CELEBRATION IN D.C.
Philadelphia Eagles fans sing the team’s fight song Tuesday during a “Celebration of America” event on the South Lawn of the White House. President Donald Trump quickly scheduled the event with military bands after canceling a visit by the Eagles as he stoked fresh controversy over players who protest racial injustice by taking a knee during the national anthem.
Ed Rendell, a die-hard Eagles fan and former Pennsylvania governor, called President Donald Trump’s decision to disinvite the Philadelphia Eagles from the White House “bordering on idiotic.”
Mr. Rendell claimed Mr. Trump has repeatedly mischaracterized what the players were protesting: how blacks are treated in the criminal-justice system.
“The president should have expected this when he called some of the players ‘sons of bitches’ and saying they were dishonoring the military,” Mr. Rendell said in a telephone interview. “This has nothing to do with the military.”
Taking on the NFL and football’s Super Bowl champs, Mr. Trump gave the boot to a White House ceremony for the Eagles on Tuesday and instead threw his own brief “Celebration of America” after it became clear most players weren’t going to show up.
Both sides traded hot accusations about who was to blame.
Mr. Trump tried to turn the fracas into a referendum on patriotism and tie it to the dispute over players who have taken a knee during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality. But Eagles players never knelt during the “Star-Spangled Banner,” throughout the 2017 season and their march to the Super Bowl.
The White House accused Eagles team members of pulling a “political stunt” and abandoning their fans by backing out at the last minute. Indeed, few apparently were going to come, though some expressed disappointment that they’d been disinvited and complained Mr. Trump was unfairly painting them as anti-American.
Mr. Trump had long been leery of the Eagles’ planned visit to the White House, in part because the team’s owner, Jeffrey Lurie, has been a Trump critic, and because several players have been vocal critics of the league’s new policy that requires them to stand if they’re on the field during the national anthem or else stay in the locker room.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the team notified the White House last Thursday that 81 people, including players, coaches, managers and others, would be attending the Super Bowl celebration. But she said the team got back in touch late Friday and tried to reschedule, “citing the fact that many players would not be in attendance.” The Eagles proposed a time when Mr. Trump would be overseas.
Eagles officials declined to comment on the White House version of events, sticking with a simple earlier statement: “We are truly grateful for all of the support we have received and we are looking forward to continuing our preparations for the 2018 season.”
No one connected with the team said the players’ reluctance to attend had anything to do with the national anthem, as Mr. Trump tried to portray the situation.
Mr. Trump, furious about the small number of Eagles who were coming, scrapped Tuesday’s visit, believing a low turnout would reflect poorly upon him.