The Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers continued their celebration Tuesday when they visited the White House.
Tom Brady, Chris Godwin, Bruce Arians and company headed to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to be congratulated by President Joe Biden on their victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Bucs were the first team to visit the White House in a few years.
In 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles were uninvited by President Trump. The New England Patriots, who won the 2019 Super Bowl, ultimately did not attend the traditional White House ceremony, but both sides said it had nothing to do with politics.
In 2020, Trump congratulated the Kansas City Chiefs for their Super Bowl win, but they didn't visit the White House due to COVID-19.
The last team to visit was the New England Patriots in 2017. Tom Brady did not attend that time due to personal reasons.
A Tampa sports team had never visited the White House before Tuesday. The Bucs first Super Bowl team couldn't go because of the invasion in Iraq. The Lightning couldn't go during their first Stanley Cup because of the NHL lockout, and the 2020 Lightning couldn't attend because of COVID-19. There is no word yet on whether this year's Bolts team will get to visit the White House.
In a speech in front of the team and staff, President Biden joked about Tom Brady and Bruce Arians being the oldest QB and coach to win a Super Bowl, saying "there's nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop."
When Brady took the mic he cracked a few jokes at former President Trump's expense, saying “Not a lot of people think that we could have won, and in fact I think about 40% of the people still don’t think we won. You understand that Mr. President?” Brady said with a big grin. “We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was. I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing, and they started calling me ‘Sleepy Tom.’ Why they do that to me?”
Brady also emphasized the team's drive to win another Lombardi trophy next season, saying the team will get back to work tomorrow.
Biden was gifted a #46 Bucs jersey in traditional fashion by the Glazer family.
