President Donald Trump has withdrawn an invitation to the White House for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Usually, a sports team that has won a world title visits the sitting president and shares a few jokes, drops off a jersey, shakes hands, takes a few pictures, and heads on their merry way. Since Trump has taken over, things have been much different.

Eagles nixed

According to a USA Today report, with less than 24 hours before President Donald Trump was to welcome the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles to the White House, Trump has rescinded the invitation as of early Monday evening (June 4).

Since Trump has taken over as president, several players from various teams have refused to visit the Oval Office because of their own beliefs, and or personal disagreement with the president. However, this isn’t the first time that the president has flat out called off meeting with a team.

Trump also canceled a meeting with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors back in 2017. The Eagles, like many other teams before them, had several players that were vocal on not attending the White House ceremony, including safety Malcolm Jennings and defensive end Chris Long. Both Jenkins and Long were among several players who voiced support for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016 began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality.

Trump press release

In a statement released just hours ago, CNN reports that Trump is terminating the meeting between himself and the Eagles team because they do not see eye to eye on standing for the national anthem.

"The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come to the White House with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow," Trump said in a statement.

"They disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country. The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better. [sic]"

While many agreed with Kaepernick when he first took a knee, it seems now different views have formed about players who have decided to join-in on kneeling during the American anthem, causing a divide between players, coaches, fans, and team ownership.

No matter what your stance is on the subject, this story surely seems like it will be front and center once again in 2018. With the NFL adding a new rule that will include penalizing a team that has players kneeling during the anthem, it is going to be interesting to see how this story plays out. In this day and age, one would think both sides could express their opinions and find some common ground. Hopefully, we are getting closer to that, not just in standing for the national anthem, but with all of our problems in general.
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