Eagles invited to White House as Super Bowl Champs

By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 

One of the perks of winning the Super Bowl as a team is to visit the White House in Washington, D.C.

At least it always used to be.

The news was first reported by 6ABC, but later confirmed by White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters in an email to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The original invitation was offered back in April to the Eagles, but they stated that they were figuring out the logistics of the event and viewed it as an opportunity not only to be recognized for their on-field accomplishments, but also as a chance "to engage in productive dialogue with the leaders of our country."

Malcolm Jenkins has been a big voice in this opportunity, as he is one of the biggest political voices on the Eagles to begin with. He issued a statement on the visit after the team won Super Bowl LII.

"I don't want to take away from anybody's experience or make it a big distraction. It's a celebratory event, and I want the guys who choose to go or whatever to enjoy that," Jenkins said in February. "Me personally, because it's not a meeting or a sit-down or anything like that, I'm just not interested in the photo op.

"Over the last two years, I've been meeting with legislators, both Republican and Democrat, it don't matter. If you want to meet to talk about events in my community, changing the country, I'm all for that. But this isn't one of those meetings, so I'll opt out of the photo opportunity."

Jenkins, one of the team captains, will be joining his teammates in Washington, but will opt out of the White House visit, as he stated.

This will be the second Super Bowl winning team to visit the White House during President Donald Trump's presidency, following the New England Patriots.

The Eagles are slated to visit the White House and President Trump on June 5.

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