Super Bowl MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts did not visit the White House with his teammates on Monday as the Philadelphia Eagles celebrated their Super Bowl championship with President Donald Trump.
Hurts, who helped lead Philadelphia’s win over the Kansas City Chiefs, did not address why he opted out of the ceremony. White House officials cited “scheduling conflicts” when asked about Hurts’ absence.
Advertisement
Advertisement
The Eagles are the third championship team to visit the White House in recent weeks, following the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the Ohio State football team, which won the CFP national championship.
The visits mark a return to tradition from Trump’s first term, in which several otherwise routine championship visits to the White House didn’t take place due to refused or rescinded invitations and athletes not wanting to be associated with the Trump administration and its policies.
President Donald Trump is flanked by members of the Philadelphia Eagles while celebrating the team’s Super Bowl championship. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The Eagles were among the teams that did not visit Trump’s White House during his first term following the franchise’s Super Bowl championship after the 2017 season.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Several Eagles players from that team reportedly opted not to attend amid Trump’s criticism of NFL players’ protests for social justice reform during pregame renditions of the national anthem. Trump had suggested in a 2017 speech that players who protested during the anthem should be “fired” while suggesting an NFL team owner should “get that son of a b**** off the field right now” if a player “disrespects our flag.”
The Eagles made plans to send a reduced contingent of players amid the opt-outs. Following the news of that plan, Trump rescinded the team’s invitation.
During a news conference on April 1, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie addressed why his team was visiting Trump’s White House on Monday in the context of 2018’s canceled visit
“To be celebrated at the White House is a good thing,” Lurie told reporters. “There were special circumstances back then that were very different, and so this was kind of an obvious choice and look forward to it.
“When you grow up and you hear about, ‘Oh, the championship team got to go to the White House,’ that’s what this is. And so we didn’t have that opportunity and now we do. I think we’re all looking forward to it.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
He also told reporters that attendance by players was optional.
“Our culture is that these are optional things,” Lurie said. “If you want to enjoy this, come along and we’ll have a great time and if you don’t, it is totally an optional thing.”
Hurts, meanwhile, declined to answer last week when asked if he would or would not attend.
Hurts isn’t the first Super Bowl-winning quarterback to miss a White House visit. Tom Brady missed multiple trips to the White House after winning Super Bowls with the New England Patriots.
Brady did not attend New England’s visit to the Trump White House after the Patriots won the Super Bowl following the 2016 season. Several of Brady’s Patriots teammates also skipped that trip. The Patriots didn’t visit the White House after winning the Super Bowl following the 2018 season.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Brady also missed a White House visit in 2015 when Barack Obama was president, citing a scheduling conflict with “something I’d been planning for months.”
Brady attended previous Patriots White House celebrations when George W. Bush was president and celebrated Michigan’s 1997 national championship at the White House with President Bill Clinton. He also visited the White House and President Joe Biden after leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl title after the 2021 season.
Star running back Saquon Barkley did attend the ceremony and spent the Sunday before the celebration playing golf with Trump. Barkley drew criticism for the golf outing, to which he responded Monday on social media, citing his “respect” for the office as his reason to do so.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Barkley stood near the presidential podium during Monday’s ceremony and shared a handshake with Trump as Trump spoke glowingly about the Eagles running back and his 2024 season that earned NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors.
More than 40 members of the team including Lane Johnson, Cooper DeJean, Lurie and head coach Nick Sirianni flanked Trump during the ceremony. Trump did not mention Hurts during his speech, but did note Hurts’ signature goal-line play, the tush push.
Johnson, Sirianni and Lurie each spoke briefly at the podium after being invited by Trump, with each declaring “go birds.”
The Eagles then presented Trump with an autographed helmet.
