No win for Penguins
Pittsburgh visits the White House amid Trump’s criticism of athletes
President Trump welcomed the Pittsburgh Penguins to the White House on Tuesday. He praised the Pens for winning the Stanley Cup again. He joked that maybe co-owner Ron Burkle could renegotiate NAFTA. Trump teased co-owner Mario Lemieux, superstar of yesteryear, that perhaps Sidney Crosby is on the cusp of outdoing his derring-do.
The proceedings carried the high-spirited feel of so many of these presidential champion events over the years — Hail to the Chief meets hail fellow well met — except for the unavoidable, unspoken context of Trump’s war of words with other athletes. That cast the Pens as props: unwilling characters in a passion play of the president’s making.
Last month, Trump spoke at a rally in Alabama where he attacked NFL players who protest racial injustice by taking a knee during the national anthem. The same weekend, he rescinded a White House invitation to the NBA champion Golden State Warriors after Stephen Curry balked at the idea, an exchange that made Trump look like some petulant school boy disinviting a potential prom date who is (you’ll excuse the expression) out of his league.
That put the Penguins between a rock and a Trump place. They’d earned their invitation to the White House by winning the Stanley Cup. They’d gone to President Obama’s White House for winning the Cup a year earlier without so much as a sniff of con- troversy. Now, unfairly, they’d get criticized either way — for going or not going to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., a street named for their state.
Then, over the weekend, lest the NFL furor die down, Vice President Mike Pence walked out on a game in Indianapolis between the Colts and San Francisco 49ers after almost two dozen 49ers kneeled during the anthem, as it was all but certain some would. That means Pence came to the game for the express purpose of walking away, like Groucho Marx singing Hello, I Must Be Going, but without the laugh lines.
And that’s what the Penguins walked into Tuesday, a White House picking fights with pro athletes in other leagues. Here, Trump seemed to say, are pro athletes who do not bend a knee when the anthem plays — and who do not balk at sharing a podium with him. Here, the president seemed to say, are athletes who are not sons of bitches.
None of that was said explicitly, of course. But the podium was filled with white hockey players hearing praise from a president who is highly critical of so many African-American athletes.
The Penguins are a potpourri of Canadians, Americans, Swedes and Finns. (And don’t forget Evgeni Malkin, who is not the first Russian to be greeted warmly in Trump’s White House.) Ryan Reaves, the Pens’ only black player, was obtained in the offseason, so he wasn’t eligible for Tuesday’s fete. But Reaves, a dual citizen of the USA and Canada, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month that he would not have attended even if he could have: “I don’t agree with certain things that (Trump) stands for or he says.”
The NFL players who take a knee to protest racial injustice are mostly African American, as are Golden State’s Warriors. Trump insists his argument with professional athletes has nothing to do with race. The assertion flies in the face of the evidence.
The tradition of championship teams visiting the White House began in antebellum days but reached full flower during the Reagan era. The Gipper’s sunny persona summoned moments of utter charm. New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson dumped a cooler of popcorn on him in
1986, mimicking a Gatorade shower. Reagan tossed a perfect pass to wide receiver Ricky Sanders of Washington’s NFL team in
1987. Hard to imagine an AfricanAmerican athlete playfully making merry with this president like that.
When he pulled out of an international climate accord, Trump said he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Maybe so, but he did not represent the Steel City well on Tuesday. Oh, Trump said the right things on the podium. But he’d put the Pens in a nowin situation. They’d come as champions. But for all the backslapping and big smiles under glistening chandeliers in the East Room, they left as bit players in Trump’s never-ending culture wars.
Send this president to the penalty box, although two minutes for high sticking (and high dudgeon) don’t seem like nearly enough. Make it a game misconduct.
The Penguins deserved better. We all do.