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The door is ostensibly open for the Philadelphia Eagles to visit the White House after winning the Super Bowl. Unlike last time.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, President Donald Trump confirmed the Eagles would be extended an invitation, praised their performance against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, then requested a staffer take care of the invitation.
“They will be [invited], we haven’t yet, but we will be. I thought it was a great performance by them and absolutely they’ll be extended an invitation. Would you do that right away by the way? We’ll do it right away, we’re going to do it sometime today. They deserve to be down here and we hope to see them.”
The Eagles have already said they will go if invited. There is history between the team and president, though, and not just because he picked the Chiefs to win because he liked Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany.
The Eagles were one of many teams to clash with Trump over a White House visit during his first administration. There was some talk about setting up a visit in the wake of their win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, but that went up in flames in June 2018, and the catalyst remains some matter of debate.
Trump’s White House first announced it was rescinding the Eagles’ invitation, with Trump himself claiming it was due to the team remaining in the locker room during the national anthem, back when that was one of the NFL’s most contentious issues.
While some Eagles players had criticized the NFL’s policy requiring players to stand on the field for the anthem, there were no known instances of players remaining in the locker room for the anthem that season. (They did do so two years later, though.)
A subsequent ESPN report revealed the Eagles had only planned to send a small contingent, with five or fewer players, to meet with Trump and that most, if not all, of the team’s Black players were opting out.
Trump’s White House continued to double down, claiming the Eagles “abandoned their fans” while Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, invited the team to Congress for an alternative event.
The Eagles have undergone significant changes since that incident, with a new head coach in Nick Sirianni and only four players left over from the Super Bowl LII team: right tackle Lane Johnson, defensive end Brandon Graham, kicker Jake Elliott and long snapper Jake Lovato.
Owner Jeffrey Lurie remains, however. He declined to answer when asked if the team would be open to a White House visit before Super Bowl LIX, saying he wanted to win first. His team most certainly did that with a 40-22 pounding of the Chiefs, and it was later reported the Eagles were indeed open to making the trip.