The intersection of sports and politics happens more and more often these days, with the realm of social media bringing those worlds closer together than ever.
Even before sports were so closely tied with politics, the tradition of a champion’s visit to the White House to receive well wishes from the President was established.
In recent times, however, several champions — most notably the NBA’s Golden State Warriors — have either declined invitations or not received them for political reasons.
Given that backdrop, it’s no surprise one of Bet DSI’s popular Super Bowl prop bets is whether the winning team in Super Bowl LIII visit President Donald Trump in the White House.
Related: Super Bowl Prop Betting
Will the Super Bowl LIII winning team visit the White House?
Yes (-200)
No (+150)
History of champions’ White House visits
It’s been a tradition for championship teams to take a visit to the White House as far back as the 1860s, when President Andrew Johnson invited two amateur baseball teams to visit him.
The modern tradition of Super Bowl champions receiving their congratulations at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., began in 1980, when the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers joined the crosstown World Series champion Pirates.
However, the visits haven’t been a yearly occurrence. Several times, a major world or political event got in the way. Some examples of that:
— The 1986 Challenger explosion, prevented the 1985 Bears from visiting (they were invited back in 2011).
— The Gulf War prevented the 1990 Giants from visiting.
— Bill Clinton didn’t invite the 1998 Broncos, presumably because he was impeached two weeks before the Super Bowl.
— The next year, the St. Louis Rams were invited, but ultimately never went to the White House as Clinton became ensnared in Middle East peace talks.
— The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren’t invited because of the War in Iraq.
Aside from those exceptions, the Super Bowl champions have had their photo opportunity in the Oval Office, as have the champions from nearly every other sport. In some cases, like the Philadelphia Eagles last year, individual players declined to make the trip, but for the case of this prop bet, that scenario would still count as a YES decision.
The Warriors — who have won three of the past four NBA titles — became the first entire team to question whether they wanted the invite. That was in 2017, when several players and coach Steve Kerr had spoken out against President Trump’s policies. When star guard Stephen Curry publicly expressed doubt he’d go to the White House, Trump responded by disinviting the team, taking the unusual step of saying they weren’t welcome in the first place.
A year ago, when the Warriors’ schedule brought them to Washington, they instead opted for a visit to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture with a group of students.
Before last year’s NBA Finals, both the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers publicly stated they would skip a visit to the White House. Golden State is in Washington this week and has no plans to visit Trump.
Champions from other sports, including the Eagles, Houston Astros and Clemson’s football team, have visited 1600 Pennsylvania in the past year.
Prediction
All of that leads us to this year’s Super Bowl. Will the champion follow in the footsteps of the Warriors, making a political statement? Will they gladly accept the invite, their right as champions? Or will it be somewhere in between, like last year’s Eagles or the World Series champion Boston Red Sox, who plan to visit but have had several players express uncertainty about whether they’ll come?
It’s important to note that the third option still would count as a YES for this prop bet, one of the reasons why that side is priced so high at -200. There is still only one example of a team (twice) choosing not to visit the White House.
It could also depend on which team wins. The favored Patriots are led by a quarterback in Tom Brady who has had a “Make America Great Again” hat in his locker and appears to be a fan of Trump (though it’s worth noting Brady himself has twice skipped previous White House visits, once to Obama and once to Trump, both times citing family commitments). The Rams, on the other hand, come from Los Angeles, one of the most Trump-averse places in the country.
However, political reasons also could get in the way. Several online sportsbooks have posted odds that Trump is impeached some time in 2019 with a price only slightly worse than even money. The government is currently shut down (though Clemson visited during the shutdown). Other world or domestic events could intervene. All of these could ultimately result in a NO decision on this prop bet.
Ultimately, as tempting as the +150 price is on the NO option, it’s not enough to sway the bet. The choice is YES. In all likelihood, at least part of the winning team will be invited and accept their congratulatory trip to the White House.
