This time around, the Super Bowl champion Eagles happily would swoop by the White House.
After a rumour began circulating this week – based on a U.S. Sun report that came out before the big game even took place – that the Philadelphia Eagles would snub a potential invite from President Donald Trump, the report has been shot down as fake news.
According to numerous NFL insiders, the champs would love to go to the White House, with a team source saying they would be “honoured” to accept the invite.
“We would be honoured to visit the White House,” SI’s Albert Breer posted on X on Monday. “It’s one of the things we had looked forward to doing and we look forward to receiving the invitation.”
However, the invite has yet to actually be extended from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
According to the New York Post, the invites to the Super Bowl champs “haven’t even gone out,” a White House official said.
Getting invited to the White House is a long-standing tradition for championship teams in the U.S., with the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers making the stop earlier this year and becoming the first team to meet with Trump during his second term as president.
The earlier report that the Eagles would skip a potential celebration in the U.S. capital held water based on history. When the team won the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 2018, several players opted not to attend, citing Trump’s comments about players who protested during the national anthem in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The White House then rescinded the invitation the night before the visit was scheduled, despite the team planning to send a contingency of players and personnel.
Of the 2018 championship squad, only four players remain on the team: Jake Elliott, Rick Lovato, Brandon Graham and Lane Johnson.
The report in the U.S. Sun claimed that a player said that “pretty much everyone” decided they would refuse to meet the president and that a member of the ownership group said: “We focus on the game for now, but if we win the Super Bowl, we wouldn’t go to the White House.”
The news went viral this week, causing uproar among many U.S. conservatives.
Megyn Kelly expressed her disgust for the purported snub, ripping the team on X.
“SAME. GO F YOURSELVES EAGLES. My husband is a fan so I got onboard but F this BS,” she wrote in response to a since-deleted tweet from a user with the handle ‘Toxic Cowboy’ wrote.
“Wish I had known this before the Super Bowl. I wouldn’t have wasted my time rooting for them. Eagles fan? Your team sucks,” the original tweet read.