Here’s why the Chiefs should say thanks but no thanks to Trump’s White House invite | Opinion
President Donald Trump wants the Kansas City Chiefs to visit the White House to celebrate their 2020 Super Bowl win over San Francisco. According to owner Clark Hunt, the team is interested in accepting the invite.
This week, I asked a team official if the organization had made its decision about the trip but was told nothing has changed since Hunt’s remark at the annual NFL owners meeting last month in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“We’re very honored that the president would think about us, going back to the 2019 season, when we didn’t get to go to the White House,” Clark said March 31 in Florida. “We certainly would like to try to figure out how to make that happen.”
If you ask me, the Chiefs should sit this one out.
Kansas City celebrated the 2019-2020 world champions in grand fashion. I remember standing on Grand Boulevard near The Star’s former iconic brick building and watching the victory parade. The genuine glee die-hard Chiefs fans experienced that season could never be replicated. To witness this city’s joy of winning its first world Super Bowl in 50 years was nothing sort of amazing.
Not even a delayed trip to Washington, D.C., could top that.
Besides, that Super Bowl victory over the 49ers was eons ago. According to The Star’s Jesse Newell, only six players from that 2019-2020 championship team remain: quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, defensive end Chris Jones, defensive tackle Mike Pennel, long-snapper James Winchester and kicker Harrison Butker.
What’s the point in visiting the White House for a reunion all these years later? The Chiefs have won two Super Bowls since, and made the trip to D.C. in 2023 and 2024 after those victories. Of course former President Joe Biden was in office then. Surely, Trump isn’t trying to one-up his predecessor. We all should know by now gamesmanship is firmly embedded in Trump’s DNA.
For the Chiefs to go now would seem like a consolation prize after this year’s demoralizing Super Bowl loss to Philadelphia.
Speaking of Philly, Trump will host the Eagles at the White House on April 28. Last month, Trump told Clay Travis of Outkick.com that the Chiefs would visit the nation’s capital after that. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chiefs were not able to make their customary and rightful visit to the White House in 2020.
“I look forward to having (the) Eagles,” Trump told Travis, according to The Star’s Pete Grathoff. “And one other thing, we’re going to have the Kansas City Chiefs after that because they missed their turn because of COVID.”
After the Chiefs’ loss to the Eagles in this year’s big game, the timing of this potential White House visit would be awful. It would also be a logistical nightmare to make travel plans for every member of the 2019-2020 team, many of whom are no longer playing pro ball, or are suiting up elsewhere.
Hunt, the owner, should say thanks but no thanks.
I could get into all the humanitarian issues that I have with this current administration, but for this column I will refrain from too much politics. But the unconscionable attacks Trump has unleashed on minorities, members of the LGBTQ community, immigrants and some of the nation’s most respected civil rights icons aren’t lost on me. And these so-called tariff wars and federal job cuts are wreaking havoc on many Americans’ quality of life.
It would be foolish of me to bury my head in the sand and stick exclusively to sports for this piece. But my reservations about the Chiefs’ visit to the White House are genuinely based on the sporting aspect of this situation.
Visiting the nation’s capitol five years removed from winning a Super Bowl title makes little sense. For the sake of Chiefs fans everywhere, the team should politely decline Trump’s invitation.
