Some Patriots players are redefining the team’s image by boycotting a White House visit

Following their wild, come-from-behind Super Bowl win last week, six Patriots players have said they won’t go to the White House if President Donald Trump invites the team. The invite seems more like a “when” than an “if,” however, given that the leader of the free world can’t seem to get through a speech without bragging about being friends with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Martellus Bennett was the first player who said he wouldn’t go to Washington if the Patriots won because he doesn’t “support the guy that’s in the [White] House.” Devin McCourty followed suit, saying, the “basic reason for me is I don’t feel accepted in the White House.” Dont’a Hightower didn’t say Trump was the reason he wouldn’t go to Washington, but he’s not going. Neither is Chris Long, which the defensive end revealed on Thursday after a columnist for the New York Daily News wrote an open letter telling Long not to go. Long was like (I’m paraphrasing here), “uh, I wasn’t planning on it?”

LeGarrette Blount then told Rich Eisen he’d be staying away: “I will NOT be going to the White House. I don’t feel welcome in that house. I’ll leave it at that.” Alan Branch said he’d be spending time with his family rather than go with the team.

These stances are a break in the status quo for a team that has famously followed an ethos of “no distractions” when it comes to talking about anything other than football. But Belichick, Brady, and Kraft broke their own rules this fall, and the football team and the President of the United States became intertwined over the past 18 months.

For the most part, however, the rest of New England’s players stayed quiet about politics. McCourty and Bennett did raise their fists during the national anthem early in the season in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality. And Bennett was outspoken about voting for Hillary Clinton and about his negative feelings toward Trump. But when asked about Brady’s connections, Bennett deflected. And McCourty said politics wouldn’t divide the locker room. Chris Long, at Super Bowl Opening Night last week, said he didn’t agree with what was going on in the country but that he wasn’t going to address it just then.

Regardless of players’ personal feelings, however, the team’s connection to the president stuck because of the public ties at the top of the organization, as well as Trump’s frequent reminders of their friendship. As a result, the Patriots took a lot of heat — during Super Bowl week, article after article hit the national news cycle about how Trump was affecting New England’s public image. NFL fans who hated the Pats and Trump used the President as one more piece of ammunition against the already widely-despised team. When New England won, many compared it to election night.

Now that the season is over, however, the six players’ White House boycott makes it clear that some Patriots are willing to publicly and profoundly state their political beliefs. By proclaiming that they don’t support the man their team got so much attention for being associated with, they’re breaking with the team’s famously cohesive, on-message, on-brand, football-only philosophy.

They’re also forcing the rest of the team to choose, too. There are only two options, and either one speaks volumes: If a player doesn’t go to the White House, and he’s clear that his reasons are political, he’s making a statement against the Trump administration. If he does go, he would probably be seen as supporting it (whether he does or not). While it used to be that going to Washington after winning a championship was mostly an a-political thing to do, Trump’s divisiveness has changed that. Now, it carries much more weight than ever.

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that five of the six players who’ve said they’ll stay away from Washington are black, given Donald Trump’s racist past and policies. In press conferences surrounding the Super Bowl, players talked about how close the team had become on and off the field. It will be interesting to see if that closeness leads other players not to go in solidarity, given that some feel they aren’t welcome “in that house.” And whether the attendees will end up breaking down across racial lines.

There is, of course, always the possibility that Trump won’t invite the team at all. Maybe he’ll catch wind of the players’ positions and attempt to just fly Brady, Belichick and Kraft down to Mar-a-Lago for a round of golf instead. There’s also no telling if Brady would go to the White House regardless of who’s sitting in the Oval; he decided not to after the Patriots beat the Seahawks in 2015 when President Barack Obama was in office.

No matter what happens next, the fact remains that some Patriots players have taken a stand and shown that their team’s pro-Trump image doesn’t hold true for them as individuals. Now, it’s up to the rest of the players, coaches, and management to make their moves. And for the rest of us to wait and see what the team’s lasting image from the 2016 season will be.