At Least Six Patriots Now Say They'll Skip White House Visit PAIRPTS PALRIDT a 17thsoulia4 the Patriots Recently Won Their Fifth Super Bowl Title the Number of New England Players Saying They’ll Skip the Traditional Champions’ Visit to the White House Is Now Up to Six and May Get Larger Defensive End Chris Long Running Back LeGarrette Blount and Defensive Tackle Alan Branch Added Their Names to the List Thursday Joining Tight End Martellus Bennett Defensive Back Devin McCourty and Linebacker Dont’a Hightower as Having Publicly Stated an Intention Not to Accompany the Team on Its Expected Trip to Washington Later This Year Some but Not All of the Six Players Cited an Antipathy to President Trump as Their reasonIt Is Even Possible That an Invitation From 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Won’t Be Extended to New England at All Despite the Ties to Kraft Brady and Belichick if Enough Players Stage a Boycott and Trump’s Own Team Decides That the Optics Would Be Bad for Him According to ESPN the Tradition Dates Back to at Least 1865 When President Andrew Johnson Received a Pair of Amateur Baseball Squads and Ramped Up Under President Ronald Reagan Quickly Becoming a Rite of Championship Passage for Many College and Professional Teams 17thsoulja BlackIG17th Newenglandpatriots