Tom Brady In Attendance As Buccaneers Make White House Visit With Joe Biden
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Buccaneers made their trip to the White House on Tuesday. Tom Brady was in attendance.
The quarterback's absence drew big headlines when he skipped the Patriots' visits to Washington D.C. in 2015 and 2017, and none of the Patriots visited Donald Trump's White House in 2019. So there were many interested parties waiting to see what Brady would decide with regard to attending or skipping this year's visit with the Buccaneers.
Yet when the Bucs showed up on Tuesday, Brady was present, as had been reported a day earlier.
In this picture shared by Scott Smith of the Buccaneers, Brady's in the front row, in between head coach Bruce Arians and wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Champs, where champs belong! pic.twitter.com/udO8FJCXad
— Scott Smith (@ScottSBucs) July 20, 2021
It was far from perfect attendance for the Bucs, as The Athletic's Greg Auman estimated about 40 players made the trip.
Among the key Bucs players here today: Tom Brady, Chris Godwin, Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul, Ali Marpet, Ryan Jensen. Looks like about 40 players in attendance.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) July 20, 2021
Smith showed a photo of the Bucs getting a private tour of the White House, too:
Before the ceremony, the team is getting a tour of select areas of the White House. pic.twitter.com/fMqj04Yo62
— Scott Smith (@ScottSBucs) July 20, 2021
For Brady, this marks his first celebratory trip to the White House since 2005, when he won his third Super Bowl with the Patriots. He skipped the team's visit in 2015, after he won his first championship in a decade, and then again in 2017. His absence in 2017 reportedly angered Trump, and the president did not mention Brady's name during his speech, despite Brady being the Super Bowl MVP in the Patriots' 28-3 comeback win over the Falcons.
With team White House visits growing into a point of controversy during the Trump presidency, the Patriots never did make a visit to Washington after Brady won his sixth Super Bowl in 2019.
Brady ended up speaking during the ceremony, cracking some political jokes with President Joe Biden.