Over 50 Philadelphia Eagles gamers and members of the group visited President Donald Trump on the White Home on Monday to have fun the group’s Tremendous Bowl victory towards the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.
Donald Trump praised the group on their efficiency all through the season, and confirmed assist for the controversial “tush push” or “brotherly shove” play that has helped the Birds offense for a number of seasons.
“They’re speaking about eliminating that play, I perceive. They need to preserve it … I prefer it. It’s type of thrilling and completely different,” he mentioned in entrance of a crowd on the White Home South Garden.
There had been hypothesis about which gamers would and wouldn’t attend the ceremony for the reason that White Home revealed the date for it final month. Crew proprietor Jeffrey Lurie informed press on the NFL’s annual league assembly that the go to can be non-obligatory for gamers.
Hours earlier than the occasion it was reported that Eagles quarterback and Tremendous Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts was not going to be there. Different gamers who had been on the Tremendous Bowl roster who had been absent from the White Home go to included extensive receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, the recently-retired Brandon Graham, Zack Baun, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, CJ Gardner Johnson, Quinyon Mitchell, Darius Slay and Nolan Smith. The White Home cited “scheduling conflicts” as the explanation for the absences.
In his speech, President Trump praised Hurts for his efficiency throughout the season, however didn’t point out his absence on the ceremony. Final week, Hurts gave an unclear response when requested by Time Journal.
The Birds’ star operating again and the league’s speeding chief, Saquon Barkley, was in attendance, having traveled to Washington D.C. and the White Home the day earlier than aboard Air Power One. Barkley had spent Sunday enjoying golf with and visiting the president at his Bedminster, N.J., golf membership.
“I provided him a experience on Air Power One, as a result of I used to be coming down. And normally they are saying, ‘No, no. I don’t assume so.’ He mentioned, ‘I’ll take it, sir.’ And he liked it,” Trump mentioned.
Barkley responded to the reactions about his go to with a put up on his X account this morning. “Possibly I simply respect the workplace, not a tough idea to know,” Barkley wrote. “Simply golfed with Obama not too way back … and stay up for ending my spherical with Trump! Now ya get out my mentions with all this politics and have wonderful day [SIC].”
Non-political (principally)
Trump, too, stayed optimistic.
“You made the Eagles followers in all places actually very proud,” Trump mentioned. “And whether or not they had been an Eagle fan or not, they had been proud to look at a group of such nice energy and dominance.”
Trump singled out a number of different gamers with reward for his or her function within the group’s Tremendous Bowl run, together with Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Lane Johnson, Reed Blankenship and Cooper DeJean. He additionally singled out head coach Nick Sirianni, basic supervisor Howie Roseman, and chief safety officer Domenico “Huge Dom” DiSandro.
The heightened curiosity in White Home attendance is pushed by latest historical past. The group didn’t go to after its first Tremendous Bowl victory in 2018 — throughout President Trump’s first time period and amidst the on-field protests towards police brutality and systemic racism by Colin Kaepernick and different gamers. When many distinguished gamers introduced they deliberate to boycott the occasion, the White Home withdrew the invitation the day earlier than the occasion.
The NFL Community reported on the time that Lurie was nonetheless planning to ship a small contingent of gamers when the invitation was pulled again. The White Home as an alternative had a ceremony with remarks from the president on the South Garden to a gaggle of purported Eagles followers.
This time round, Trump invited Lurie to say a couple of phrases throughout the ceremony.
“Thanks, Mr. President. You understand, it’s really an honor to be right here,” Lurie mentioned “I bear in mind as somewhat boy the championship groups that got here to the White Home and I by no means dreamed we’d be capable to have a group and be pretty much as good as this, and this was a dominant group with unimaginable tradition.
“All the things all of us imagine in as the perfect human values — selflessness, humility, teamwork, expertise, self-discipline, every little thing that all of us try for — this group included. So thanks for the hospitality in the present day, and go Birds!”
The ceremony had all the standard hallmarks of a Birds celebration: a couple of rounds of Invoice Conti’s “Gonna Fly Now,” “The Eagles’ Victory Tune,” a number of E-A-G-L-E-S chants and no less than one “Dallas sucks” from the viewers.
President Trump invited the group into the Oval Workplace after the ceremony. Earlier than going to the White Home, the group visited The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery, The Inquirer reported.
The president’s speech veered from sports activities barely within the center when he acknowledged some members of his cupboard, together with Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi, who obtained plaudits from the president for her TV appearances earlier within the day.
Whereas the remarks had been decidedly non-political, there have been nonetheless parts of the president’s insurance policies. The White Home garden Monday morning was lined with roughly 100 posters, displaying unnamed faces of arrested unauthorized immigrants, itemizing costs together with “first-degree homicide,” “sexual abuse of a kid,” “kidnapping and rape,” and “distribution of fentanyl” beneath their pictures. Leavitt and the administration’s Border czar Tom Homan gave a press briefing on securing the border.