In June, a league source pointed out to us that the extended victory lap being walk-jogged by the defending Super Bowl champions had yet to include a trip to the White House for the traditional meeting with the President. The source said that rumors had been swirling that owner Tom Benson didn’t want to hobnob with Barack Obama, given the strong political differences between the two men. Eventually, as the rumor goes, coach Sean Payton prevailed on Benson to take the team to the White House.
By then, however, it was too late to do it in the more traditional time frame of April, May, or June.
The Saints officially called the rumor “crap,” a decidedly non-eloquent quote that reminds us of far more poetic language from William J. Shakespeare.
Either way, the visit will occur, and it will happen after the team commences its preparations for the 2010 season. Per the Associated Press, the Saints will arrive in D.C. to celebrate their championship with the Commander-in-Chief on August 9, a full 10 days after opening camp.
The visit comes a day before the team starts two days of practices with the Patriots in Foxborough, which culminate in the Saints’ preseason opener on August 12.
Despite any spin that the Saints and/or their fans will try to apply to this timetable, we think that any coach worth his whistle would bristle at the idea that the celebration of winning a Super Bowl will occur after a new group of 80 men -- many of whom weren’t even on the team -- commence the effort to forget about last year and focus on this year.
The changes in the roster raise another interesting question. Which players will and won’t go to the White House? Will Payton allow the rookies and assorted slappies who weren’t on the team in 2009 to participate in a perk they had no role in earning? Or will he split up the roster at a time when he’s trying to get them to work together as a team?
No matter how you break this one down, the visit to the White House should have occurred in April, May, or June -- and definitely not in August. Indeed, we’d prefer that the visit not happen at all than for it to occur after camp has opened the season after the championship was won.