To Visit or Not to Visit? That is the Question

To+Visit+or+Not+to+Visit%3F+That+is+the+Question

Gerald Arung-Bate, Staff Writer

One of the lasting traditions in America is the celebration of sports in the White House, a practice which was normalized under Ronald Reagan’s presidency. As tradition goes, the president welcomes champions in a wide array of sports to the White House to honor their individual or team achievement.

The most recent team to be honored at the White House took place in April when the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots attended an event in their honor, hosted by President Trump. This event marked Trump’s first foray into this tradition as president.

However, while teams generally enjoy being honored in the nation’s capital, there is a well-documented history of athletes choosing to skip this celebration of their athletic prowess and mental fortitude for reasons that range from personal to political.

While some athletes have used their absence as a platform to further a political agenda, such as former Ravens center Matt Birk who skipped out of his team’s event in 2013 due to his opposition to abortion and Planned Parenthood: which he associated with President Obama’s administration, others merely skip the White House meet-and-greet to play golf like Michael Jordan did in 1991.

With a new president who seems to buck trends and a very-divided America, an athlete’s decision to attend this event has become a story worthy of endless debate as to whether it matters if an athlete opts out of the event.

To some, meeting with the President is an honor, while others deem any meeting with the President as complicity or even explicitly supporting the President. Robert Kraft, the Patriots’  owner, is a Trump supporter, so his attendance was obvious. However, some high-profile players from New England did not attend, including Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady, who also chose not to attend the event at the White House under President Obama in 2015. According to the Patriots, Brady missed the White House visit in 2015 because he had a previously planned family commitment.

As for this year’s event, players like former Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett made a conscious decision to use this celebration of athletic excellence as a platform to protest and oppose a presidency they, along with many others, disagree with. According to Martellus Bennett’s twitter account, he is skipping the White House celebration because he does not support the president.

While Brady seems to be a player who would just rather not attend the event (is that correct based on what you found for my comment above?), others, like Bennett, are clearly taking a stand, making a point. However, one must ask: for those who wish to make a statement, would it be more effective to meet the new president and have your voice heard?

It will be interesting to see how this story develops in the next year as other teams and individuals are invited to the White House. For all of the athletes who are invited, they must make a decision. Over the past year, several athletes have received flack from their communities for going to the White House, while others seem to have been scared into attending the event for fear of coming off as a divisive player,  a tag that could lead to blackballing, as seems to be the case with quarterback Colin Kaepernick.