Donald Trump feted the Tremendous Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on the White Home on Monday, however a number of gamers, together with quarterback Jalen Hurts, determined to skip the celebration.
Hurts and different gamers cited scheduling conflicts as the explanations for his or her absences, based on a White Home official who spoke on situation of anonymity.
Regardless of the quarterback’s absence, Trump known as Hurts a “terrific man and terrific participant” who turned in “one stellar efficiency after one other” through the Eagles’ run to the championship.
“The Eagles have turned out to be an unbelievable staff, an unbelievable group,” Trump stated.
In April, Eagles proprietor Jeffrey Lurie stated attending the White Home was not obligatory for gamers. “Our tradition is that these are non-obligatory issues,” Lurie stated. “If you wish to take pleasure in this, come alongside and we’ll have a good time and if you happen to don’t, it’s completely an non-obligatory factor.”
NBC Sports activities Philadelphia reported that different Eagles gamers who didn’t attend Monday’s ceremony included AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Brandon Graham.
The Eagles had been disinvited to the White Home in 2018, the final time they received the Tremendous Bowl, after a variety of gamers stated they might drop out amid tensions over the anthem protests that had swept the NFL. Trump, then in his first time period as president, had attacked gamers who knelt through the anthem to protest towards racial inequality. On the time, Trump wrote on social media that the Eagles had been in dispute “with their President as a result of he insists that they proudly stand for the Nationwide Anthem, hand on coronary heart, in honor of the nice women and men of our navy and the individuals of our nation.”
Requested by a reporter on the crimson carpet of the Time journal gala final week whether or not he would participate within the White Home go to, Hurts responded with an ungainly “um” and lengthy silence earlier than strolling away.
The Eagles’ star operating again, Saquon Barkley, visited Trump over the weekend at Trump Nationwide Golf Membership in New Jersey, and caught a experience with the president to Washington on Air Pressure One.
“He cherished it,” Trump stated of Barkley’s flight on the presidential airplane. “He’s an amazing younger man and an unbelievable soccer participant. Saquon had a season for the ages, operating behind essentially the most highly effective offensive line within the NFL,” Trump stated.
Barkley, in the meantime, pushed again on social media criticism earlier Monday for spending time with Trump. He famous that he has golfed with Barack Obama too.
“Perhaps I simply respect the workplace, not a tough idea to grasp,” Barkley posted on X.
Whereas Trump’s first time period in workplace led to a variety of athletes, similar to LeBron James and Megan Rapinoe, criticizing the president, there was little pushback from the sports activities world thus far in his second time period. In February, Trump turned the primary sitting US president to attend the Tremendous Bowl, and his presence was welcomed by a number of gamers, together with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Groups who’ve received a significant championship are historically invited to the White Home to have fun their victory with the president. Nevertheless, throughout Trump’s first-term a number of groups weren’t invited or made it clear they might not attend in the event that they had been. These groups included the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and america Ladies’s Nationwide Staff after their victory on the 2019 Ladies’s World Cup.
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