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President Donald Trump hosted National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris in the Oval Office on Monday to announce that the nation’s capital will host the 2027 NFL draft on the National Mall.
Trump appeared with Goodell, Harris and Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser to reveal the location for the annual event, during which the league’s 32 teams select from the nation’s top collegiate players to augment their rosters for the coming year.
The president said the draft, which can draw hundreds of thousands of spectators each year, would be “beautiful” when it takes place on the historic area once used for the 1963 March on Washington and other major rallies and protests, as well as presidential inaugurations going back to the beginning of the 19th century.
“It’s going to be something that nobody else will ever be able to duplicate,” he said.
“The draft is a celebration of one of our country’s most cherished cultural institutions, and the annual highlights for football fans everywhere, everyone in the world is going to be watching. We look forward to welcoming people from across the nation, from all over the world.”
Trump also noted that the Washington Commanders — the capital’s long-suffering NFL franchise — had reached an agreement with the District of Columbia government to build a new stadium on the site of Robert Francis Kennedy Stadium, the disused and abandoned structure that was home to the then-Washington Redskins during the team’s most successful period in the latter decades of the 20th century.
The former real estate developer praised the site, which lays within sight of the U.S. Capitol, and said the new stadium plans and the draft announcement both “advance the mission of making Washington, D.C. safe and clean and beautiful.”
Goodell, the longtime NFL commissioner, thanked Trump and Bowser for supporting the stadium deal, which was made possible by a last-minute piece of legislation signed into law by former president Joe Biden during the waning days of his term.
“We think it’s going to be great for our fans here, and it’s great to come back home, and so we’re very excited about that,” he said.
He added that the draft has “really become one of the great entertainment and sports events” and pointed out that the event drew more than 600,000 people to Green Bay, Wisconsin last week and 800,000 the year before when it took place in Detroit.
Trump’s embrace of the NFL represents a reversal from his attitude towards the country’s most popular sports league, which he made into a political target during his first term in the White House after players such as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick engaged in protest against police violence by kneeling respectfully during the playing of the national anthem before games.
His attacks on the NFL were part of a long-running feud he has had with the league dating back to the 1980s, when he made numerous attempts to purchase one of the league’s 32 teams.
In 1981, he attempted to buy the Baltimore Colts from then-owner Robert Irsay, and he did so once more two years later even though Irsay told him it would be “a waste of time” for him to try, according to the late owner’s testimony during a 1986 court case.
He also tried to purchase the Dallas Cowboys franchise around the same time but reportedly declined just before he purchased a New Jersey-based franchise in the league’s short-lived spring rival, the United States Football League. That effort spectacularly failed when the league collapsed after just three seasons.
