The Trump administration has been somewhat cavalier in posting major American sports highlight videos on X, despite most major sports leagues repeatedly telling the public that express written consent is required to use their footage.
In March, after the start of the Iranian conflict, the White House’s official X account posted cut-ups of military explosions in bombings intermixed with MLB and NFL highlights in multiple posts, going with a separate post for each sport. Neither the MLB nor the NFL commented at the time on whether they received advance notice of the posts or granted permission to the Trump administration to use their highlights.
On Sunday, the administration posted another such video, with the Department of Homeland Security posting a video montage of Hall of Fame safety and Philadelphia Eagles legend Brian Dawkins’ iconic pregame walkout routine and chanting “The time has come” to himself before switching to highlights of some of his biggest hits over his career.
The video was posted to X in response to a report from _Leading Report_ of a large migrant caravan was headed toward the United States’ Southern border and was captioned “Our time has come.”
However, this time, the [NFL is taking a stand.](https://awfulannouncing.com/nfl/requests-department-homeland-security-take-down-brian-dawkins-video.html)
“The league has requested DHS take down the video,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said, [according to _The Athletic’s_ Devon Henderson.](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7638968/2026/09/28/nfl-brian-dawkins-department-of-homeland-security-philadelphia-eagles/?unlocked_article_code=1.ElE.SsH3.RNlBppDQr3Ej&source=emp_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share)
DHS did not address whether it had talked to Dawkins, the Eagles, or the NFL before posting the video in a statement to _The Athletic;_ instead, the statement read, in part, “DHS is playing lockdown defense at the border. We will use every Weapon at our disposal, from A to X, to keep Americans safe.”
On Monday, Dawkins, who spent 13 of his 16 NFL seasons with the Eagles before spending his final three years with the Denver Broncos, shared a video of his own to X on Monday, clarifying that he “didn’t give permission for (his) name, image, and likeness to be used by _anybody._”