Darren Hauck/Reuters - Aaron Rodgers and the Packers have been able to celebrate their Super Bowl win with fans in Green Bay, but they aren’t able to schedule the customary White House visit until the NFL Labor dispute is settled.
After Green Bay disposed of Chicago in last season’s NFC Championship game, Packers cornerback Charles Woodson addressed his teammates in the boisterous locker room.
“Check this: The president don’t want to come watch us to the Super Bowl?” said Woodson, making a quick reference to President Obama siding with his hometown Bears in the game. “Guess what? Guess what? We’re gonna see him.
“Let’s get a ‘White House’ on three. One, two three . . . ”
“White House!” the Packers all shouted in unison.
Most years, it would be that simple: Win the big game, shake hands with the leader of the free world. In February, the Packers went on to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, which normally would stamp the team’s ticket to a postseason White House tour and a visit with the president. But with no labor agreement in place between NFL owners and players, a trip to Washington has not yet been scheduled.
“It’s a perk of winning the Super Bowl,” said Packers defensive back Charlie Peprah. “Not everybody gets a chance to meet the president or go to the White House. Whenever you don’t get fully rewarded, you know, it’s disappointing.”
Team officials are barred from talking with players during the ongoing lockout, which has prevented them from organizing a visit. Packers officials say they still hope to schedule a trip to the nation‘s capital, but progress likely won’t be made while owners and players continue to battle over the terms of a new labor agreement.
“The planning of that is on hold during the work stoppage,” said Aaron Popkey, a Packers spokesman. “Once the work stoppage ends, we’ll engage in finishing up those plans.”
The Packers also have put on hold plans for a ring ceremony. Packers Coach Mike McCarthy memorably had each Green Bay player and coach sized for a championship ring on the eve of the Super Bowl.
Asked the best part about winning the game, Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers said, “my ring — hopefully.
“But I heard they put those on hold,” he told ESPN 850 in Cleveland this week. “I haven’t seen it yet.”
Meeting with athletic champions is certainly not the most pressing part of a president’s job description, but it has evolved into a regular responsibility. Obama met with the Chicago Blackhawks, last year’s Stanley Cup champions, on March 15, and the White House announced Thursday that the president will host Auburn University‘s football team, the reigning BCS champs, on April 29.
A White House visit for the Packers could come down to scheduling, which means the longer the labor impasse drags out, the tougher it will be to schedule a trip to Washington.
“We got to be patient right now. But if they nix it all together, I’ll be hot,” said Jarrett Bush, a Green Bay defensive back. “All the teams get to do it. To me, to meet the first black president, it’d be truly an honor. That’s a real special deal, and we earned that.”
Though most recent champions have met with the president duringn their offseason, there is no firm timeline for such visits, and a White House official said it’s too early to rule out a meeting between the Packers and the president.
Last year‘s Super Bowl champions, the New Orleans Saints, visited the White House in August, a trip that coincided with a preseason game on the East Coast. If the players and owners work out a new deal before training camp begins in late July and Green Bay attempts a similar preseason visit, the schedule may not be as cooperative. The farthest east the Packers would travel during the preseason is Cleveland, and the closest they’d come to Washington during the regular season is a December game at the New York Giants.
The three Super Bowl champions before the Saints met with the president in April or May. When the Packers won the Super Bowl in 1997, they made a trip to the White House in May.
Championship teams visited the White House as far back as 1925, when President Calvin Coolidge met with the Washington Senators a year after they won the World Series. But it was President Ronald Reagan, a noted sports enthusiast, who appeared to popularize the visits. He hosted several title teams, including the New York Giants, the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Islanders and the Los Angeles Dodgers, among many others. The 1985 Super Bowl champion Bears, though, were one exception. A scheduling conflict prevented Jim McMahon & Co. from shaking Reagan’s hand.
The tradition has been carried on by every president since. Obama has hosted a variety of Olympic medalists, pro and college championship teams from all major sports and even a beagle that won the famed Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
“Forrest Gump even did it,” said Green Bay’s Peprah. “It’s been going on for a long time. I hope they don’t just chalk it up to the lockout and say, ’Sorry guys.’ They got to work something out.”
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