President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit a tax break for wealthy sports team owners has been derailed in the US Senate amid opposition from NFL heavyweights such as the New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft, Cleveland Browns’ Jimmy Haslam, and Denver Broncos’ Rob Walton.
Along with the ownership group of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, the three NFL owners have worked against Trump’s efforts contained in the Republicans’ controversial ‘big beautiful’ bill, according to an Axios report.
While the version of the bill that was passed in the House did limit deductions such as player salary, the newly submitted Senate bill did away with some of those measures, Axios reported Monday. Now Republicans from both chambers will try to negotiate a compromise as the President’s wide-ranging tax-cut and spending bill hangs in the balance.
Teams have traditionally been allowed to deduct expenses for ‘intangible assets’ such as player contracts and media rights, saving owners hundreds of millions annually. And while the proposed changes to that status quo would only impact future owners and not any current team governors, lobbyists say the new rules would hurt club valuations.
On the other hand, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates another $1 billion in tax revenue over the next decade if the deductions are, indeed, limited.
The owners do have ties within the Republican party. Haslam and Walton donated a combined $350,000 to the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) and more than $2 million to the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) during the 2024 campaigns. And although Kraft cut off ties with Trump after the US Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, he did previously donate $1 million to the President’s 2017 inaugural fund.
Robert Kraft speaks at the White House in front of Donald Trump in April of 2017
Rob Walton, one of the owners of the Denver Broncos, opposes the language in the bill
Managing and principal partner Jimmy Haslam of the Browns looks on during minicamp
As reported by Axios, Trump pollster David Lee said at an NRSC lunch last week that 71 percent of sports owners support ending the tax break.
However, Kraft, Walton and Haslam do have the ear of Republican senators Tom Cotton (Arkansas), Tim Scott (South Carolina) and Steve Daines (Iowa). Cotton, in particular, has long argued for a simpler tax code, while Scott stated his concerns about ending the tax breaks during a Friday call with Senators, according to Axios.
Scott has since given a statement to Axios, arguing that Trump’s proposal could lead to higher prices for fans.
Neither the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball responded to Axios’ requests for comment.
Axios describes Trump’s opposition to the tax breaks as an effort to ensure the ‘big beautiful’ bill is seen as a benefit to the middle class, rather than just billionaires.
Trump is seen as Generals owner alongside running back and future ally Herschel Walker
Trump does have a complicated history with the NFL.
He was critical of commissioner Roger Goodell during his first term as players protested racist police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem.
The 78-year-old also made several doomed attempts at becoming an NFL team owner.
In 1983, Trump expressed an interest in buying the Baltimore Colts, who weren’t ultimately sold but were relocated to Indianapolis.
A year later, Trump had a reported chance to buy the Dallas Cowboys for just $50 million but declined, allowing Jerry Jones to acquire the franchise for $140 million later in the decade. Now the Cowboys rank as the most valuable team in sports with a $9 billion valuation from Forbes.
And Trump wasn’t only using money to get an NFL team. He also tried using leverage, according to Jeff Pearlman’s 2018 book, ‘Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL.
Launched in 1983, the USFL was a spring football league that boasted a surprising array of talent, including future Trump political ally Herschel Walker. One year into the league, Trump would buy Walker’s team, the New Jersey Generals, which he’d own until the league went bust in 1986.
The USFL’s abbreviated history is defined by several clear mistakes, like the decision to add six new franchises after a promising inaugural season in 1983. But perhaps the bigger misstep was choosing to move its season to the fall in 1985 and challenge the NFL directly – a decision that was influenced heavily by Trump.
‘In the lead-up to buying the team, he was all about spring football and how great the league was, and, ‘I love what the USFL is doing and blah blah blah,’ Pearlman told DailyMail.com in 2018. ‘He gets approved as an owner, he buys the team, and immediately: ‘We need to move to fall; we need to take on the NFL.’
‘His big line was: ‘If God wanted football in the spring, he wouldn’t have invented baseball.”
Late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle reportedly told Trump he would never own a league team
According to interviews conducted by Pearlman, Trump’s initial plan was to have the USFL fold and the NFL absorb the Generals as an expansion franchise.
However, during a meeting with then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle in New York City’s Pierre Hotel in 1984, that plan was foiled.
‘He basically said to Rozelle,’ Pearlman explained, “I don’t really give a s*** about the USFL. I want an NFL team. What do I have to do to get in the NFL?”‘
‘It was basically an offer to throw the USFL under the bus.’
Trump did not get the answer he was looking for.
‘Rozelle said to him, ‘As long as I’m the commissioner, you’re never going to have a team,” Pearlman continued. ‘He didn’t trust him. He thought he was a scumbag. He didn’t say, ‘I think you’re a scumbag,’ but Rozelle made his feelings toward Trump very well known. [Rozelle] also made them well known during the trial when he testified.’
