was done under Howard Taft's administration

An Old-School Method of Testing Football Helmets from 1912

[rubbersole]

16. Kash Patel conducting an investigation into international terrorism.

[displacedvermoter]

35. Bob Kennedy testing new treatment option

for both neuromuscular disorders and brain worms.

[Polybius]

40. Yikes, where were scientists back then?

I know it's 1912, but someone had to have known that it could cause permanent damage.

[Brother Buzz]

47. They were busy inspecting Taft's bathrub

[displacedvermoter]

14. I thought Trump was down on various

rules brought in to improve safety, like kickoff rule, quarterback protection rules, and other attempts at injury prevention. Not sure what brought this on.

[Mysterian]

17. Glad our government is focused on the important issues

How have we not yet revolted against the insanity?

[bmichaelh]

18. Roosevelt, was not a typical Republican

Last edited Sat Apr 18, 2026, 11:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Has anyone told them although he is considered a Republican, he would probably have very little in common with Trump's Republican party.

He left the Republican Party and joined the Progressive Party.

He was also a trust buster in some cases.

I saw the film The Longest Day recently.

Henry Fonda, played his son in that movie and he stormed the beaches on D-Day and despite having arthritis, he refused to use that as excuse to avoid combat.

[Rob H.]

20. Roosevelt would've hated Trump with every fiber of his being nt

[SunSeeker]

21. Well that should bring down the price of gas.

[Henry203]

22. At least 50% of the population

Has no idea who Teddy Roosevelt was.

[eggplant]

23. He was the four-term guy, right? (ducks)

[KPN]

26. If that is right, that is sad. Teddy was a huge influence in the creation of our

National Forest and National Park systems. He was actually a progressive.

[BidenRocks]

24. Teddy enacted safety regulations.

magats don't like regulations.

Let them play 1904 rules!

[RockRaven]

27. Pretty transparent: TR is step 1, to set precedent. Then they will demand The Dotard get it too.

And why should The Dotard be in the pro football HOF? Because fuck you, that's why.

[Firestorm49]

29. WTF is LBN? God, I hate acronyms.

[BidenRocks]

30. Late Breaking News

[twodogsbarking]

31. I nominate Chico Escuela for the baseball hall of fame.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

34. "Base-a-ball has been berry, berry good to me."

My late husband is laughing his ass off.

[twodogsbarking]

39. Habe a womberful day my sweet.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

33. The same TR that was in "Night At The Museum" films?

I can hear Robin Williams's voice about now.

[oberle]

37. Ummmm, what did Teddy Roosevelt actually have to do with football?

[onenote]

43. He's credited with sparking reforms that essentially saved the sport.

https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/encyclopedia/culture-and-society/football/

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

41. Like the President of the United States doesn't have anything more important to do.

Even if he hadn't mis-managed everything that has come across his path during both terms in office, this would still be still be a 'what the hell are you doing?' moment.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. Every leak from the Trump administration on how they'd like to divert attention is Important News of National Interest

You can tell, because this is in DU's LBN. Even if nothing has actually happened yet, all of us must go along with the Trump regime's claim that every idea that crosses his tiny mind is Important, and must be reported as Breaking.

That this is a vague description of a future argument about whether TR 's intervention in the amateur game is of sufficient import to get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame doesn't matter; US news is All Trump, All The Time. It's not just that Trump ought to have more important things to do; it's that the US, even DU, has been bent to his demented will so much that we ought to have more important things to regard as "News", but don't.

[Prairie Gates]

44. There's a non-zero chance that Trump will sign an EO restoring all native team names before 2028

[Ocelot II]

52. Setting a presidential precedent for some sports award for himself, no doubt.

Supposedly he played baseball relatively competently while in high school, which he will claim entitles him to a spot in Cooperstown, or at least an MVP award. I think they give you a nice plaque. It would have to be gold, of course.

[rsdsharp]

55. What am I missing? Roosevelt died January 6, 1919.

The NFL was founded September 17, 1920. Teddy did zip for pro football; college football, maybe, but not pro as far as I can see.

[valleyrogue]

56. You want to honor T.R.?

Then support our national park system.