Tom Brady was a part of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ visit to the White House on Tuesday — ending a streak of the quarterback skipping out on the tradition of meeting with the president whenever his team win a championship.
Brady hadn’t participated in a White House celebration since 2005, when President George W. Bush was in office. The 43-year-old chose not to attend the event after the New England Patriots won it all in 2015 and 2017. New England also won in 2019, but the team elected to not visit the White House.
In 2015, Brady caught flak for having a red Make America Great Again hat in his locker. He was questioned whether he supported Donald Trump, a topic the quarterback often avoided.
In 2020, Brady told radio host Howard Stern he grew “uncomfortable” being connected to Trump. Trump asked him to speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention, but Brady turned him down.
Brady never openly endorsed Trump politically, saying they were only friends.
“Then the whole political aspect came, and I think I got brought into a lot of those things because it was so polarizing around the election time. It was uncomfortable for me, because you can’t — and not that I would undo a friendship — but the political support is so different than support of a friend,” Brady said last year. “I didn’t want to get into the political thing.”
The Buccaneers’ trip to the White House on Tuesday was the first time a Super Bowl-winning team met with the president since April 2017, when the Patriots met with Trump.
Brady has won a total of seven Super Bowls and this marked his fourth time showing up for a White House celebration.
Champs, where champs belong! pic.twitter.com/udO8FJCXad
— Scott Smith (@ScottSBucs) July 20, 2021
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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