Should Athletes accept White House invitations?
February 21, 2017
Since 1965, it has been a tradition in American sports that every athlete from that years’ championship teams have the honor of going to the White House to visit the president. Despite the once in a lifetime opportunity, not every athlete feels that going to the White House is worth the experience.
The newly crowned college football national champions, the Clemson Tigers, and Super Bowl 51 champions, the New England Patriots are scheduled to have their presidential visit to the White House, but some athletes are electing not to attend the presidential visit.
Going against tradition, six members of the New England Patriots roster are electing not to visit the White House. Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett said in an interview for the NFL Network why he is not attending the White House.
“Trump has many strong opinions and prejudices, I believe he is not the right person running the country,” said Bennett. “I don’t support the man in the house.”
This is not the first time that athletes have refused to meet the president. NFL linebacker James Harrison refused both visits to the White house in 2006 and 2009. This behavior begs the question, should athletes even attend the White House visit?
Last season, when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in response to police brutality and racial discrimination, the discussion of athlete’s involvement in politics began. This spawned the movement of athletes all over the league taking suit and doing the same.
As much as meeting the president is one of the biggest opportunities that any U.S. citizen can have, at the end of the day, what is the purpose of it? It serves no purpose other than a public relations move for the president to meet a championship team, while also getting the team’s jersey with his name on the back.
The fact is there is no real benefit for the players to meet a person for whom they probably didn’t vote for and with whom they don’t share the same political views. Meeting the president is not the reason why they perform their best in their sport. They perform their best to win league championships and for nothing more. Visiting the White House is nothing more than a perk.