‘It’s quite an honor.’ Chiefs open to visiting White House after winning Super Bowl
The Kansas City Chiefs are NFL champions after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 Sunday night in Super Bowl LIV.
With the title comes numerous perks, including a potential invitation to visit President Donald Trump at the White House.
While the Philadelphia Eagles were among numerous professional teams to skip such a visit or be dis-invited by the current administration, it doesn’t sound like the Chiefs would be among that list should the invitation come.
“I haven’t thought about that,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I mean, I’ll be there. So, if they’re inviting us, I’ll be here. … It’s quite an honor.”
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill agreed.
“That would be great to go to the White House,” Hill said. “I’ve never been to (Washington) D.C., so that would be great.”
Pro teams and collegiate national championship teams have traditionally accepted an invitation to meet the President.
What has been typically viewed as a high honor, though, has taken a turn since 2016 under the current administration.
The Eagles were originally invited after securing a championship but were later dis-invited (uninvited?) when reports surfaced that many members of the Super Bowl LII-winning team would not attend.
In the NBA, the Golden State Warriors, winners of back-to-back championships (2017-18), weren’t invited after head coach Steve Kerr and star shooting guard Stephen Curry said they wouldn’t go. The WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx didn’t receive an invitation in 2017 and the Seattle Storm also weren’t invited.
In men’s college basketball, Virginia (2019) and Villanova (2018) didn’t receive invites after winning the NCAA men’s basketball national championship. North Carolina’s 2016 national championship team received an invitation, but didn’t attend. The women’s basketball championship teams of Notre Dame (2018) and South Carolina (2017) weren’t invited.
“It’s a lot of stuff going on surrounding the White House and stuff like that,” defensive end Frank Clark said. “I know historically ... that’s something you do as a Super Bowl champion. But we’ll see, man. It’s a lot of mixed emotions about stuff going on there. We’ll see.”
Ultimately, the Chiefs will need to ultimately make a decision should the White House request their presence. And President Trump even took to Twitter following the Chiefs’ win to extend his congratulations.
As of now, it appears that internal discussions haven’t taken place on how to approach such an invitation.
But the team appears more than open to traveling to the Beltway.
“It’s going to come — we’re Super Bowl champions,” cornerback Bashaud Breeland said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we cross it. We had to get this game down first and now we know got a trip going to the White House.”
Safety Tyrann Mathieu added: “I’m here to represent the Kansas City Chiefs. I think my teammates feel the same way. Any time we get the opportunity to represent Kansas City the right way, represent our teammates the right way, I don’t see any wrong in that.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 1:49 AM with the headline "‘It’s quite an honor.’ Chiefs open to visiting White House after winning Super Bowl."
