Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attended Sunday night’s NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets as the guest of an unidentified suite holder at Acrisure Stadium.
Trump arrived about midway through the first quarter and was greeted by a small crowd of supporters wearing Steelers jerseys toting a banner that read “Trump Nation.” He later waved from the suite, with some fans chanting “USA.”
The former president’s visit capped a dizzying weekend in pivotal Pennsylvania for Trump’s campaign with the election a little over two weeks away.
And at its last stop, it created some conflicting allegiances.
Trump is a New Yorker and a personal friend of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who briefly served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom during Trump’s administration.
The Steelers have been owned by the Rooney family for more than 90 years and late president/chairman Dan Rooney served as the U.S. ambassador to Ireland from July 2009 to December 2012 during the Barack Obama presidency.
On Sunday, the Steelers distanced themselves from taking any sides on Trump’s attendance, with club spokesman Burt Lauten noting Trump was the guest of a suite holder and not the team.
Trump received support from a couple of former Steelers. Wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell — both of whom have a complicated relationship with their former team and were considered villains during their respective departures in the spring of 2019 — have endorsed Trump.
The former teammates met with Trump poll workers at an event near the stadium on Sunday afternoon and greeted Trump when his plane landed at Pittsburgh International Airport right around opening kickoff.
Franchise icons and Hall of Famers Joe Greene and Jerome Bettis and the family of late Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris, by contrast, endorsed Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
The decision to align with Brown and Bell was a curious one for Trump.
Brown, a star during his nine seasons in Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2018, forced a trade to Las Vegas in the spring of 2019 after a series of public missteps, including famously opting not to show up for the team’s 2018 season finale.
Bell sat out the entire 2018 season in a contract dispute before signing with the Jets in 2019. He failed to replicate the production that made him a Pro Bowler in Pittsburgh and has been out of the league for three years, turning to celebrity boxing instead.
Choosing Brown seemed a bit out of step with the region considering the former star’s ugly exit. Brown blossomed from a sixth-round draft pick to a perennial All-Pro during his nine seasons in Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2018 before his increasingly volatile behavior off the field derailed his career.
The Steelers traded Brown to the Oakland Raiders in the spring of 2019. Yet Oakland cut Brown before he ever played a down following a series of issues with the club, including a verbal altercation with the team’s general manager. He immediately signed a deal with the New England Patriots but was released just weeks later amid allegations of sexual misconduct with people in his orbit, including a former trainer who claimed Brown raped her. The two sides later settled out of court.
Brown resurfaced in Tampa Bay, winning a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers. He was let go a season later following a series of events that included serving a three-game suspension for violating the league’s COVID-19 protocols and a bizarre incident in which Brown quit in the middle of a game, famously shedding his jersey and pads before exiting the stadium shirtless.
Brown’s issues made him toxic to NFL teams, though he has stayed along the fringe of the game. He briefly served as the majority owner of a National Arena League team in Albany, New York in 2023 before the franchise was kicked out after Brown failed to meet financial obligations.
Earlier Sunday, Trump was asked about appearing with Brown given the running back’s controversial history.
“I don’t know anything about the allegations,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter.
When he was told it involved sexual assault allegations, Trump said, “I don’t know anything about it. I know he’s a hell of a football player.”
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AP writers Michelle Price and Will Weissert contributed to this report.
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