Eagles planning to skip White House visit include Long, Jenkins

At least three members of the Philadelphia Eagles — Malcolm Jenkins, Chris Long and Torrey Smith — have said they will not go with their team to the White House, a tradition for teams that have won the Super Bowl or their respective sport’s championship.

When Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry made clear last year that he would not visit the White House after his team won the NBA Finals, President Trump rescinded the whole team’s invitation in a tweet.

Trump has yet to comment publicly on whether the Eagles will be invited to Washington.

Jenkins emphasized that he found the visit to be a “photo op” that he was uninterested in partaking in.

“Over the last two years, I’ve been meeting with legislators, both Republican and Democrat, it don’t matter,” Jenkins said. “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.”

Long, who donated his entire regular-season salary to charity in 2017, made similar statements Tuesday in a Twitter exchange with Boris Epshteyn, a political analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group who previously worked on Trump’s presidential campaign and inauguration committee.

Epshteyn questioned why people who disagreed with Trump would forego an opportunity to speak to him about it in person, to which Long ultimately replied that there was “no convo needed” about the topics that concerned him.

I already know the answer. None of that is political. I’m not interested in a dialogue with someone who I have to ask those questions of.

— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) February 6, 2018

The lack of condemnation of said groups is either a calculated omission to pander to an ugly corner of our country OR he agrees with those folks. Either way, no convo needed. It’s absolutely your right.

— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) February 6, 2018

Jenkins, Long and Smith are all active in social and racial justice causes and are all members of the “Players Coalition” formed last year to deal with the National Football League and discuss the future of some players’ “take-a-knee” protests. The league agreed to donate $89 million over the next seven years to various projects agreed upon by the two parties.