Eagles will visit White House after all
A number of Philadelphia stars express reservations about trip confirmed for June 5
>> NEW YORK: A month after Jeffrey Lurie’s leaked comments about US President Donald Trump cast doubt on whether the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles would visit the White House, the team appears to have committed to a trip, which is scheduled for June 5.
While the team have yet to make an announcement, Lindsay Walters, a White House deputy press secretary, confirmed the visit in an email.
“President Trump looks forward to welcoming the Philadelphia Eagles to the White House on June 5 to celebrate their Super Bowl LII win,” she said.
The trip, which is a tradition for Super Bowl-winning teams, became a hot topic when The New York Times in April detailed a meeting in which NFL owners expressed their concerns about Trump’s presidency, which Lurie called “disastrous”.
While some anticipated either the team or the president to react to the news by cancelling the plans for a trip, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said at the time that nothing had changed.
“We have been in conversations with the Eagles about timing and are working with them to make it happen,” she said. “We hope to have something finalised in the next couple of weeks.”
Beyond Lurie’s comments about Trump, the Eagles, who beat the New England Patriots to win the top prize, also have several players who have expressed concerns about a potential visit, including the team’s star safety, Malcolm Jenkins, and their prominent and outspoken defensive end, Chris Long.
They have both stated they will not attend the visit regardless of whether the team attend, though Jenkins, who has become known for raising his fist during the playing of the national anthem before games, said last month that he would travel to Washington with his teammates despite his decision to skip the visit.
“From a team standpoint, some guys have dreamed, you know, of being able to win a championship and take a visit to the White House, and we’re not trying to deny that to anybody,” Jenkins said to reporters at a charity event he had organised in New Jersey.
He added, “There’s also a lot of guys who feel passionate about not going, and so you have to try to find a balance that’s fair for everybody.”
All of this is on the heels of the NBA champions Golden State Warriors skipping their visit to the White House in a bizarre turn of events in which several players expressed concerns about a visit, which prompted Trump to publicly disinvite the team.
Trump’s move drew a rebuke from LeBron James, the NBA star whose Cleveland Cavaliers had lost to Golden State in the 2017 NBA Finals.
Instead of going to the White House, the Warriors spent their trip to Washington in February doing community outreach.