Jaguars Owner Shad Khan Thinks Donald Trump Is ‘Jealous’ Of NFL Owners


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Donald Trump seems to have a budding rivalry going with the National Football League, chiding its players for protesting police brutality against people of color and reprimanding commissioner Roger Goodell for not demanding the league’s players stand for the national anthem.

Though Trump’s reverent love of Radiohead is obvious at this point, a theory among many is that Trump is lashing out at the NFL because of his history with the football league. It’s a history of failure, both in his bid to rival the organization with the USFL in the 1980s and his failed bids to acquire ownership of an NFL team himself.

Jaguars owner Shad Khan said as much to the media on Thursday, pointing out that Trump is “jealous” of the exclusive ranks of NFL owners, mainly because he isn’t a part of that exclusive club.

Khan spoke to USA Today and said “this is a very personal issue with him,” pointing out that he’s tried to get into NFL ownership in the past and saw his bids fall short.

“He’s been elected President, where maybe a great goal he had in life to own an NFL team is not very likely,” said Khan, who bought the Jags in 2011 for $760 million. “So to make it tougher, or to hurt the league, it’s very calculated.”

He reiterated a description he’s used before in characterizing Trump, calling him “a divider, not a uniter.”

Trump did bid on the Buffalo Bills in 2014 after the death of founder Ralph Wilson, though Terry and Kim Pegula’s $1.1 billion bid easily won over Trump’s reported bid of less than $900 million.

Khan actually donated money to Trump’s presidential campaign, and he said he has “no regrets” in his life, but he has clearly changed his tune about Trump, criticizing the way he’s handled Muslims and other minorities and his comments to families of soldiers killed overseas.

“Let’s get real,” Khan told USA Today. “The attacks on Muslims, the attacks on minorities, the attacks on Jews. I think the NFL doesn’t even come close to that on the level of being offensive. Here, it’s about money, or messing with — trying to soil a league or a brand that he’s jealous of.”

Khan’s logic isn’t out of the realm of possibility here, but it’s not like the entire league is against Trump at this point. Robert Kraft, who owns the Patriots and is friends with Trump, declined to comment about his constant attacks against the league and its players. And the NFL certainly has its conservative-leaning owners who donated to Trump’s presidential campaign.

But it sounds like Khan has certainly changed his tone about Trump. Perhaps he’s not the only owner who has changed his mind given what’s happened this season.

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