Watch Trump’s cringe “play-calling” during Commanders-Lions game
The president joined FOX’s broadcast booth, but his awkward commentary had viewers and announcers doing double takes.
Donald Trump’s appearance during Sunday night’s Washington Commanders–Detroit Lions game was meant to be a lighthearted moment, but it quickly turned into one of the more uncomfortable TV spots of the NFL season.
Trump’s awkward NFL “play-calling” moment goes viral
The 79-year-old president, attending the game at Northwest Stadium in Maryland, was invited into the FOX broadcast booth for part of the third quarter. Announcers Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma recalled how Ronald Reagan once worked as a sports broadcaster, jokingly asking Trump to “call a play”.
That’s when things got… awkward.
Trump offered a few broad, obvious comments - “They have to get a touchdown. Let’s put it differently, they just have to get a touchdown” -while avoiding actual player names, referring only to “your backup quarterback” and “your starting quarterback.” He seemed to think he was talking to Washington’s local broadcast rather than the national FOX telecast, addressing the Commanders as “your team” multiple times.
The clip aired live and quickly spread across social media, where users called it “painfully awkward,” “classic Trump,” and “one of the strangest NFL booth moments ever.” Even as the FOX crew chuckled and redirected back to the game, the segment continued to make waves online.
Earlier in the night, Trump was booed by sections of the crowd when shown on the stadium’s Jumbotron, an echo of similar reactions at recent public appearances, including the U.S. Open and Yankees games earlier this year.
For FOX, the brief cameo was an attempt at nostalgia, a nod to the Reagan era and a bit of unexpected spectacle. But for most viewers, it ended up being an awkward mix of politics and play-by-play, with Trump’s vague “analysis” now joining the internet’s growing list of viral sports moments gone wrong.
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