The Kansas City Chiefs celebrated their back-to-back Super Bowl titles at the White House on Friday afternoon, with the entire team present at the event, while the president had a fun exchange with Travis Kelce.
President Joe Biden delivered remarks on the South Lawn of the White House about the team’s success and the tragedy of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade that left one woman dead and 22 others injured.
After giving his speech, the president joked, “I would have Travis come here, but God only knows what he would say,” before inviting Kelce to the microphone.
“My fellow Americans, it’s a pleasure to see you all again,” Kelce briefly joked, a flashback to the previous year, when he attempted to take the microphone at the event.
“I’m not going to lie, President Biden, they told me if I came up here they would Taser me, so I’m going back to my place,” Kelce said before shaking Biden’s hand.
Travis Kelce made another joke at the White House during the Chiefs’ visit to the Super Bowl
President Biden opened with remarks before handing it over to Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.
After that, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt gave a speech. Once that was over, Biden was presented with a Chiefs helmet which he successfully placed on his head.
It is a long-standing tradition for championship sports teams, both professional and college, to be invited to the White House.
The Chiefs have won the Super Bowl three times in the last five years. In 2023, they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, first lady Jill Biden’s favorite football team. She grew up near Philadelphia and attended the game.
Kansas City also defeated San Francisco to claim the 2020 Super Bowl title.
The Chiefs shared on social media early Friday that “we are celebrating our back-to-back championship seasons and victory in Super Bowl LVIII at the White House.”
Kicker Harrison Butker, who made headlines by attacking some of Biden’s policies during a commencement speech earlier this month, also accompanied his teammates to the White House.
Butker recently defended his comments, saying he has no regrets about expressing his beliefs.
In the May 16 speech at Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, Butker congratulated the women who were receiving degrees and said most of them were probably most excited about getting married and having children.
The Lombardi Trophy and a Kansas City Chiefs helmet displayed at the White House
President Biden addresses the crowd wearing a signed Kansas City Chiefs helmet.
Rashee Rice and Wanya Morris also posed together as they got off the plane later.
Harrison Butker is expected to attend, despite his recent scathing comments about Biden.
He criticized some of Biden’s policy positions, including the Democratic president’s condemnation of the Supreme Court’s overturning of its Roe v. Wade of 1973 that legalized abortion throughout the country, and his defense of freedom of choice.
Abortion is an issue that Biden and his fellow Democrats hope to use to their advantage in the November election.
Butker also addressed Biden’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 1.2 million people in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition to Butker, Rashee Rice and Wanya Morris, two teammates accused of criminal conduct in recent months, also showed up at the presidential residence and office building.
Not present at the event was Taylor Swift, whose absence will surely disappoint many in the White House.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had to deflect questions earlier this week about whether the 34-year-old singer-songwriter would perform.
“That’s a good question,” Jean-Pierre said. ‘I can’t talk about his agenda. But I know there is a lot of interest in this building, on this campus.”
Swift was traveling abroad on her Eras tour, with a show scheduled for Thursday in Madrid.
