The Trump administration is trying to do something no one’s done before in Canton: get a former president a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told attendees of an event at the National Portrait Gallery that he expects Teddy Roosevelt to be enshrined within a year, reports the Washington Post. Burgum says Roosevelt “saved football” when he intervened in the early 1900s to force rule changes to make the game safer—including the legalization of the forward pass, per the New York Post. The changes laid the groundwork for the modern game.
The NFL and Hall of Fame have not confirmed that Roosevelt is in contention. Burgum said he raised the idea with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the Oval Office while discussing next April’s NFL draft, which will be staged on the National Mall. He predicted any Hall announcement would come there, with the actual induction taking place at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota, set to open July 4, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday.