February 14, 2017
The New England Patriots march toward their Super Bowl victory may have ended with a parade through Boston in Duck boats, but there is still the matter of the epilogue.
No, this has nothing to do with Roger Goodell, this goes higher up the ladder to the White House and president Donald Trump and how many players will not make the traditional championship trip to Washington, DC.
At least seven Patriots have already made it public that they will not be attending, or likely will not attend. Those include Martellus Bennett, Devin McCourty, LeGarrette Blount and Chris Long for sure, along with Alan Branch, James White and Dont’a Hightower.
Mind you, it is not unusual for a few players or coaches to skip the trip, but there has never been a president who causes such a deep divide, and the Patriots are in the unique position of having the team owner, coach and star quarterback as personal friends of Trump.
Meanwhile, there is likely not a state in the union more staunchly opposed to the new order in Washington than Massachusetts, and there are many athletes throughout all of sports who are likely to skip the trip.
This is one of those strange “issues” that can be looked upon in two different ways – much to do about nothing, or it's a very big deal. It all depends whether or not you have such strong political or patriotic views that it is a huge issue, or if sports in a neutral zone where it should not matter.
The problem here is that in this current tempest of politics it is very difficult to separate the two, especially when so many athletes feel so strongly. As a fan, we might all want to feel we can go to a “safe” zone of sports, and then we zonked in the head with players’ political views.
It is also only fair to indicate that the typist of these words is not the biggest fan of the way the new presidency has begun and it is understandable that some athletes are appalled.
However, in the case of a team going to the White House, this should be a case of taking one for the team – all or nobody. This should not turn into an event that can cause a rift among the team’s players, or between a team and its fans.
It should be pointed out that this is not the first time this has come up, and keeping it further in context it has been an issue with teams from the same area.
The GOAT himself, Brady, did not attend the White House the last time the Patriots won when Obama was the president, saying he had some family business.
When the Boston Bruins won in 2011, goalie Tim Thomas made headlines when he refused to go to the White House to meet Obama. And in 2007 the architect of the Boston Red Sox curse-busting championships Theo Epstein skipped the meeting with George W Bush, and he also skipped a photo opportunity with the team and Bush in 2004.
The only one that was viewed as overtly political was Thomas, who made it into an issue with his comments about the Federal government, and he was roundly criticized for making his political views reach past his role as a teammate.
In this new world where politics has bled over onto all workplaces, there is no hiding from politics. As sports fans, we might all want a safe place, but things are currently so out of the ordinary there are no safe places.
But it would be nice if a team remained a team from beginning to end, and that means the end would come at the last game of the season, a celebration, or a trip to the White House – or not.
There is no mandate that a team takes the trip to the Rose Garden. If there are many members of the team who do not want to make the trip, wouldn’t it be wise as the team simply decline as a team?
On the other hand, if a team wants to make the trip the whole team should make the trip, and if a player or two cannot make the trip for personal reasons, other than political reasons, everybody should show up as a team. If nothing else, they can attend to respect the office, if not the actual man in the office.
This is a situation that has all the potential to only get worse. The Patriots are the first, and there will surely be stories as champions are crowned from sport to sport.
Perhaps the best course of action would be to simply stop the whole tradition. Things have gotten so out of the margins of normalcy that even a seemingly innocuous trip to Washington can turn into an arguing point.
It would be best if the invitations from Trump ceased, but it’s unlikely that will be the case. Instead, if a team votes to accept the invitation, even those athletes who detest the president should just take one for the team.
