NFL Draft goes off-script as Legend reads out message from Donald Trump sending fans wild

Green Bay Packers legend Clay Matthews sent the 2025 NFL Draft off the rails within minutes of the event kicking off at Lambeau Field Thursday night.

The former linebacker, who joined NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Lil Wayne on stage to open the draft, stole the mic to use President Donald Trump as a weapon to take aim at his former team’s bitter rivals.

The 38-year-old stepped up to the podium to claim he had a message to deliver from the Commander-in-Chief himself.

‘I just got off the phone with the President,’ he claimed to loud cheers from the crowd gathered in Green Bay.

‘He told me to pass a message along to all 32 NFL franchises,’ Matthews continued, pulling out a piece of paper from this pocket. ‘Let me tell you what it reads. It says, “My fellow Americans, the Bears still suck!”‘

The adoring Packers fans in attendance went wild over the brutal four-word dig aimed at their longtime bitter rivals.

Green Bay Packers legend Clay Matthews sent the 2025 NFL Draft off the rails Thursday

The former linebacker claimed that he had a message to deliver from Donald Trump

As two of the oldest teams in the NFL, the Bears and Packers have been rivals in the same conference or division since the NFL adopted the conference structure on 1933.

Matthews was part of the Packers entourage to take to the stage to kick off the draft in the franchise’s home town.

Goodell made the announcement to kick off the draft, which for the first time was held next to historic Lambeau Field. The NFL’s smallest market is hosting the league’s biggest offseason event as thousands of fans from across the country traveled to Titletown for the festivities.

In bizarre scenes, Goodell rode a bicycle onto the draft stage and was followed by former Packers stars Matthews, Jordy Nelson, Mason Crosby, Ahman Green and James Jones, as well as rap megastar and Green Bay superfan Lil Wayne.

Goodell introduced the group of former players before turning the mic over to Matthews. A moment he likely immediately regretted.

Matthews then seized his moment, commandeering the mic and declaring that he was about to go off script before making his announcement,

Matthews himself was the 26th overall pick when he was drafted by Green Bay in 2009. He went on to total 83.5 sacks in his Packers career, making the Pro Bowl six times.

Goodell eventually managed to steer the draft back on track in order for the Tennessee Titans to call in the No. 1 pick.

Desperate for a quarterback, the Titans picked a gunslinger with the first selection, delighting their fans back in Nashville.

With the top pick, Tennessee selected University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward first overall in the Draft, which was held in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

But not even a full minute after Ward’s selection was announced, the draft was rocked by yet more drama.

A blockbuster of a trade saw the Jacksonville Jaguars move up to the second overall pick to select Hunter.

Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jags received the second overall pick, a fourth round pick (No. 104), and a sixth-rounder (No. 200).

In exchange, the Jaguars sent the fifth-overall pick as well as a 2026 first-round pick. They also gave Cleveland pick No. 36 in this year’s draft and a fourth-rounder (No. 126).

Despite his well-documented love of the sport, the president was not in attendance at Lambeau Field to witness the league’s future stars be inducted into the NFL.

Trump had sent the crowd wild in New Orleans in February when he took to the field at Caesars Superdome and made history as the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl game.

The 78-year-old had mingled with New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson and NFL Commissioner Goodell as the Kansas City Chiefs – his pick – were thrashed by the Philadelphia Eagles.

The occasion, while taking place on football’s biggest stage, wasn’t the first NFL game Trump had attended last season. The president also headed to a Pittsburgh Steelers game following a rally in Pennsylvania in the buildup to last November’s election.

Trump is set to host the Philadelphia Eagles at the White House next week to toast their Super Bowl LIX victory.

Following their victory – a resounding 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs – there had been speculation that the Eagles would turn down the traditional audience with the president at the White House.

But it later emerged that the team would be ‘honored’ to visit Trump’s White House with the president subsequently instructing his aides to send the invitation at the end of February.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later confirmed that the visit would take place on April 28.

It will mark the team’s first visit to the White House during a Trump presidency after an invitation during the president’s first term ended in controversy.

After their 2018 Super Bowl win – their first in franchise history – some Eagles players said they wouldn’t attend the White House celebration because of Trump’s criticism of football players who kneeled or raised their fists during the national anthem in protest of racial injustice and police brutality .

At a 2017 rally, Trump said that the protests were ‘hurting the game,’ and said NFL owners should fire players who did so.

Malcolm Jenkins, then of the Eagles, was among the NFL players at the time to protest, as he would raise his fist during the anthem. Rodney McLeod did the same.

Ultimately, the Eagles had decided on sending a small group of less than 10 players – as NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported at the time.

In response, Trump rescinded the invite to the team and held a patriotic celebration instead.

The Chiefs’ visit was stopped in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic – meaning Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and the team never made the trip to D.C. after they beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20, just weeks before lockdown.

Trump has since announced plans to also welcome the Chiefs this summer, five years later, to celebrate their victory.