The New England Patriots visited the White House on Thursday to be recognized for winning the Super Bowl XLIX, and Barack Obama managed to zing the world champions with a well-timed Deflategate joke.
Ragging on a team like the New York Jets probably would have been more appropriate in this situation, but Obama — or one of his publicists — actually came up with a great one-liner.
Robert Kraft's grin basically says "Glad I didn't vote for you" after Obama's deflategate joke. #Patriots pic.twitter.com/eqkZpGuMfJ
— John Breech (@johnbreech) April 23, 2015
“I usually tell a bunch of jokes at these events, but with the Patriots in town I was worried that 11 out of 12 of them would fall flat,” Obama said.
Robert Kraft’s reaction said it all.
Belichick wasn’t having any of it.
Obama was just full of jokes during the visit. He zinged Rob Gronkowski and Bill Belichick.
Obama on Gronk: "I told him to keep his shirt on."
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) April 23, 2015
Obama: "I'm particularly grateful that Coach decided to dress up. We had some scissors if he wanted to cut the sleeves off."
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) April 23, 2015
Obama later added that the whole Deflategate controversy was “blown out of proportion,” which is bold considering Ted Wells has yet to release his report on the matter.
We haven’t heard much about Deflategate over the past few weeks. In fact, the most recent reports had more to do with a rogue NFL employee than they did with the Patriots allegedly cheating. Either the NFL has found something important, or they’re waiting for the perfect moment to bury the findings and move on.
