With boycotting Patriots players, White House visits no longer routine
The Super Bowl champion Patriots were scheduled to make the traditional White House visit Wednesday, at a uniquely volatile moment in the brief-but-colorful history of White House championship visits. More than in any other year, every team visit now carries social, cultural and political weight into a happening that’s ordinarily as Mom-and-apple-pie as it gets.
As of Tuesday, six Patriots players had announced they're not going. Four of them — Martellus Bennett, LeGarrette Blount, Devin McCourty and Chris Long — have directly or indirectly given the presence of Donald Trump as president as their reason.
This comes three months after the Cubs made their post-World Series visit far earlier than customaryso they could meet with then-President Barack Obama before he left office, four days before Trump's inauguration.
And that follows the Cavaliers’ NBA championship visit in November. Before the trip, Richard Jefferson went on Snapchat to claim his team would be "the last team to visit the White House." Afterward, Iman Shumpert told Complex magazine that, if the Cavs win this season, he will not go back.
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