Telling roll call for trip to House
Meeting Trump presents conflict of values
Will it just be Foxboro’s three rich white guys who meet with President Trump at the White House on April 19?
Or will the rest of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots show up as well?
Get ready, Pats fans, for lots of daily tabulations as the big day approaches. Some players will feel compelled to issue bold declarations as to whether they plan to attend; others will be quizzed by reporters at public appearances or on talk shows, their yeas or nays poured into the political pot.
And for some Patriots, their decisions will be just that: Political.
“I’m not going to the White House,” safety Devin McCourty relayed to Time magazine (via text) the morning after the Pats’ epic 34-28 comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. “Basic reason for me is I don’t feel accepted in the White House. With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices I believe certain people might feel accepted there while others won’t.” But it won’t spoil the day for the three rich white guys, who want you to know this has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Patriots owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady were all in during Trump’s march to the White House, even if they all danced around the subject.
Brady famously displayed a Make America Great Again cap in his locker and spoke often of his great friendship with Trump. Yet he was mysteriously tongue-tied when asked if he voted for the Donald.
The House of Kraft got the word out that the family made no formal endorsement of either Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. But Robert has been a frequent flier on Air Force One since Trump took office, and has been photographed with the president at Mar-a-Lago. Papa Bear Kraft is absolutely loving all this.
As for Belichick, he has maintained he is not a political person, and according to records didn’t even cast a ballot in the most recent presidential election. But he says Trump is a friend, a friend who, on the eve of Election Day, wowed a rally in Manchester, N.H., by reading a supportive letter he says was authored by Belichick.
The coach says he is not about politics. So let’s talk abut some of the stuff Belichick is about, such as values ... accountability . . . “doing your job.” Let’s talk about how, as recently as two days ago, during an interview with Time, the president was asked about his credibility. As part of his response, he said, “I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not.”
That, right there, is a response that runs against everything Belichick believes. I have the title, therefore I am better than you. I can’t fathom Belichick teaching such a lesson. I can’t fathom Belichick being taught such a lesson.
A while back I came across an archived online chat featuring David Halberstam, the Pulitzer Price-winning author who penned “The Education of a Coach,” the definitive read on Bill Belichick and his father, the late Steve Belichick, a longtime assistant football coach at Navy. The chat was conducted by the Washington Post and took place on Dec. 6, 2005, some 16 months before Halberstam was killed in a car crash in California.
In response to a question about Steve Belichick, Halberstam said, “What’s interesting to me is that the value system of the older Belichicks, including Steve, growing up in a much harder era — nothing is to be wasted and hard work has a value as an end in itself — are very much a part of Bill Belichick’s ethic these days even though he’s at the top of his game, makes $4 million a year, and conceivably could begin to coast. Instead he’s about the hardest working person I’ve ever met.”
Such a value system couldn’t possibly include a president of the United States whose answer to a question about his own credibility includes the observation that, “I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not.”
But Devin McCourty’s stand — “I don’t feel accepted in the White House. With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices I believe certain people might feel accepted there while others won’t” — is bold and powerful and from the heart.
It strikes me as a nice fit in the values system of the Belichicks.
But give Bill Belichick credit for this: In the aftermath of the presidential election, he kept a divided New England locker room focused on the only issue of importance — winning the Super Bowl.
Exactly how divided that locker room was will be shown in the coming weeks.