Over the weekend, a rumor spread like wildfire on social media. The rumor: that the Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, had turned down an invitation to appear at the Trump White House. From what I can see, this was never confirmed by any news outlet and it was likely started by a British tabloid several weeks ago. That didn’t stop MAGAville from screaming and crying about how the Eagles are disrespecting Nazis and how they should be ashamed of themselves. Except… the whole thing was based on a lie. The Eagles apparently haven’t been invited to the White House and they absolutely haven’t rejected an invitation.
A Philadelphia Eagles trip to the White House may still be in the works. Over the weekend, online chatter blew up over a report from The Sun earlier this month that the Super Bowl champions had given the White House a “massive no” in response to an invitation to the White House to honor the victory.
But a White House official granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks confirmed to POLITICO that the report is false, and that the team had not rejected an invitation. The White House has not sent an official invitation to the Super Bowl LIX winner, the official confirmed.
Spokespeople for the Eagles did not immediately respond to questions from POLITICO about a potential team visit to the White House.
After the report picked up on X, MAGA personalities, Joe Biden diehards and pop culture outlets both criticized and celebrated the news. Former Fox News personality Megyn Kelly led talks in shunning the team. Kelly reposted a post from an account titled “Toxic Cowboy,” saying they would not have supported the team if they’d known about the Sun report that the White House official said is inaccurate. “SAME. GO F YOURSELVES EAGLES. My husband is a fan so I got onboard but F this BS,” Kelly wrote.
Conservative radio host Eric Metaxas echoed Kelly’s sentiment calling it “disgraceful and shameful,” saying he “cannot again root for a team like this — and now I’m sorry I did.”
Those about-faces from purported Eagles fans drew a raised eyebrow from Philadelphia Inquirer editorial writer Daniel Pearson, who noted that “there is no Philadelphia sports fan who puts the love of an American President over their love of the Eagles, no matter which President.”
A “club source” in Philly also told the Outkick that “We would be honored to visit the White House. It’s one of the things we had looked forward to doing, and we look forward to receiving the invitation.” As in, the White House still hasn’t invited anyone. An invitation probably won’t happen unless the Eagles publicly pledge fealty in some way, or make it known that they would show up en masse. And that’s the thing, isn’t it? While the Eagles management might be open to a White House invite, they can’t guarantee that all of the players will be so jazzed. Would Jalen Hurts go to the Trump White House if he was invited? And if he did, would that ruin his athlete-brand? Hilariously, Trump was rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs because there are so many MAGA people within the Chiefs organization. There would have been zero stalling if the Chiefs had won – they would have been at the White House within a week.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
