The Eagles Nation Twitter account kicked up a hornet’s nest on Sunday night after sharing this three-week old, pre-Super Bowl article from a British tabloid:

There’s been no official confirmation that the Eagles are going or aren’t going to the White House, or that an invite was even extended.*

The notable, post-Super Bowl White House reporting is from Sportico, in which Lane Johnson, Josh Sweat, and Zack Baun are quoted:

Eagles captain and right tackle Lane Johnson says the decision to go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue if offered will come down to a team vote. “I’d be honored to go, regardless of who the president is, but we’ll see. It’s ultimately a team decision. I’ll do what’s best for the team.”

…

“It’s a great honor, but I’m looking forward to this (championship) parade more than anything,” Eagles defensive end Josh Sweat said after the game.

…

“I feel like it’s something that the teams have always done,” Eagles linebacker Zack Baun said. “I’m excited for any opportunity to celebrate this win.”

The thing about the White House visit is that they’re gonna piss off someone no matter what they end up doing. If they go to the White House, they’ve upset the liberal portion of the fan base, which thinks Trump is a big ‘ole piece of shit. If they don’t go the White House, they’ve angered conservative fans and insulted their President.

So naturally you ask yourself is there’s a third option here, which is one of neutrality. Is there a way to navigate this without it becoming a partisan political issue and/or distracting dog and pony show?


Sort of, theoretically.

Lane touches on it when he talks about being “honored to go, regardless of the who the president is,” and that’s how we used to look at sports trips to the White House. It didn’t matter if a Republican or Democrat was in office at the time, because it wasn’t a political event. It was a championship team being received in Washington for the purpose of recognition and honor. When the Phillies were welcomed by President Obama, he didn’t talk about anything political, maybe one side comment about he himself being a general election underdog, but it was relatively straightforward and fair. It was his first year in office and we were coming through a bad recession, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just been taken over by the government and the roots of the Occupy Wall Street movement were burgeoning underground. He could have spun off in a number of directions and mentioned any of those things but kept the focus on the assembled team and the coaching staff.

The thing about Trump is that even if the Birds go down there with the idea of accepting a White House honor and participating in an apolitical event, there’s no guarantee that he handles it that way. Like him or not, we can all agree that the President is a wild card and liable to steer off the road and into any topic. Then you’ve got a bunch of guys standing there on the steps while he rambles about God-knows-what.

Certainly there were left-leaning players who visited the George W. Bush White House and right-leaning players who visited Obama’s White House, but there was no concern about those events going sideways because those Presidents kept things relatively simple and kept their comments on topic.

Another question is about the political makeup of the locker room. Back in 2018, when the Eagles won it the first time, Malcolm Jenkins was the team leader on the left, based primarily on his support for Colin Kaepernick and the kneeling controversy that was big news back then. There were plenty of players and coaches on that side of the political aisle. But Doug Pederson and others wanted to go, the head coach saying “I was looking forward to going down and being recognized as world champions. It is what it is.” The thing about the aftermath is that fans and media did not seem to make a big deal about it, which was a nice surprise. It was in the news cycle for a few weeks then focus shifted to the 2018 regular season and people forgot about the White House controversy entirely. They moved on to other things, like arguing whether or not the Eagles should get rid of Carson Wentz entirely and make Nick Foles QB1.

Ahead of a possible White House visit, having the players vote probably makes the most sense. They make a team decision and stick with it. It would be stupid to only send the guys who want to go, while the ones who don’t want to go stay home. That feels like it would be a net negative and provide a lot of fodder for the partisan grifters of this world. Whatever they do, they should do it together.

The other thing to consider is if they’ll even get an invitation. There’s nothing to guarantee they’ll even be asked back to the White House after the way things turned out eight years ago. There’s nothing out there suggesting that Trump even wants them there. If that’s what ends up happening, it might actually be the best-case scenario, because then you don’t even have to make a decision. You just move on to the next thing and accept that we won’t get that White House photo op, at least not until 2029, when the Birds hammer their next Super Bowl opponent.

disclaimer: this IS a political post, but it’s fair. we’re all adults and should be able to talk about these kinds of topics without getting all offended and acting like humongous pussies

*EDIT – here’s reporting from TMZ saying that no invite has been extended yet, so the third option may still be in play: