For most of the 20 years, it came with a cadence of sorts that he won the Super Bowl. The winners smoked a cigar and sprayed beer into the locker room. They popped out bottles of champagne as they paraded through the city. And eventually, they put on suits and visited the White House president.
But President Donald Trump’s 2016 election complicated that final step in ritual. And now, with him back in the office, the recently crowned Crow, the Philadelphia Eagles will become the first NFL team to face an increasingly troublesome prospect of visiting the White House.
“No matter who the president is, I’m honoured to go, but we’ll see,” Eagles offensive lineman Lane Johnson said Sunday night, according to Sportico. I said to. “It’s ultimately a team decision. Do what’s best for the team. ”
The tradition of visiting the White House was once seen as nearly automatic for major professional sports leagues, especially for the NFL championship teams. Between 2001 and 2016, one Super Bowl-winning team traveled, shook hands and photographed the presidents of both parties.
However, in Trump’s first term, only one of the four teams that won the Super Bowl visited the White House – at least in part due to verbal attacks on the president’s league, and race A player kneeled during the national anthem to protest the inequality. In 2018, he stumbled across the Eagles on the eve of a planned trip. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the then white House secretary, publicly tore the organization apart in an attempt to pull “political stunts.” (The NFL Network reported that the Eagles planned to send less than 10 players to the ceremony. Instead, the White House hosted a short, nasty event that it described as an American celebration.)
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An Eagles spokesman wrote a message from USA Today Sports on Monday morning on whether teams have been invited to visit the White House after their recent Super Bowl victory, or if they will join if they are invited. I didn’t reply immediately. And owner Jeffrey Lurie suffered when asked about a hypothetical visit by Front Office Sports last week.
Such decisions generally take place in weeks, sometimes months, after a Super Bowl victory. However, the problem remains unavoidable as Trump was on hand at the Superdome to see the Eagles destroy the Kansas City chief. And no matter where the organization lands, experts said it is clear that the interests of the White House visit have changed.
“Politics today is so polarized that no matter what you do, you will be perceived as supporting a political platform or position,” says historian Frank. Gridi said.
Guridy, author of “Stadium: History of American Politics, Protest and Play,” recalls his 1985 championship visit, with progressive athlete Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and conservative president Ronald Reagan We met. (“I’m not a Republican, but I’m one of his constituents,” Los Angeles Lakers legend said when he gave Reagan a ritual jersey.
Sports become a cultural wedge
For a long time, championship teams visiting the White House were considered their default stance. And the only politicization of the ceremony is that a handful of athletes don’t go, like NFL player Matt Burke, who cited support for parent-child relationships planned by President Barack Obama as a reason to boycott the 2013 trip. It happened when I decided to do that.
“People were invested in the meaning of courtesy and respect in political culture, so even if you don’t agree with Ronald Reagan, you’ll show up on your team,” Guridy said. “That’s not the climate we’re in now.”
During Trump’s first term, the Championship team’s White House visits were more sporadic and split along the sports and gender lines. In a recent reversal of precedent, several championship teams in women’s sports did not receive invitations. And NBA teams whose players are primarily black were not invited or denied attendance.
The NHL’s Florida Panthers are the only team to visit the White House in the weeks since Trump returned. At last week’s ceremony, the president received a framed “Trump 45-47” jersey, repeatedly praised Vinny Viola, the owner of the Panthers, whom Trump chose to be his military secretary for a short period in 2016.
Guridy explained that sports and politics are always intertwined, but a star athlete visit to the White House might be considered an implicit recognition of presidential policies in a way that was not previously. .
Tom Knecht, a professor of political science at Westmont University, believes this may at least reflect, in part, the way Trump approached sports while he was in office.
“Most presidents use sports as a way of uniting a nation of sorts, a way of talking about things that are certainly less divisive than border policy and tariffs,” says Knecht. “And Trump is one of the few presidents who actually use sports to report on political superiority.”
In a study published in his blog, Knecht analyzed and categorized the various methods of the US president since Teddy Roosevelt spoke about sports during his tenure. He has most commonly used sports to dress up American people and create large points about American ideals, but Trump has made them cultural wedges or policy goals. I discovered that I would be more willing to use it as a means of.
For example, last week, Trump signed an executive order seeking to ban trans athletes from participating in women’s sports as part of a widespread attack on LGBTQ rights and initiatives that support diversity, equity and inclusion. .
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Knecht believes Trump’s politicization of sport means that he will continue to face scrutiny about how the team and athletes interact with him, including a visit to the White House.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” Knecht said. “How many times can you visit the White House and represent your team?
Political situations could change team visits forever
However, when asked about the long-term future of the championship team’s traditional White House visit, Knecht said he views the next four years as an era of temporary uncertainty.
Guridy, on the other hand, is not so sure. He would view Trump’s second term as a byproduct of the political climate of victory at all costs that lasted decades, and perhaps completely alter or amend the ritual visit.
“Maybe the White House visit will continue, but it’s Peter out because it’s politically problematic for the president. Or, certain leagues are in line with the administration and others won’t. It’s going to be,” Guridy said.
“I don’t think it’s a blip. I’m not really. I think it is. But I don’t think so.”
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or social media @tomschad.bsky.social.