As is the custom for championship professional sports teams, the New England Patriots visited the White House April 19th to celebrate their NFL championship.
This visit had more political overtones than others due to the close ties of the Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, head coach Bill Belichick and starting quarterback Tom Brady (who had a Make America Great Again cap in his locker before the election) reportedly have with Donald Trump. All of these “relationships” have in some cases generated a large amount of controversy and negativity toward the team.
These “championship celebrations” are supposed to be apolitical, but in these days of hyper-partisanship and given all of Trump’s negatives, that’s just simply not the case any more. Fairly or unfairly, if you do anything with Trump, you come across as supporting him as a person and his policies...particularly if you write letters of support (like Belichick did) or are photographed dining with him (as Kraft was).
But a funny thing happend on the way to yesterday’s ceremony at the White House. Brady announced he wasn’t going at the last minute due to family issues. But Brady wasn’t the only player who didn’t show up. According to a New York Times report, 34 players attended as compared to 50 who attended a similar function with President Obama at the White House in 2015.
I’m not sure why there were far fewer players there for the Trump ceremony, but my guess is most of the no-shows were making a political statement. They probably feel the same about Trump as I do: I have no respect for an amoral, cheating shyster who has extremely bigoted attitudes about women, Muslims, immigrants, black people and the disabled and therefore, I have no need to pretend or project that I have any respect for him—regardless of the office he somehow holds.
No doubt, if I were fortunate enough to have been a professional athlete on a team that won a championship, I gladly would have visited Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama at the White House with my team. But not Donald Trump. Absolutely not Trump. He stands alone in a category all by himself...and should be shunned as such.