Posted on 02/13/2017 3:48:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
The former NFL tight end makes a pretty solid point
When the Patriots make their trip to the White House later this year, there are going to be quite a few faces missing.
In the eight days since New England won Super Bowl LI, a total of six players have said that they're not going to take the trip to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump.
If you're like me and scoring at home, here is the current list of players who won't be attending the White House ceremony: Devin McCourty, Martellus Bennett, Chris Long, Dont'a Hightower, LeGarrette Blount and Alan Branch.
That's more than 10 percent of the Patriots active roster. By this time next week, it will probably be easier to list the players who are going.
The players who aren't going have made it clear that they're against Trump and his politics, which is exactly why they should go, according to Tony Gonzalez.
The CBS Sports analyst thinks that every Patriots player should attend the White House ceremony for one very interesting reason: They can voice their displeasure to Trump right to his face.
"If you've got a problem, go there and meet him. Say something. That's your opportunity to get your voice out there. To get heard," Gonzalez recently told TMZ. "When people are like, 'I would never talk to him, I would never go.' That's silly, how do you expect to move forward if you don't go."
That being said, Gonzalez is well aware that the president probably wouldn't listen if several players were to complain.
"You have a chance to go talk to him to tell him what's on your mind, maybe he'll listen. Probably not, but maybe he'll listen," Gonzalez said.
The former Chiefs and Falcons tight end never got a chance to visit the White House during his 17-year career, which might be a big reason why he thinks passing up on the trip wouldn't be a great idea.
"If they don't want to go, that's their right. For me, I think that's silly," Gonzalez said.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft doesn't seem to care that six players will be ditching out on the the White House visit. During a Monday interview on Today, Kraft said it happens all the time.
"This is our fifth Super Bowl in the last 16 years and every time we've had the privilege of going to the White House, a dozen of our players don't go," Kraft told Matt Lauer. "This is the first time it's gotten any media attention."
Actually, that's not completely true, Mr. Kraft. After the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX, Tom Brady decided to skip out on the team's White House visit, and that made plenty of headlines at the time.
This time around, there's going to be even more headlines if more and more players continue to drop out.
President Trump should invite some wounded veterans to come meet the Patriots and take the place of the immature buttthurt jerks
LeGarrette Blount?
Oh, the tough, strong, cowardly black who likes to sucker-punch defenseless, white men?
That LeGarrette Blount? My guess is that he is afraid of the President! LOL
One of my favorites, along with Johnny Callison who had a homer in an All-Star game to win it, iirc
Listened to it while sipping Ballentine
It’s neat having the boxscores available at baseball-reference.com.
In 1964 Gene Mauch usually batted Richie Allen and Johnny Callison second and third in the line-up, the order depending on whether a rightie or leftie were pitching. E.g., if a rightie’s pitching, bat Callison (a leftie) third, Allen (a rightie) second.
So Mauch was ahead of his time in regularly batting one of his best homerun hitters second.
He’s one of my favorites too.
See Post # 25 for additional info.
You mean, Real Hero vs Fake “hero”?
To me, the football players are champions of their particular sport. I don’t deride them for their choice of profession nor do I envy them for their spectacular salaries. But in reality, the military people are genuine heroes.
How was Brady an idiot?
He didn’t want to go because Obama was president then. I wouldn’t want to see Obama either.
Bing on a championship team doesn’t mean you are a champ!
[I wouldn’t want to see Obama either.]
Right there with ya brother.
Fine by me that they don’t go; I hope they don’t. A few decades from now, when their glory days are over, and they’ve likely been long forgotten, they’ll be sitting in their rocking chairs, wishing they had the memory to bore their grandkids with.
Or wounded warriors from Walter Reed.
some name for that team, huh? Patriots? HAAA!!!!
Someone should sue them for that one. Make it the FauXPatriots. Their egos are as inflated as or deflated as Brady’s ‘balls.
Brady and Belichik are going, that is all that matters.
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