Speaking Tuesday morning to Mike Florio on "Pro Football Talk Live," Patriots quarterback Tom Brady gave no hint about whether he would attend a Trump White House celebration of his team’s Super Bowl title but said he isn’t bothered if some of his teammates skip it, just as he did in 2015 when Barack Obama was president.
"Everybody has their own choice," Brady said. "There’s certain years, like a couple years ago, I wanted to go and didn’t get the opportunity based on the schedule – we didn’t get told until I think like 10 days before we were going, and at that point I had something I’d been planning for months and couldn’t get there."
Six of Brady’s teammates have said they won’t be visiting President Trump at the White House, a trip that has yet to be scheduled. The Patriots’ last Super Bowl trip took place in April 2015, more than two months after they defeated the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Brady cited a "family commitment" as the reason he could not attend but said Tuesday that politics had nothing to do with it.
"It really is a great experience," Brady said. "Putting politics aside, it never was a political thing. At least, it never was to me. It meant you won a championship and you got to experience something cool with your team, with your teammates. Everyone has their own choice. It’s an offseason. These days are valuable for everybody. You only get so much time with your family and friends, and if people don’t want to go they don’t want to go and that’s their choice."
As Florio notes, Brady visited the George W. Bush White House after his first three Super Bowl titles with New England and also took part in a celebration of Michigan’s co-national championship in 1997 at the Bill Clinton White House. But the quarterback has long shown admiration for President Trump, making his decision this year one of the more intriguing guessing games of the young NFL offseason.
Photos of Chicago sports teams visiting the White House through the years.
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