Six Patriots now say they will skip White House visit

The New England Patriots recently won their fifth Super Bowl title. The number of New England players saying they’ll skip the traditional champions’ visit to the White House is now up to six, and may get larger.

Defensive end Chris Long, running back LeGarrette Blount and defensive tackle Alan Branch added their names to the list Thursday, joining tight end Martellus Bennett, defensive back Devin McCourty and linebacker Dont’a Hightower as having publicly stated an intention not to accompany the team on its expected trip to Washington later this year. Some, but not all, of the six players cited an antipathy to U.S. President Donald Trump as their reason.

Running back James White, who scored three touchdowns in the Super Bowl, and linebacker Rob Ninkovich have said that they were unsure if they would make the trip.

It is even possible that an invitation from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. won’t be extended to New England at all, despite the ties to Kraft, Brady and Belichick, if enough players stage a boycott and Trump’s own team decides that the optics would be bad for him.