Donald Trump's popularity with NFL players seems to be going slightly down this week after he called them soft during a campaign stop in Florida on Wednesday.
A woman fainted during Trump's event, but that didn't keep her away -- she was able to return after briefly receiving treatment from some nearby medics. When the woman returned, Trump said that she was tougher than NFL players, who sometimes sit out the season after suffering a concussion.
"That woman was out cold, and now she's coming back. See, we don't go by these new, and very much softer, NFL rules. Concussions -- 'Uh oh, got a little ding on the head? No, no, you can't play for the rest of the season' -- our people are tough," Trump said.
Trump's comment didn't sit well with Giants tight end Larry Donnell.
"Let him get hit like that one time," Donnell told the New York Post this week. "He won't be on that microphone talking after that."
Jets linebacker Lorenzo Mauldin echoed Donnell's point, saying Trump's never taken the kind of hit to the head that players experience in an NFL game.
"He hasn't gone through it," Mauldin said. "It's as plain as that. He hasn't gone through it, so he doesn't know the severity of it."
Jets safety Calvin Pryor called the comments "sickening."
"That's very disrespectful for him to even speak on that matter," Pryor said. "Guys who go out there and risk their lives and play for greater things, just to say some foolishness like that, man, it's not right. For someone who (could be) one of the presidents someday, it's not right. It's kind of sickening, honestly."
Pryor doesn't like the fact that Trump's ignoring all the serious head injuries that happen in the NFL.
"The NFL, it's very serious, man," Pryor said. "There's a lot of people who have head problems and a lot of injuries that can relate to football after this. So for him to say that, it's not a good thing."
Trump's clearly not worried about losing the NFL player vote, because that's likely what will happen if he keeps calling players soft.
