White House says Eagles abandoned their fans
The White House is blaming the Philadelphia Eagles for President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a planned White House event celebrating the team’s Super Bowl championship.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the team last Thursday notified the White House that 81 individuals, including players, coaches and managers would be attending.
However, the team got back in touch with the White House late Friday and tried to reschedule, proposing a time when Trump would be overseas.
In the end, she said the Eagles offered to send “only a tiny handful of representatives” to the event, “while making clear that the great majority of players would not attend.”
She said, “In other words, the vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans,” prompting Trump to cancel.
The NFL players union said in a statement Tuesday that it is disappointed by the decision and that NFL players “love their country, support our troops, give back to their communities and strive to make America a better place.”
Trump said in a statement that some members of the Super Bowl championship team “disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honour of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.”
None of the Eagles took a knee during the anthem in 2017.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney replied with his own statement, saying that he is “equally proud of the Eagles’ activism off the field” and that the players “represent the diversity of our nation — a nation in which we are free to express our opinions.”
“Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend,” Kenney said.
Last week, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said he would not attend the ceremony because he didn’t want to be part of a photo op and wanted “to avoid being used as any kind of pawn.” In addition to Jenkins, defensive end Chris Long was the most outspoken player against going. Quarterback Carson Wentz had planned to attend.
Wide receiver Torrey Smith, who said previously that he planned to skip the visit, responded with a series of tweets.
“So many lies,” he wrote, adding, “Not many people were going to go.”
Smith, who played on the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia team before being traded to the Carolina Panthers in March, added: “No one refused to go simply because Trump ‘insists’ folks stand for the anthem . ... The President continues to spread the false narrative that players are anti military.”
He went on: “There are a lot of people on the team that have plenty of different views. The men and women that wanted to go should’ve been able to go. It’s a cowardly act to cancel the celebration because the majority of the people don’t want to see you. To make it about the anthem is foolish.”