On Tuesday, the most recent Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, had previously been set to visit the White House, as is tradition for the team who wins the NFL championship. Before that could happen, however, the Trump administration disinvited the team in the face of a reported smaller than normal group of players intending to come to the White House ceremony at all.
The incident comes after an at this point lengthy history of tension between the Trump administration and the NFL. The president took last year to harshly criticizing players who chose to kneel during the pre-game playing of the national anthem, and he’s maintained that criticism as a talking point since. Taking a knee is meant as a protest against unjust treatment of African Americans.
Ironically, however, not a single Eagles player is reported to have actually peacefully protested during the anthem at any point during the 2017 season.
Even still, the administration didn’t hesitate to disinvite the team, as opposed to using the opportunity to build some kind of dialogue.
In Fox News’ coverage of the whole ordeal, they used an image of Eagles players before a game during the 2017 season, and the players are most certainly not standing in the conventional pose of having their hands over their hearts for the anthem — there’s a good reason for that, though. The anthem wasn’t being played. In the moment the photo captures, the players were participating in a pre-game prayer.
In response, Eagles tight end Zach Ertz tweeted a message reading:
‘This can’t be serious…. Praying before games with my teammates, well before the anthem, is being used for your propaganda?! Just sad, I feel like you guys should have to be better than this…’
Eventually, the network offered an apology for their error. Even still, the report is just yet another example of the network operating in lockstep with President Trump.
Video of the report is below.
President @realDonaldTrump says Philadelphia @Eagles won’t attend @WhiteHouse ceremony amid national anthem dispute https://t.co/QOOUCg68Gd pic.twitter.com/CRHsoE6ArX
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 5, 2018
Ertz is hardly the only one to have so far spoken out about a questionable aspect to the whole debacle.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney was brutally on point with his own comments, saying:
‘Disinviting [the Eagles] from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend. City Hall is always open for a celebration.’
“Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot.”
Philly Mayor Jim Kenney releases statement on White House canceling Eagles visit.https://t.co/M5No2rMKFX pic.twitter.com/weWyiTvjHB
— CBS Philly (@CBSPhilly) June 5, 2018
Democratic U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Bob Casey offered his own invitation to the Eagles, writing on Twitter:
‘I’m skipping this political stunt at the White House and just invited the Eagles to Congress.’
The political stunt Casey refers to doesn’t end with the Eagles being disinvited from the White House; there will still be an event at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. In disturbingly nationalistic fashion, it will consist of those who were previously going to attend the ceremony honoring the Eagles gathering for the playing of the national anthem and other patriotic music.
Going forward, the president got his wishes somewhat realized when it comes to the anthem, with the NFL having recently instituted a policy prohibiting players from taking a knee during the anthem in the 2018 season.
Check out Twitter’s response to Ertz below.
Featured Image via Corey Perrine/Getty Images
