NFL Spokesman to Donald Trump: "This is What Real Locker Room Talk Is"
By Kyle Koster
NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart zinged President Donald Trump this morning in the wake of Sunday’s player protests.
“Everyone should know, including the president, that this is what real locker room talk is,” he said in a reference to Trump’s Access Hollywood tape apology last summer.
Lockhart, a former Clinton spokesman, said the league will not discipline any of the players who protested. He also took issue with Trump’s criticism of the league’s safety initiatives.
“The president said something about wanting less emphasis on safety in the game,” he said. “We fundamentally could not disagree. These comments represent someone who’s out of touch.”
Lockhart said the goal is to go from protest to progress and that the league’s phone lines are open should the president wish to establish a direct dialogue.
“If the president wants to engage in something positive, productive and constructive, he knows our number,” Lockhart said.
It’s Monday morning and neither side has blinked. Don’t expect this friction to go away any time soon. In fact, the smart money is on the language becoming more pointed and the parties further from a constructive interface.