Many Americans are familiar with Super Bowl LII where the underdog Philadelphia Eagles took home a win against the New England Patriots. The win was celebrated by birds fans all over the country, especially in Philly. It's tradition for Super Bowl champs to be invited to the White House after their win and attend before the next season occurs. However, there's been a few breaks in this tradition. One occurred when two dozen New England Patriot players skipped out on their scheduled visit in 2017 after winning Super Bowl LI. As well as when the Warriors declined their White House visit in 2017 after winning the 2017 NBA Finals. This break in the status quo is all due to differences teams have with our current President, Donald Trump.
The Eagles were scheduled to visit this year when Donald Trump, seeing the attendance list disinvited the entire team. He sent out an official statement Monday, June 4th reading, "They disagree with their president because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country."
Now, here is where I get angry.
As a football fan (not particularly an Eagles one) this angers me that the president lied about why Super Bowl LII champs did not deserve to visit the White House. None of his statement was based on truth/factual evidence. Whether one agrees to stand or kneel for the national anthem is an article for a different day but Donald Trump cannot and should not lie on this issue to push his own agenda. One thing that is for sure, not a single Eagles player kneeled during the 2017 season. Propaganda was pushed by a conservative news outlet, Fox News, to make it seem as if they did with a picture of the Philadelphia players kneeling on field. However, this did not occur during the national anthem and these players were kneeling in prayer before the game like they habitually do.
Zach Ertz, Carson Wentz, and Trey Burton kneeling in prayer before a game. syracuse.com
If this is a free country, as Donald Trump often likes to state, Philadelphia Eagles players are free to choose whether they want to attend or not, which is unlike NFL players participating in the national anthem. If that small group of players wanted to visit they should have had the chance to visit. As a president, his ego should not interfere because the entire team did not want to visit the White House or, specifically, him.
The players that chose not to visit were scheduled to make trips to children's hospitals and charities in the D.C. area. Now that his pride caused the trip to cancel they could not make visits to those in need/people that were expecting them.
This was not a political stunt or an act of non-patriotism being performed by the Eagles. This was simply a free choice. Those that chose not to attend decided to give back to the community instead because they choose to give back and love the country that gave them the opportunity to play. This is the exact opposite of non-patriotism. Instead, I believe this was merely a political stunt by the President himself.
Stand for the national anthem or else. NFL players are already fined for kneeling or sitting in the locker room during the national anthem, and now they will not be able to meet the president if they do not. I can only shake my head at the shame Donald Trump has brought to the Philadelphia Eagles team with this entire charade and lies.
