What started as a moment of celebration quickly turned into a lightning rod for controversy after Detroit Lions star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown broke out Donald Trump’s signature dance in the end zone — with the former president watching from the stands. Now, just days after the Lions routed the Washington Commanders 44-22, St. Brown is doing damage control, addressing the public backlash during an episode of his podcast.
“If I offended anyone, I do apologize,” St. Brown said plainly. “It was just, we’re having fun. It had nothing to do with who the president was.”
Let’s rewind for a second. Trump, attending the game at Northwest Stadium, became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a regular season NFL game since Jimmy Carter did it back in 1978.
That alone was history. But when St. Brown scored a touchdown and broke out the signature “Trump dance” — pointing to the president in the suite — social media lit up like a live wire.
The moment, intended or not, went viral fast. Some praised it. Others called it political grandstanding. And at least one NFL player — Jaguars cornerback Jourdan Lewis — fired off a pointed message before quickly deleting it. “You do that in one of the blackest cities in America?” he wrote, clearly taking issue with the moment on cultural grounds. The tension was real, and the timing — Veterans Day weekend, during the league’s “Salute to Service” tribute — didn’t help.
Still, St. Brown stood by the intent. “If any president was at that game, if they had a dance, I would have done it,” he said. “It was nothing more, nothing less.”
Trump, for his part, has been front and center at a string of major sporting events lately. From the Super Bowl to UFC fights to the Daytona 500, his public appearances have become part of the entertainment landscape. But Sunday’s game added a new layer of political friction.
Trump read the names of new military enlistees during the Salute to Service ceremony, and a pocket of Commanders fans reportedly booed during the segment — a moment that sparked even more debate as some saw it as disrespectful, while others saw it as protest.
And then there’s the headline-grabber that hasn’t been confirmed but has everyone talking: Trump reportedly wants the Commanders’ new $3.7 billion stadium named after him. The White House hasn’t backed the claim outright, but press secretary Karoline Leavitt stoked the fire with a line tailor-made for the soundbite reel: “That would surely be a beautiful name.”
So here we are — one dance move, one viral moment, and suddenly Amon-Ra St. Brown finds himself in the middle of a national conversation that has way more to do with politics, perception, and identity than with football. But at the heart of it, he says it was just about having fun.
