The Philadelphia Eagles are set to visit the White House on Monday afternoon following their Super Bowl LIX victory. The event is set to begin at 4 p.m. EDT.
President Donald Trump, who in February became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl, extended the invitation shortly after the Eagles’ 40-22 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I thought it was a great performance by them,” Trump said. “They deserve to be down here and we hope to see them.”
The visit marks a shift from the Eagles’ first Super Bowl victory in 2018, when the Eagles did not visit the White House during Trump’s first term following reports that the Eagles planned to only send a small contingent on the visit. Trump later canceled the visit, saying in a statement at the time that some team members disagreed with his view that they “proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart.” The team never confirmed that as a reason for the cancellation.
During his annual news conference at the end of league meetings, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said “there was no reticence whatsoever” in accepting this year’s invitation from the White House.
“To be celebrated at the White House is a good thing,” Lurie said. “There were special circumstances back then that were very different, and so this was kind of an obvious choice and look forward to it. When you grow up and you hear about, ‘Oh, the championship team got to go to the White House,’ that’s what this is. And so we didn’t have that opportunity and now we do. I think we’re all looking forward to it.”
A player’s decision to attend remains optional.
“Our culture is that these are optional things,” Lurie said. “If you want to enjoy this, come along and we’ll have a great time and if you don’t, it is totally an optional thing.”
Public reactions from players have been mixed. During an interview at the Time 100 Gala, quarterback Jalen Hurts was non-committal, hesitating and failing to give an answer when asked if he will be visiting the White House. Running back Saquon Barkley defended himself after personally visiting the White House and playing golf with Trump on Sunday before the visit.
“Some people are really upset cause I played golfed and flew to the White House with the PRESIDENT,” Barkley wrote in a post to X. “Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand. Just golfed with Obama not too long ago…and look forward to finishing my round with Trump! Now ya get out my mentions with all this politics and have amazing day.”
The Associated Press and White House will stream coverage of the event on their YouTube pages.
(Photo: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
