Trump's Presidential Run has Fractured NFL Locker Rooms, Caused Racial Tension

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Interviews by B/R Mag with dozens of NFL players about Trump over the past four months reveal that scenes of a divided America sparked by the candidate have been replicated inside at least a half-dozen locker rooms of its most popular sport. Some players cite low-level confrontations. Others say friendships have ended. Many see a toughness that could cross political boundaries and a business acumen that’s attractive to the likes of Tom Brady, only for the candidate’s racial bluster to spark more outrage. At least one coach has insisted there be no more player discussions of Trump—not a ban on politics in general, just Trump—while on team property.

Four weeks into the NFL season and four weeks from Election Day, amid an increasingly politicized league confronting on-field protests every Sunday, a straw poll of 43 players by B/R Mag shows:

20 of 22 black NFL players plan to vote for Hillary Clinton.
2 of 22 black NFL players plan to vote for Donald J. Trump.
21 of 21 white NFL players plan to vote for Trump.

In a league that is predominantly black, but where anything-goes banter is encouraged and racial lines can be blurred, perhaps the most striking finding in the interviews over the course of the general election is what’s been left unsaid. “Black guys will talk about it to each other,” ESPN analyst and two-time Super Bowl champion Damien Woody said of Trump. “White guys may talk about it to each other. But I think white players will tap around it with black players.

“The locker room normally isn’t politically correct,” Woody said. “I know from talking to players things are different when it comes to Trump.”

Woody explained that white players were hesitant to talk about Trump because “a white player may parrot something Trump says, and the black player may think, ‘Oh, that’s how you feel?’ And it could cause problems.”

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