Cites ‘Personal Family Matters’
Tom Brady will not join his teammates today when the Patriots are honored for their Super Bowl win with a reception at the White House. Five other players announced earlier they would not attend the event with President Trump, some saying they wanted to be able to tell their children they did the right thing.
“I am so happy and excited that our team is being honored at the White House today,” Brady said in a statement, reported by local Boston CBS affiliate WBZ’s reporter Dan Roche. “Our team has accomplished something very special that we are all proud of and will be for years to come. Thank you to the President for hosting this honorary celebration and for supporting our team for as long as I can remember. In light of some recent developments, I am unable to attend today’s ceremony, as I am attending to some personal family matters. Hopefully, if we accomplish the goal of winning a championship in the future years, we will [be] back on the South Lawn again soon. Have a great day!”
And while this is not the first time Brady has decided to not attend a White House reception, his absence is extraordinary, given he is the team’s quarterback, and a long-time friend of Trump. Last year a photo of a Trump “Make America Great Again” campaign hat inside his locker went viral. Brady refused to say if he voted for Trump.
In a Tuesday article POLITICO reports:
On Wednesday, the Patriots are scheduled to appear at the White House, the first championship team Trump will host. And when the president stands with the team for their photo op, there will be no shortage of competing political messages. Since the Super Bowl, which was played 16 days after the inauguration, several players—most notably Devin McCourty and Chris Long—have announced that they will not make the trip for political reasons. (They participated in a video recently discussing their decision.) The Patriots, and the NFL, too, have found themselves unavoidably linked with a divisive political moment. The league will sell patriotism, Trump will sell himself as a winner, and the absent players will be hailed by the Trump resistance.
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