Over a 16-hour period last September, President Trump took aim at the country’s two most popular sports leagues, the N.F.L. and the N.B.A.
In a speech on a Friday night in Alabama, Trump used an expletive to refer to professional football players who were kneeling during the national anthem as a form of silent protest against police brutality, and he said they should be fired. The next morning, he took to Twitter to tell Stephen Curry and the N.B.A. champion Golden State Warriors they were not welcome at the White House.
The N.F.L. hasn’t recovered. The N.