Attendance from the New England Patriots at the White House on Wednesday was noticeably down from a prior visit.
CSN New England reports that 68 members of the Patriots, including players on their active roster, practice squad and injured reserve, were invited to the White House to be honored for their Super Bowl victory. 34 attended.
50 players attended the team’s celebration at the White House in 2015. You can see the difference in the photos below:
Patriots' turnout for President Obama in 2015 vs. Patriots' turnout for President Trump today: https://t.co/OxMEOqZonI pic.twitter.com/pLmJWhOw1j
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) April 19, 2017
Some Patriots players notably said they would not make the trip as a statement of opposition to President Donald Trump.
Another theory for the declined attendance is that since the team went two years ago, there was less reason for players to go out of their way to make it this time. Even Tom Brady missed it this year because of family reasons, and he’s shown support for Trump in the past.
CSN New England also says 36 Patriots attended in 2004, and only 27 were there in 2005, so Wednesday’s attendance was not far off from those visits.
