Why is it when an athlete says they are not attending the White House celebration, or are mysteriously absent, it’s a big deal? How could they? It must be political. They must be racist.

After the Chicago Cubs won the World Series after a 108-year drought, all the “keyboard warriors” could only speculate, and for the worse, why Jon Lester was not there. What’s worse is Jon Lester felt he had to defend himself, even though he had been to the White House in 2014 with the Boston Red Sox, which should have thwarted any idea it was political.

For those of you so quick to jump to conclusions, we had a death in the family and the funeral was yesterday. Absolutely nothing political.

— Jon Lester (@JLester34) January 17, 2021

How do you feel now? Clearly, you don’t care and are onto your next target, the New England Patriots. There are a number of Patriots who have spoken out that they will not attend the White House celebration, even though an invite has not yet been sent. The list is up to six Patriots thus far, who have declared they will not be attending, all for various reasons. Martellus Bennett was one of the six to state he will not go. This infuriated some.

@HuffingtonPost Marrellus Bennett needs to put his political opinion to one side and do the honorable things and respect the tradition.

— James Lee 🇬🇧 (@JimmyLondon75) February 6, 2021

Respect the tradition? The first Super Bowl winning team to visit the White House was the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1980. So, it’s sort of a tradition. The first Super Bowl was in 1967. Not until President Ronald Reagan, did it become a regular thing for Champions of their respective sport to visit the White House.

The wonderful thing about living in the United States is the freedom of speech and the freedom of choice. The ability to agree to disagree. While @JimmyLondon75 is entitled to his opinion, so is Martellus Bennett. If he doesn’t want to go, he shouldn’t have to go. I mean, why is it that the White House celebrates sports franchises victories, anyway? Why do they not have the Grammy winners every year or the Oscar winners? Oh wait, they bestow the Medal of Freedom to entertainers, the highest civilian honor, “An especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” Yeah, that makes sense.

I have an idea, let’s drop the whole honoring for-profit sports teams all together and limit it to Olympians, the ones who actually represent our country.