White House disinvites Philadelphia Eagles from visit after team indicates some players would skip the ceremony
- The White House disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from its traditional post-championship visit on Monday after some players indicated they would not be attending.
- While the Eagles were prepared to send a smaller delegation, the White House instead chose to cancel their invitation altogether.
- In 2017, several Patriots players chose to skip the visit, both because of disagreements with Trump as well as "personal family matters," but the visit still went on as scheduled.
The White House appears to have disinvited the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from their ceremonial visit.
"The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow," the White House said in a statement on Monday. "They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country."
Back in April, the Eagles had said that the team had not yet accepted the invitation from the White House, but were actively discussing it. "We are honored to receive this invitation and view this not only as an opportunity to be recognized for our on-field accomplishments but also as an opportunity to engage in productive dialogue with the leaders of our country," a spokesman said at the time.
The Eagles were prepared to attend with a smaller group of players, but the White House claimed that "the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better," and decided to disinvite the Eagles altogether.
"These fans are still invited to the White House to be part of a different type of ceremony-one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the National Anthem," the statement read.
Several Philadelphia players participated in the ongoing protests against police brutality and racial injustice that became a dominant story throughout the 2017 season, either raising fists or linking arms as the anthem played before their games. Four players had already said they did not plan on attending the White House ceremony.
Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins explained his reasoning for skipping the event back in February. "I don't want to take away from anybody's experience or make it a big distraction," Jenkis said. "It's a celebratory event, and I want the guys who choose to go or whatever to enjoy that. Me personally, because it's not a meeting or a sit-down or anything like that, I'm just not interested in the photo op."
Last year, several players on the New England Patriots skipped the annual White House visit for an assortment of reasons. Patriots safety Devin McCourty said that he didn't feel accepted in the White House, while quarterback Tom Brady skipped out on the photo op for "personal family matters."
Even with some players publicly criticizing Trump at the time, the Patriots were still hosted by the White House. It appears that will not be the case with the Eagles.