Donald Trump’s latest unfiltered comments are reported by the Washington Post:

When Donald Trump looks at America, he sees a country that has gone soft, but that’s not all. He also sees pro football, a sport that is now the national pastime, going soft, too.

In a rally attended by about 2,000 people Sunday in Reno, Nev., he hit that theme and others and placed a lot of blame on the game’s referees, saying they just throw to flags to impress their wives, who are watching at home. While he admitted that he still loves New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, the game now is just unwatchable for him.

After talking about Iraq, he segued onto the topic of the NFL, with playoff games on his mind.

“It’s a Sunday, who the hell wants to watch these crummy games? I just want to watch the end. By the way — okay, let me go there for a second. Let me end that story. So we gave them Iraq, we’re stupid. We’re stupid. I’ll change things. Believe me, I’ll change things. And again, we’re going to be so respected. I don’t want to use the word ‘feared.’ What I just said about a game — so I’m watching a game yesterday. What used to be considered a great tackle, a violent head-on [tackle], a violent — if that was done by Dick Butkus, they’d say he’s the greatest player. If that were done by Lawrence Taylor — itwas done by Lawrence Taylor and Dick Butkus and Ray Nitschke, right? Ray Nitschke — you used to see these tackles and it was incredible to watch, right?

“Now they tackle. ‘Oh, head-on-head collision, 15 yards.’ The whole game is all screwed up. You say, ‘Wow, what a tackle.’ Bing. Flag. Football has become soft. Football has become soft. Now, I’ll be criticized for that. They’ll say, ‘Oh, isn’t that terrible.’ But football has become soft like our country has become soft. [Applause] It’s true. It’s true. The outcome of games has been changed by what used to be phenomenal, phenomenal stuff. Now these are rough guys, these are rough guys. These guys — what they’re doing is incredible, but I looked at it and I watched yesterday in particular. So many flags, right? So many flags. And I could imagine a guy like Lawrence Taylor and Dick Butkus, who was really rough, and some of these guys sitting there watching. ‘Wow, what a beautiful tackle.’ ‘Fifteen yards! That’s — the game is over.’ You can’t kick a field goal any more.”

He wasn’t finished.

“It’s become weak and you know what? It’s going to affect the NFL. I don’t even watch it as much anymore. It’s going to affect the NFL. I don’t watch it. The referees, they want to all throw flags so their wives see them at home. ‘Oh, there’s my husband.’ [Laughter] It’s true. ‘He just broke up — he just gave a 15-yard penalty on one of the most beautiful tackles made this year.’ Right?

“It’s boring — although I love Tom Brady. I gotta tell you. I do love Tom. He’s a great guy. But it’s different. But it’s become soft and our country has become soft.”

It will not surprise you that online biographies of trump claim he was a “star athlete and student leader” at New York Military Academy. He was not a football player. His experience in football consists of purchasing the United States Football League’s New Jersey Generals. Trump is blamed for the demise of the USFL because of his outspending other USFL teams (though he ended up with no championships) and convincing the league to switch to a fall schedule to compete directly against (or merge into) the NFL. It failed. So did Trump’s efforts to buy the Buffalo Bills.

(It is interesting to contemplate, though, what might have happened had the USFL managed to get to the 1987 season. The 1987 NFL season was interrupted by the owner lockout and three weeks of games with replacement players. The NFL probably felt it could exert its muscle because of the demise of the USFL and the resulting flood of ex-USFL players, including future Packer Reggie White. Had the USFL not expired after it won an antitrust lawsuit and was awarded all of $1, that lockout probably wouldn’t have happened.)

There are people who agree with Trump’s assertions about the NFL. This is despite the NFL’s spending significant money trying to figure out how to stop the flood of concussions and other injuries affecting NFL players, alarmingly shortening NFL players’ post-retirement lifespans. (As one Post comment said, “Real men have CTE!”, concussive traumatic encephalopathy.) If current and former NFL players don’t want their sons to play football, that should tell you something about football’s need to reduce player injury.

At the same time, Trump’s statement demonstrates lack of business sense. Every time you think the NFL couldn’t get more popular, it becomes more popular. The latest figure I can find says 234 countries have NFL programming, and not merely by the Armed Forces Network for American military. NFL games can now be seen three nights per week, to go with Sundays. CBS is charging $5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl 50 commercial.

Purists don’t like the NFL’s decreasing emphasis on defense. (And yet: Seattle 10, Minnesota 9 in Sunday’s NFC playoffs.) The NFL has figured out over the past four decades that (1) popularity increases through offense, and (2) offense attracts the less-purist fan in this era of nearly unlimited entertainment choices. The most important, and therefore highest paid, NFL players are quarterbacks. Does it not make sense to protect your highest paid players through the rules?

From a political perspective, Trump’s latest ready/fire/aim statement might make him slightly more popular with Republican voters. It is completely unlikely to have any impact with non-Republican voters. (One wonders whether Democrats even like football, since it includes, among other things, coaches who verbally invade players’ safe spaces, scantily clad cheerleaders, and lots of money.)