‘They can kiss my a–‘: NFL legend slams LIV event at Trump Bedminster over 9/11 victims’ concerns

This week’s LIV Golf event at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey has drawn heavy criticism given the course’s close proximity to the site of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

While LIV Golf, which is financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has previously been criticized over Saudi Arabia’s history of human rights violations, the specifics of these protests are slightly different.

As GOLF’s Alan Bastable reported earlier this week, groups representing 9/11 victims and their families are livid over the tournament at Trump Bedminster due to Saudi Arabia’s ties to the 9/11 attacks (Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, though the Saudi government has repeatedly denied its involvement in the attacks — a finding that was not disputed by the 9/11 Commission.)

Former NFL quarterback, TV analyst and New York sports radio icon Boomer Esiason vociferously echoed the “outrage” he and others feel about the event and LIV Golf in general on Thursday.

Speaking on his radio show, Boomer and Gio on WFAN, Esiason unloaded on former president Donald Trump, whose club is hosting this week’s event, and who has recently voiced strong support for the LIV Golf League.

“The former president’s hosting this garbage over there and these guys are accepting this money. It’s an insult to all the people that died on 9/11 and how their families were affected,” a visibly animated Esiason said on Thursday. “But it’s also an insult to all the people that have died since 9/11 because of all the toxic carcinogens that they basically ingested while they were trying to clean this place up to make it look like what it looks like now. And we live in the shadow of it. And when you go down there you’re affected by it, especially if you were personally affected by it. And that’s why there is so much outrage around this.”

But he didn’t reserve his criticism for Trump alone, expressing his disgust for the pro golfers who took huge financial payouts to join LIV and play in the tournament, despite the many lives destroyed by the attacks and the aftermath over the last 21 years.

“And these guys are over there playing music, making hundreds of millions of dollars from the Saudi Arabian government,” Esiason said. “That’s what we’re doing?”

Esiason had one final message directed toward all involved with the tournament, be it LIV Golf, the pro golfers’ playing in the Bedminster event, or the former president: “They can kiss my a–. I’m not watching, and I don’t care.”

You can watch a clip of Esiason’s comments on the Boomer and Gio show below.

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.