--- title: Colbert Questions Trump Eagles White House Disinvite description: Colbert wants to know, did the president dis-invite the Eagles to the White House for not kneeling? canonical: https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-06T14:31:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:29:47.326Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Knows Why Trump Disinvited the Eagles og:description: Stephen Colbert takes you back to Trump's notorious eagle encounter og:url: https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3758dd0ffecbbe92/6989325fab6d77f4776b2e11/colbertphiladelphiaeaglestrump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1234 og:image:height: 694 og:image:alt: ColbertPhiladelphiaEaglesTrump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Knows Why Trump Disinvited the Eagles twitter:description: Stephen Colbert takes you back to Trump's notorious eagle encounter twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3758dd0ffecbbe92/6989325fab6d77f4776b2e11/colbertphiladelphiaeaglestrump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Is Convinced He Knows Why Trump Disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles From the White House > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=e0125af2-400a-4353-89d7-c1de30b036e7&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Sarah Sanders Says Philadelphia Eagles Pulled 'Political Stunt' [Watch (HLS stream): Sarah Sanders Says Philadelphia Eagles Pulled 'Political Stunt'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mu6HQYTw.m3u8) (0:28)  _Published 2018-06-05. Sarah Sanders Says Philadelphia Eagles Pulled 'Political Stunt'_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 6, 2018 2:31 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jun 6, 2018 2:31 PM UTC It’s a long-standing tradition that Super Bowl champions are invited to the White House to meet the president. This year, though, Donald Trump [rescinded the invitation](http://time.com/5301572/nflpa-responds-donald-trump-criticizes-eagles/) to the reigning champs, the Philadelphia Eagles. Trump [canceled the visit](http://time.com/5301170/philadelphia-eagles-not-attend-white-house-super-bowl-celebration-national-anthem/) from the Eagles, because some players “disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem,” he said in a statement Monday evening. There’s just a small thing that Colbert wanted the president to consider one thing about his rescinded invitation to the Super Bowl champions. “Here’s the thing: no Eagles players took a knee or stayed in the locker room during the anthem last season,” Colbert pointed out on Tuesday night’s episode of _The Late Show_. “So Donald Trump is blaming a group of black guys for something they didn’t do. They’ll have to rename the Eagles the ‘Central Park 53’.” The last jab was a reference to the fact that[ Trump believes](http://time.com/4523257/donald-trump-central-park-five/) that the five black and Hispanic teenagers who became known as the “[Central Park Five](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,957631,00.html)” are guilty, despite their exoneration. Colbert also called out Fox News, who “never lets the truth get in the way of a good story” ran images of the Eagles’ players taking a knee alongside a story about the rescinded invitation. That wasn’t what the picture showed, though. “Eagles tight end Zach Ertz pointed out [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/ZERTZ%5F86/status/1003970728008519680) that was actually footage of him ‘praying before games with his teammates well before the anthem.’ Come on, look, look. It‘s an honest mistake: Fox News also thought this picture was Jesus calling a touchdown!” ## Transcript If this wasn't a political stunt by the Eagles franchise then they wouldn't have planned to attend the event and then backed out at the last minute. And if it wasn't a political stunt then they wouldn't have attempted to reschedule the visit when they knew that the president was gonna be overseas. And if this wasn't a political stunt they wouldn't have waited until Monday Well after 1, 000 of their fans had traveled and taken time out of their schedules to offer only a tiny handful or representatives to attend the event. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Is Convinced He Knows Why Trump Disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles From the White House","datePublished":"2018-06-06T14:31:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:29:47.326Z","description":"Did the president dis-invite the Eagles to the White House for not kneeling?","url":"https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","Late Night Television","philadelphia eagles"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3758dd0ffecbbe92/6989325fab6d77f4776b2e11/colbertphiladelphiaeaglestrump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3758dd0ffecbbe92/6989325fab6d77f4776b2e11/colbertphiladelphiaeaglestrump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ColbertPhiladelphiaEaglesTrump","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/","name":"Stephen Colbert Is Convinced He Knows Why Trump Disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles From the White House"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sarah Sanders Says Philadelphia Eagles Pulled 'Political Stunt'","description":"Sarah Sanders Says Philadelphia Eagles Pulled 'Political Stunt'","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mu6HQYTw/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-06-05T19:39:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mu6HQYTw.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/","duration":"PT28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5301651/trump-eagles-on-colbert/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```