Donald Trump will tell you he doesn't just build he creates.

From the 80s on, there is a through line here when you think about Donald Trump.

You look at this lifestyle and you have to ask why would a 37 year old billionaire

want to roll up his sleeves and do battle with the National Football League?

If you understand the backstory and his personal history

with the NFL, how he's played this over these last four-plus years looks kind of like revenge.

For all of the part of the quote elite when he came into Manhattan as an aspiring businessman he

tried to demand the respect of New York High Society political bigigs, real estate head honchos, and most of them thought

he was a pretender.

The NFL owners in this respect are quite similar. He wanted to be an NFL owner

arguably from the early 80s on. Never did they think he was a legitimate threat to be essentially one of them.

What changed of course is that he got elected president.

Today on Nurdcast, we are digging into the decades long war on all fronts, personal, political,

cultural, social, between Donald Trump and the NFL.

It stretches back to the 80s, but it's really bookended the first term of Trump's presidency in some pretty interesting ways.

Lots of ways, actually. You go from the NFL banning its players from kneeling during the national anthem. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag

represents what's supposed to represent, I'll stand. To now, as Trump is running for re-election in 2020,

to the NFL apologizing for not listening

to those protests against systemic racism.

I'm Scott Bland, and I've got Politico magazine senior staff writer Michael Cruz,

who's beat by the way is focused on what he calls Trumpology,

here to answer all my questions.

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