Martellus Bennett Is The First Patriots Player To Say He Won’t Go To Trump’s White House

The New England Patriots completed the largest comeback in Super Bowl history on Sunday night, beating the Falcons 34-28 in the first overtime game in Super Bowl history.

That victory earned them the Lombardi Trophy, rings to come and also a future visit to the White House. However, Martellus Bennett says he is not going to join the team on their White House visit to see Donald Trump, whenever that is, in protest of Trump’s presidency.

Via the Dallas Morning News:

“It is what it is People know how I feel about it,” he said. “Just follow me on Twitter.”

[…]

Is he worried about what Kraft will think if he doesn’t go to the White House with his teammates?

“I’m not really worried about that,” Bennett said. “I’m not worried about it at all.”

Bennett said Patriots players try to avoid talking politics in the locker room.

“You just don’t bring that to work,” he said. “We all have our beliefs. We accept people for who they are.”

https://twitter.com/MartysaurusRex/status/826049312580894720

Since Trump took office, there have been many wondering how many athletes would forgo White House trips as so many have spoken out publicly against him and his policies. The Patriots are the first team to win a championship during the Trump presidency, and we have our first answer to that question. Tweets like this make it clear how Bennett feels about Trump’s policies:

It will be interesting to see how many, if any, Patriots players follow Bennett’s lead in this matter, especially considering owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady are all Donald Trump supporters. Bennett is a free agent to be, and if he isn’t brought back by the Patriots next year there will be some that point to this decision as a reason, even though the Patriots would have football and financial reasons not to re-sign the tight end if Rob Gronkowski is expected back at 100 percent.