The Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers continued their celebration Tuesday with a visit to the White House.
Quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bruce Arians and the rest of the Bucs received congratulations Tuesday from President Joe Biden on the White House lawn.
Biden and several players spoke, including Brady — who couldn't help but take a jab at former President Donald Trump.
"Not a lot of people think that we could have won, and in fact, I think about 40% of the people still don't think we won. You understand that, Mr. President?" Brady said with a big grin. "We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was. I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing, and they started calling me 'Sleepy Tom.' Why would they do that to me?"
Biden delivered jokes of his own. Noting that Tom Brady and Bruce Arians are the oldest QB and coach to win a Super Bowl, he said that "there's nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop."
Biden was 78 when he was sworn in as the 46th president, the oldest president ever to be elected to office.
The Buccaneers also presented Biden with a white No. 46 team jersey.
The Bucs are the first team to visit the White House in a few years.
In 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles were uninvited by President Donald Trump after several players said they would not attend the event.
The New England Patriots, who won the 2019 Super Bowl, ultimately did not attend the traditional White House ceremony. Both the team and the Trump administration said the decision had nothing to do with politics.
In 2020, Trump congratulated the Kansas City Chiefs for their win in Super Bowl LIV, but they didn't visit the White House due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The last team to visit was the New England Patriots in 2017. Brady, who played for the Patriots at the time, did not attend that event due to personal reasons.
According to CBS Sports, Tuesday marked Brady's first appearance at the White House since 2005. Brady has quarterbacked four teams to Super Bowl wins since that last White House appearance.
Tuesday also marked the first time a Tampa-area sports franchise celebrated a championship at the White House.
The Buccaneers couldn't visit the White House following their only other Super Bowl win in 2002 because of the invasion of Iraq. The NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning couldn't visit following their first Stanley Cup championship in 2004 because the league was in a work stoppage, and their White House visit in 2020 was scuttled due to the pandemic.
The Lightning won the Stanley Cup again earlier this month, meaning a trip to D.C. could be in the works, though nothing has been scheduled yet.
This story was originally published by Dan Trujillo on Scripps station WFTS in Tampa, Florida.
