Diplomatic Jeffrey Lurie Talks Eagles White House Visit

The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will visit The White House on April 28th and Jeffrey Lurie answered some questions about that on Tuesday:

Q: The decision to go to the White House to celebrate the Super Bowl, can you take us behind the thinking of that decision? And then you guys didn’t go in 2017 the first time you won the Super Bowl, maybe any differences as to why you’re going? (ESP)

JEFFREY LURIE: We just felt this is a time honored tradition being invited by the White House. So there was no reticence whatsoever. To be celebrated at the White House is a good thing. There were special circumstances back then that were very different, and so this was kind of an obvious choice and (we) 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.

Q: Going back to the last White House visit, before the invitation was (rescinded), I think some players had decided that they would go. Others decided that they wouldn’t go. Do you plan kind of similarly this time on letting players make that decision? (Olivia Reiner)

LURIE: Absolutely. Our culture is that these are optional things. 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.

Q: What do you say to the fans who take offense to embracing the president? (Bo Wulf)

LURIE: This is really just an invitation from the White House. That’s all this is, and we’re not politicizing it in any way. Not for us.

Diplomatic responses from the owner. A sign of emotional intelligence, perhaps. What’s he gonna do, put Kamala Harris endorsement posters at SEPTA bus stops? Heyo!

Lurie plays it down the middle as much one can in this partisan and fractured political world we’re currently living in. What’s more is that he’s leaving this wide open as an optional thing for the players. If you want to go, knock yourself out. And if you don’t want to go, that’s fine also. It would be nice if he elaborated more on the “special circumstances” of 2018, though we can do our best to put two and two together. Objectively speaking, things were a total shit show back then. 2018: “The Waffling.” The Eagles were invited, then uninvited. You had the Colin Kaepernick kneeling controversy, Eric Reid killing Malcolm Jenkins for being a “sellout,” and people attacking Jimmy Kempski’s “racist” stick figures. The guy from the Kia of West Chester commercials would say it was craaaazy! But here we are now with a second bite at the White House photo op cherry, and the Birds accepted. Maybe there are just more Republicans in this locker room? Does it even matter? Don’t know, don’t care, go Birds!

disclaimer: this is not a political post. whether you’re a bleeding heart lib or a MAGA, you’d better be cheering for the Birds

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