Last week, the Georgia Bulldogs officially announced that they were declining their invitation from United States President Joe Biden to visit the White House in celebration of their second consecutive College Football Playoff national title due to a scheduling conflict. The decision led to quite a stark comparison between Biden and former United States President Donald Trump.
As Essentially Sports points out, the Georgia Bulldogs were the first team to decline an invitation to visit the White House from Joe Biden. Meanwhile, former United States President Donald Trump saw many, many more rejections throughout his time in office.
“In the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, 20 major league sports teams won the championship, but only ten of those teams visited the White House. President Trump refused to invite some of the teams, but many of these teams made it clear that they would not have visited his White House even if they had been invited, although criticized by many. Furthermore, many players for teams that attended events at the White House boycotted the festivities,” Elizabeth Walker wrote for The Fieldston News.
These rejections included the Golden States Warriors, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the North Carolina Tar Heels. And when the Washington Capitals visited the White House in 2019, several players chose not to attend with their teammates.
Additionally, there were several teams that were not invited by Trump but made it clear that they would not attend even if they were – like the Seattle Storm of the WNBA in 2018 or the Virginia Cavaliers in 2019. The 2018 Warriors, who were not invited after making it clear they were not willing to attend, instead met with former United States President Barack Obama instead during a team trip to Washington D.C.
[Essentially Sports, The Fieldston News, Business Insider]
