Fox News Report:
Despite rumors that the Philadelphia Eagles would not attend the White House to celebrate their recent Super Bowl LIX victory, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will extend the invite.
The Birds skipped out on attending when they won in 2018, but a club source told OutKick on Monday that the team would in fact go this year. Trump confirmed the invite while talking with reporters.
“They will be [invited]. We haven’t yet, but we will be,” Trump said. “I thought it was a great performance by them. Absolutely, they’ll be extended an invitation. We’ll do it right away, we’ll do it some time today. They deserve to be down here, and we hope to see them.”
Trump, in attendance for the game, predicted that the Kansas City Chiefs would win the Super Bowl for the third straight time, but instead it was a Philadelphia beatdown from the jump, earning a 40-22 victory over Kansas City to put a hold on their dynasty.
The day after the Super Bowl, veteran offensive lineman Lane Johnson said it would be a “team decision” to go. Johnson was a part of the Super Bowl LII team that had its invitation rescinded by Trump after some players refused to visit the White House due to Trump’s criticism of those who kneeled or raised their fists during the national anthem in protest of racial injustice and police brutality.
Trump released a statement at the time about his invitation cancellation, saying that “the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better.”
“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,” Trump’s statement read seven years ago.
The Florida Panthers recently visited the president to celebrate their Stanley Cup victory last summer.
Neither the Toronto Raptors nor the Los Angeles Lakers, the winners of the 2019 and 2020 NBA Finals, respectively, visited the White House during Trump’s first presidency to commemorate their titles, but the Milwaukee Bucks made the trip to visit now-former President Joe Biden in November 2021.
The last championship team from the pros to visit Trump in office during his first presidency was the 2019 Washington Nationals, five days after their World Series victory over the Houston Astros. The pandemic made visits tougher in 2020, and by the time restrictions started to be lifted, Biden had taken office.
The UConn men’s and LSU women’s teams visited Biden last year. Biden was criticized for originally not inviting the University of Georgia football team last year. After they received an invitation, the Bulldogs did not go. They also did not make the trip the year prior due to COVID-19 safety precautions.
Both the Las Vegas Aces and Boston Celtics, the reigning WNBA and NBA champs, respectively, visited Biden before he left office. The prior NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets, notably canceled their visit last year, citing their quest to earn the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference (they got the No. 2 seed after a tiebreaker).
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