Washington (CNN) The friend who once reportedly gave President Donald Trump a Super Bowl ring privately used words like "divisive" and "horrible" to label Trump's effort to vilify players kneeling for the National Anthem as a social protest, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

As President Donald Trump declared a Twitter war on the NFL last year, team owners and players huddled in New York in a sort of damage control session and to air grievances, according to the Times, which obtained audio of the meeting.

One subject was the kneeling of players like former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who still doesn't have a job in the NFL, with the owners trying to find a way to work with the players.

Another of the grievances was Trump, who would go on assailing the league both on Twitter and at rallies during the season, citing the issue of standing for the National Anthem.

"The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don't feel is in the best interests of America," said Kraft, according to the Times. "It's divisive and it's horrible."

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