By all accounts the Seattle Seahawks had a jolly good time at their White House visit following their rollicking triumph in Super Bowl XLVIII.
They took selfies. They took a tour of the people’s house. They shook hands and joked with the commander in chief. And the commander in chief joked right back.
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“I considered letting Sherman up here to the podium and giving him the mic,” President Obama said. “But we gotta go in a little bit.”
This just in: Richard Sherman, currently in the employ of the San Francisco 49ers, is dubious regarding a White House visit should the team win Super Bowl LIV.
Yes, that’s akin to putting the video review before the touchdown pass. Sherman, one of the 49ers’ elder statesmen, knows that.
““I haven’t thought about it,” he said to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Ostler. “We’ve got a long way between now and then, but I doubt it.”
Hmmm. What could have changed between the Seahawks’ White House visit in 2014 and now?
Oh yeah. That guy.
Ever since Donald Trump moved into the people’s house, the ritual of inviting sports champions to the White House, well, it’s fluid. Let’s go skipping through the years, shall we, to see how Super Bowl champs have regarded White House invitations from the Trump administration.
2019: The New England Patriots took a pass. It was just the fifth time since the tradition began in 1987 that the Super Bowl winners did not visit the White House.
2018: The Philadelphia Eagles were set to visit, but when Trump discovered that 10 Eagles players would not be attending, he disinvited the team.
2017: About a dozen Patriots skipped the White House fete, most notably quarterback Tom Brady who claimed he could not attend due to “personal family matters.” It was the second year in a row that Brady was a no-show.
2016: President Obama welcomed the Denver Broncos to his final Super Bowl winners’ visit. In fairness, two Broncos of note did not attend — cornerback Aqib Talib, who was recovering from a gunshot wound, and quarterback Brock Osweiler, who had rejected the Broncos’ contract offer and signed with the Houston Texans.
