A PALL OVER THE PARTY
Hernandez suicide looms over WH visit
WASHINGTON — It wasn’t just the gray, overcast skies that cast a cloud over the Patriots’ visit to the White House yesterday afternoon. It was also Aaron Hernandez. Let’s not kid ourselves: It was impossible to watch yesterday’s South Lawn celebration of the Patriots’ historic victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI without thinking about Hernandez, the very dead former Pats tight end who, authorities say, hung himself in his jail cell about 3:05 a.m.
It was one last reminder that the Patriots overlooked a truckload of warning signs back in 2010 when they selected Hernandez in the fourth round of the NFL draft. Hernandez played some fine football for the Pats and claimed to be a devotee of “the Patriot Way,” but he also was convicted of one murder and was acquitted of two others. Now his waste of a life is over, though his memory and his rap sheet tagged with the approximately 34 Pats players who decided to make the trip to Washington.
It should come as no surprise there was no mention of Hernandez during yesterday’s ceremony. But what may surprise you is that there was no mention of Tom Brady, either. You’ve heard of Brady — greatest quarterback of all time, the man who has guided the Patriots to those five Super Bowl championships and, of particular importance to this discussion, the man who displayed a “Make America Great Again” cap in his Gillette Stadium locker at a time when Trump’s presidential campaign was the equivalent of an undrafted free agent trying to land a starting job during training camp.
Brady cited family reasons for missing the trip, and we all know his mom has been ill. Therefore, nobody on either side of the political field of play would be on solid footing were they to question his motives. However awkward it was for him to extract himself from the presidential campaign last fall, he earned the right to sit this one out.
But just as it was impossible to watch the ceremony without thinking of Hernandez, it was impossible to listen to the ceremony without wondering when somebody was going to mention Brady’s name.
The White House and the Patriots teamed up yesterday to will Tom Brady invisible. The president didn’t mention Brady. Patriots owner Robert Kraft didn’t mention Brady. Pats coach Bill Belichick didn’t mention Brady.
President Trump, the former owner of the New Jersey Generals of the late and forgotten United States Football League, knows the game well. He also knows a thing or two about talking points, which is why, when he noted that the Pats are “big supporters of our military and America’s veterans,” he was able to single out long snapper Joe Cardona, a product of the United States Naval Academy who wore his dress blues to the ceremony.
“Joe Cardona ... where’s Joe? ... there he is ... in his beautiful Navy uniform ... thank you ... Joe serves in the Navy reserves and is a graduate of the Naval Academy,” said the president. “Coach Belichick is the son of a Navy veteran, and Bob (Kraft) ... you do so much to support the military.”
That’s some fine sentiment right there. The president also singled out “Marcus Cannon and the offensive line,” praised Matthew Slater for winning the Bart Starr Award “for character and leadership he has shown both on and off the field,” and rookie receiver Malcolm Mitchell for the way he “... handled the pressure of the Super Bowl like an absolute true veteran.”
President Trump also turned around and asked for Danny Amendola to raise his hand, the only problem being that the New England wide receiver was not at the ceremony.
But not a word about Brady. From anyone. Back when the 2007 World Series champion Red Sox visited the White House, even absentee Manny Ramirez received a shoutout from President George W. Bush, who joked that Manny must have lost another grandparent.
Of course, there was no way Trump, Kraft or Belichick could have, or should have, mentioned Aaron Hernandez, whose remains were sitting in a morgue yesterday while the Patriots were being saluted at the White House. But while there were about 10 Patriots in attendance who had played with Hernandez, they were not made available to the media — real, fake or somewhere in the middle.
I don’t know if I blame the Pats for that. But Malcolm Mitchell and Joe Cardona were conveniently made available for post-ceremony questions. Neither of them played with Aaron Hernandez, and that’s how they responded when those inevitable and uncomfortable questions were posed. Mitchell also said that to be given a presidential shoutout “almost brought me to tears. As a child growing up, I never would have thought a president would have said my name, by any means.”
And then everyone exited the South Lawn.
By the time the Patriots are on the field again — that is, the practice fields of Gillette Stadium — Aaron Hernandez will be in the ground.
By then, a lot of people will have forgotten about him — not counting the families of those three men who were murdered.