Remember in the past when players from championship teams were skipping the visit to the White House when...or even more importantly, because president Obama was our president? I do. The Obama fans didn't like it, but they had to suck it up and deal with it, because, as the narrative went at the time, those players had every right to exercise their right not to go.Let's fast forward to present day America. There is a different president now, and the mood among some has changed.
There are now six players from the Super Bowl champion Patriots who said that they will decline the invitation to the White House. Why they are doing it, of course, is irrelevant. And some of the same folks who celebrated that Tea Party hockey player, Tim Thomas, skipping the White House visit, are now saying that these Patriots are being very unpatriotic. (Pun intended)
Here comes Mitch Albom, who took the time to write a long screed from his high horse about why some of the New England Patriots------ who decided to skip a visit to the White House--- were being "rude".
Mitch must have forgotten when their QB lied and skipped a previous White House visit after one of the Patriot's previous Super Bowl wins.
It's no secret that Brady is a fan of President trump. so we will see what he does this time around. If he chooses to visit his buddy, I won't be mad at him, but I resent writers like Albom criticizing his teammates for not going.
He writes:
"No one is asking them to endorse a candidate. And taking a photo with your nation’s elected leader doesn’t mean you surrender your right to disagree with every single thing he does. That’s the beauty of America. In fact, the visit may give you a rare chance to express your views to the leader himself.
How many photos or congratulations have those players accepted from corporations that exploit workers, CEOs who practice unfair hiring practices, TV hosts who they privately don’t like, etc.? All NFL teams have mandatory events, from charity to corporate, where no excuses for absence are accepted. It’s not like players don’t have to bite their tongue sometimes.
Besides, since most presidential elections are about 50-50, I’m guessing half the athletes who have visited the White House over the years didn’t vote for the man occupying it. So what? You can respect the office. The tradition. The reverence of our flawed but still-beautiful democratic system.
But we live in a world where declaring is easier than doing, and Twitter posts pass for social action. So turning down an invitation — by tweeting or doing an interview — gets you celebrated. You don’t need to actually do anything to make the country better. You don’t even need to leave the couch." [Source]
"And you don't have to leave the comfort of your home while you pound away at your computer keys to make yourself seem like a righteous crusader, when in fact you are nothing but a phony and a
fraud.
*Pic from imdb.com
