White House Snub

[TuxAme]

Tim Thomas picked the wrong time to make a statement.

From the article:

Before most hockey games, it's tough to find many players who stand completely still during the national anthem.

Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas never moves. He stands as still as the Statue of Liberty, with his focus directly on the American flag that hangs from the rafters in every NHL arena. There's no denying Thomas' patriotism. He represented Team USA as an Olympian and has called it one of his most memorable moments of his career.

But when the president of the United States invites you and all your teammates to the White House to honor your Stanley Cup championship, you go and represent the team.
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I'm trying not to care too much since both Trump and the Eagles (and the Cavaliers and the Warriors) are trying to make as big a deal out of this as possible- all virtue signaling in their own particular way- but this particular article really didn't age well.

 

[SummerMadness]

They've given time and money to the cause they support, that's not virtue signalling.

 

[2Timothy2:15]

Tim Thomas picked the wrong time to make a statement.

From the article:

Before most hockey games, it's tough to find many players who stand completely still during the national anthem.

Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas never moves. He stands as still as the Statue of Liberty, with his focus directly on the American flag that hangs from the rafters in every NHL arena. There's no denying Thomas' patriotism. He represented Team USA as an Olympian and has called it one of his most memorable moments of his career.

But when the president of the United States invites you and all your teammates to the White House to honor your Stanley Cup championship, you go and represent the team.
___________________________________________________________________________

I'm trying not to care too much since both Trump and the Eagles (and the Cavaliers and the Warriors) are trying to make as big a deal out of this as possible- all virtue signaling in their own particular way- but this particular article really didn't age well.

Boston won in 2012.

 

[Go Braves]

I think the article aged pretty well when you stop & think it over. Tim Thomas was protesting what he saw as a wrong by the US government. His method for protesting was to decline the invitation to the White House. The athletes who didn't stand for the anthem were protesting a wrong too. I think it's shallow & ignorant for anybody to think any of them were lacking in patriotism.

The biggest difference is in how Obama & Trump acted. President Obama hadn't called Tim Thomas or anybody else a profanity. He didn't obsessively Tweet about it. The article the OP posted stated that Obama instead focused on praising Thomas for his accomplishments in his sport. The athletes who declined the invitation to the White House to see Trump weren't doing so on account of not loving their country. It was a direct reaction to Trump.