Late yesterday, the White House issued a statement announcing that the visit by the Philadephia Eagles to the White House today to mark their Super Bowl victory was canceled due to the fact that many members of the team had chosen not to attend:
WASHINGTON — President Trump abruptly called off the White House celebration honoring the Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles after nearly all of the players and coaches said they would boycott the visit after the president’s demands that players stand during the national anthem at games.
White House officials said that fewer than 10 members of the team were planning to attend the celebration on Tuesday afternoon on the South Lawn despite weeks of planning for the event, which is usually a nonpolitical celebration of a football victory.
Instead, this year’s event to honor the Eagles has become a bitter reflection of the deep divisions in the United States over race, patriotism and Mr. Trump himself. When it became clear that most members of the team would not attend, Mr. Trump issued a blistering statement disinviting them.
“The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow,” Mr. Trump said in a statement released Monday evening. “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.”
Mr. Trump said in the statement that more than 1,000 fans who had been invited to the celebration would still be welcome at the White House for what the president called “a different type of ceremony — one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the national anthem.”
The president said he would “be there at 3 p.m. with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus to celebrate America.”
In a Twitter post Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump raised the issue again and promoted his new national anthem event. “NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!” Mr. Trump wrote.
Team officials could not be reached for comment. The team released a statement on Twitter late Monday that did not address the controversy but praised the team’s fans for their support as the franchise won its first championship.
Here’s the White House statement issued last night:
At the core of Trump’s reasoning for why the Philadelphia Eagles will not visit the White House tomorrow?
“They disagree with their President.” pic.twitter.com/mC9wWKKYVc
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) June 4, 2018
The President has also, predictably, reacted on Twitter:
The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House. Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
We will proudly be playing the National Anthem and other wonderful music celebrating our Country today at 3 P.M., The White House, with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus. Honoring America! NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
We have had many Championship teams recently at the White House including the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Penguins, New England Patriots, Alabama and Clemson National Champions, and many others. National Anthem & more great music today at 3:00 P.M.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
And here’s are responses from the Eagles, the Mayor of Philadelphia, and the N.F.L. Players Association:
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) June 5, 2018
Philly mayor statement on Ttump: “Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend.”
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 5, 2018
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) June 5, 2018
All of this began, of course, back in 2016 when San Francisco Quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem. Soon after that protest started, Kaepernick explained that his decision to kneel was his way of protesting racism, police brutality, and the treatment of African-American men by police across the country, an issue that had come to the forefront in the wake of the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri and other cases that rose to public attention from around the country. Kaepernick was joined by a handful of other players during the 2016 season, but the issue had largely disappeared from headlines weeks after it started and the season proceeded forward without significant controversy.
The issue revived to some extent during the early weeks of the 2017 season, with sporadic cases of other players kneeling during the Anthem, although Kaepernick was not among them since he had been released by the 49ers and has, as of yet, not been signed by any other team. Then, the President got involved. At a campaign speech in Alabama in late September of last year, Trump went after the players who were kneeling during the Anthem, calling them “sons of bitches” and calling on the league and/or the teams to fire or otherwise discipline players who don’t stand for the Anthem. This led the league, the NFL Players Association, and pretty much all the team owners to voice support for the protesting players. Additionally, the weeks after the President’s statement witnessed the expansion of the kneeling protests as players of all races either knelt during the Anthem or engaged in some other form of showing solidarity with those players who chose to do so. It was during this period that Vice-President Pence walked out of an Indianapolis Colts game when some players knelt during the Anthem, in what was obviously a staged photo opportunity by the White House to further stir the pot. Several weeks later, the league announced that it would not discipline players who continued to kneel during the Anthem, and polling in both September and October showed that most Americans opposed the position taken by the President. Late last month, though, the controversy was revived when the N.F.L. announced a rule change stating that it would fine teams if any players declined to stand while on the field during the National Anthem, but left open the option that teams or individual players could choose to stay off the field during the Anthem. President Trump responded to this rule change by suggesting that people who don’t stand during the Anthem should ‘leave the country,” and with this morning’s Tweets, he makes it clear that he does not consider the option of staying off the field to be acceptable.
As a preliminary matter, it ought to be noted that no members of the Philadelphia Eagles have ever knelt during the National Anthem. They didn’t do it at the Super Bowl, they didn’t do it during the 2017 regular season, and they didn’t do it during the 2016 season either. Notwithstanding that, several members of the team, such as star Safety Malcolm Jenkins, did announce in the weeks since the White House announced the event that was scheduled for today that they would not be attending although in most cases they didn’t state precisely why. This follows a pattern that has developed since Trump took office as the whole issue of the visit of championship teams has become politicized in a way it has never been before. Last year, for example, several members of the New England Patriots skipped the White House visit, including Quarterback Tom Brady, although in his case it was apparently due to a family health issue. The Golden State Warriors, who won the NBA Championship last year, made it clear that they didn’t want to attend and instead came to Washington to meet with children. The Houston Astros did come to the White House after winning the World Series last year but, again, a handful of players did not attend. And the Pittsburgh Penguins attended after winning the Stanley Cup but the event did not include such customs as giving the President a team uniform and posing for a photograph.
On some level, I suppose, one could argue that this entire custom of having champion teams visiting the White House is silly and unnecessary, but it’s also been a generally lighthearted event in the past, and it’s one that taps into the popular culture in a way that any White House would naturally want to. In the Trump Era, though, it appears as if there’s nothing that isn’t politicized, even this. The primary reason for that, of course, is the fact that the President has chosen to politicize so many things and to make himself the focus of the political, racial, and other issues that divide the country. In this case, it is clear that the purpose behind Trump’s insistence on continuing to hang on to the issue of the N.F.L. Anthem protests has nothing to do with the flag, the National Anthem, or the National Football League. Instead, Trump clearly recognizes this as an issue that he can use to energize his base and to stoke the racial fires that he was so obviously trying to stoke during his campaign for the Presidency. The fact that he’s making it clear that the N.F.L.’s attempt at a compromise will not be acceptable to him means, of course, that he fully intends on continuing to stoke the fires of this issue during the upcoming season. The fact that this will just happen to coincide with the midterm elections is, I’m sure, purely coincidental.
On the other hand, as I noted this morning on Twitter, there’s no small degree of humor in all of this:
So why aren’t The Eagles invited to the White House? Did @RealDonaldTrump have a bad night’s sleep at the Hotel California? Did a Witchy Woman tell him to do it? Did he lose that Peaceful Easy Feeling? He’s acting like a Desperado when he ought to just Take It Easy
— Doug Mataconis (@dmataconis) June 5, 2018
The @Eagles respond to @RealDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/6WNbHi6whQ
— Doug Mataconis (@dmataconis) June 5, 2018
So I guess we at least have that much out of all of this silliness.
