President Donald Trump welcomed the New England Patriots to the White House Wednesday, celebrating their Super Bowl Championship victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
“The Patriots are an incredible organization and this Super Bowl victory was a complete team effort,” Trump said, praising the leadership of Coach Bill Belichick and the team’s owner Robert Kraft. “Since Bob bought the Patriots in 1994, they’ve won more division titles, conference championships, and super bowl wins than any other team. No team has been this good for this long. He’s built a culture dedicated to winning.”
Trump commented on the team’s amazing comeback in the Super Bowl, stunning the world for pushing the game into overtime and winning the game despite a 25-point deficit in the second half.
He commented that the team engineered “the greatest Super Bowl comeback of all time and mocked the sports pundits for predicting that there was no way the Patriots could win at one point in the game.
“Good old pundits, boy, they’re wrong a lot, aren’t they?” Trump said.
Trump singled out receivers Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman, and Malcolm Mitchell for their contributions to catching and defensive end Trey Flowers, as well as offensive tackle Marcus Cannon and the offensive line for their contributions to the game.
He did not praise quarterback Tom Brady. The champion quarterback decided not to attend the ceremony, citing family matters for his absence.
Kraft praised Trump, and commented that their comeback performance in the Super Bowl was very similar to the victory in the presidential campaign by Trump.
“In that same year, a very good friend of mine for over 25 years, a man who is mentally tough and hardworking as anybody I know launched a campaign for the presidency against 16 career politicians facing odds almost as long as we faced in the fourth quarter,” he said. ”He persevered to become the 45th president of the United States.”
Kraft said it was an honor to celebrate what he described as “their sweetest victory” with a good friend like Trump.
The team presented Trump with a personalized Patriots jersey and a championship helmet.