The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl…shocker I know, but the big news that has occurred since they defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 is the numerous Patriot players who have come out and said that they will not be going to the White House with the team, in large part to our president, Donald Trump.
Here are the players who have publicly announced they’re not going:
Dont’a Hightower
Linebacker #54 (Source: Twitter)
Martellus Bennett
Tight End #88 (Source: Twitter)
Devin McCourty
Safety #32 (Source: Twitter)
LeGarrette Blount
Running Back #29 (Source: Twitter)
IEM Takeaways
IEM Katowice helped confirm much of what we had already suspected.
Here are just a few of the takeaways.
The list of six players all have their reasons for not going to the White House. Hightower has said that he’s already been to the White House (back in college when Alabama won the National Championship), while the other five have cited different reasons ranging from not feeling welcome by President Trump, or wanting to see their families. Listen, I’m not going to make this about politics, because I’m pretty neutral when it comes to all of that, and I’m also not the most knowledgable on the subject, I’m the last person you’ll see get in any kind of political debate. But the fact of the matter is that I really don’t give a sh-t that players are choosing not to go to the White House, and you shouldn’t either.
Want to know what makes America so great? We get the right to make our own choices. If those players don’t want to go to the White House because they don’t like our President, who the hell cares? This shouldn’t be a story at all. They aren’t required to go to the White House, so they’re exercising their right to choose not to. I know that this is a story because of Trump and everything, but guess what? This isn’t the first time athletes have chosen to not go to the White House with their team after winning a championship. Here are some other athletes who were not in attendance at the White House:
Tom Brady
That's right, the Pats star quarterback didn't go to the White House after their 2014 Super Bowl victory. It raises a lot of questions due to his friendship with President Trump, but Brady stated that he missed the team's last White House visit due to a prior family commitment. I don't care that he didn't go then, and I wouldn't care if he didn't go now. (Source: Twitter)
Michael Jordan
MJ was notorious for staying quiet when it came to politics back in his playing days, and even had the quote, "Republicans buy sneakers too", which is how I want my athletes to act. But he missed the Chicago Bulls' White House visit for their 1991 championship team because he opted to spend time with his family on vacation. When you're the best basketball player of all time, you shouldn't have to explain yourself to some annoying ass reporter. (Source: Twitter)
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Source: ESL
James Harrison
Harrison skipped both visits to the White House with the Steelers, with both a republican and democrat in office. He said that he didn't feel a need to go, and that it wasn't that big of a deal. Again, I have no problem with Harrison skipping out on the White House, and you also couldn't have paid me enough to try and convince him. You don't tell people as bad as him what to do, and I'm sure the Steelers took note of that. (Source: Twitter)
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Source: ESL
Manny Ramirez & Theo Epstein
Theo said that he had "family reasons" (great excuse to get out of anything) and Manny never gave a reason as to why he didn't go, but he's a weirdo so he probably wasn't wanted. Okay, that last part isn't true, but he is definitely weird, so it might not be that far off. (Source: Twitter)
Tim Thomas
The Bruins goalie said his reason for not going to the White House in 2012 was not about politics, but he also said he thought the federal government had "grown out of control". He went on to say some other stuff about politics at the time that I don't care to get into because it's kind of long, but regardless he didn't have to go to the White House, so who really cares. (Source: Twitter)
Jake Arrieta
Arrieta is one of the few celebrities that openly supports Trump, which is very ballsy to say the least, but I can respect that. So you'd have to imagine there was no chance in hell he was going to the White House with the Cubs to visit Obama. (Source: Twitter)
Again, this is really only a story because of Trump being our President and everyone seems to hate him at the moment. While I understand that, I still don’t really care. Athletes have not gone to the White House in the past, and I’m positive there will be some that don’t go in the future. I’m also willing to bet that there are going to be plenty of athletes who don’t go to the White House while Trump is in office, and to that my stance still won’t change. Let them live with their choices, and find something else to turn into a story.
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