Will President Donald Trump invite the Philadelphia Eagles to the White House or won’t he?
That was the question on the minds of many after the Philadelphia Eagles crushed the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl LIX earlier this month.
Turns out he will.
Trump ended the speculation from the Oval Office on Tuesday, saying the winning NFL team would be invited.
“I thought it was a great performance by them,” he said. “And absolutely they’ll be extended that invitation.”
Trump then directed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to offer the invitation “right away,” adding, “We’re gonna do it sometime today.”
While championship teams in major professional and college sports leagues have visited the White House for decades, the traditional visits became more sporadic − and controversial − during Trump’s first term, in part because of public criticism he levied against specific leagues and groups of athletes.
NBA teams, whose players are predominantly Black, either were not invited to visit the White House or declined to attend during Trump’s first term.
For NFL teams, the visits became especially fraught after Trump repeatedly blasted the league and players who kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. Only one of the four teams that won a Super Bowl during Trump’s first term in office made a trip to the White House (the New England Patriots, in 2017).
The Eagles were slated to visit with Trump after their Super Bowl win in 2018 until the White House withdrew its invitation on the eve of the scheduled ceremony. NFL Network reported at the time that Philadelphia had planned to send a contingent of fewer than 10 players to the ceremony, and then-White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders publicly accused the team of trying to pull ‘a political stunt.’
The White House instead hosted a brief, awkward event the next day that it described as a celebration of America. The South Lawn event amounted to the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner and God Bless America and brief remarks from Trump − but no members of the team.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal