NFL Warns Teams About Political Game Day Rules

Days after Donald Trump’s reelection, the NFL is reminding players: No political imagery on game day.

After Trump’s win, the league sent a memo to teams reiterating its game day rules, Bloomberg reported. The move comes shortly after the league fined 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa for wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat during his teammates’ postgame television interview. The $11,255 punishment was handed out about two weeks after the incident, because the league intentionally waited until after the presidential election to avoid making a political statement of its own, The Wall Street Journal recently reported.

The league rule is unambiguous. “Throughout the period on game day that a player is visible to the stadium and television audience,” the rule reads, “players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration.” This includes things like Steelers receiver George Pickens putting “always fucking open” on his eye black, for which he was recently fined $10,321.

A spokesperson for the NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The NFL and Trump butted heads during his first term when players kneeled or stayed in the locker room during the national anthem.

Bosa is a well-established conservative, although he has been reticent in recent years to elaborate on his support for Trump. “I don’t think my position on speaking about it is going to change,” Bosa said last Wednesday after Trump’s win. “Clearly, the nation spoke. And we got what we got.”

The rule in question covers clothing and “items affixed to game uniforms or equipment” and written or illustrated messages, not players’ speech and actions. For example, on Sunday, Bosa broke out a dance that was a clear homage to Trump’s “YMCA” shuffle after a sack. “All the guys wanted me to do it,” Bosa told the San Francisco Chronicle. And the president-elect was monitoring the NFL on Sunday. In back-to-back posts Sunday on Truth Social, the social media site he owns, Trump wrote “NICK BOSA IS A GREAT PLAYER!” and “The NFL should get rid of the ridiculous new Kickoff Rule!”