Look how much smaller Trump's visit from the New England Patriots was than Obama's
We all know how weird Donald Trump is about the size of his, um, crowds.
It was just three months ago that the crowd for Trump's inauguration looked downright dinky in comparison to the masses who packed the national mall for Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009.
Now the New England Patriots are in the (White) house adding insult to insult.
Trump hyped his relationship with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick during the presidential campaign. So, when the Patriots visited the White House this Wednesday to celebrate their most recent Super Bowl win this probably stung Trump: Way, way fewer Pats showed up than in 2015, when the team most recently won the Super Bowl and Obama was president.
Al Drago of The New York Times got a shot that perfectly captures the discrepancy.
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*Sad trombone noises*
More than two dozen Pats players -- including Brady, who cited "personal family matters," and also didn't attend in 2015 -- skipped Wednesday's White House visit with Trump.
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Just 34 New England players attended the ceremony, according to The Boston Globe. They were: Jabaal Sheard, James Develin, Julian Edelman, Jimmy Garoppolo, David Andrews, Marcus Cannon, Cameron Fleming, Stephen Gostkowski, Rob Gronkowski, Jacoby Brissett, Sebastian Vollmer, Chris Hogan, Nate Ebner, Malcolm Mitchell, Matt Lengel, Nate Solder, Glenn Gronkowski, Darius Kilgo, Justin Coleman, Rob Ninkovich, Joe Cardona, Trey Flowers, Brandon King, Kyle Van Noy, Jordan Richards, Matthew Slater, Eric Rowe, Geneo Grissom, Elandon Roberts, D.J. Foster, Shea McClellin, Joe Thuney, Ted Karras, and Jonathan Jones.
The Times reports nearly 50 Patriots players attended the 2015 ceremony.
After New England won the Super Bowl in February, a handful of Patriots players said they wouldn't attend the White House ceremony due to Trump's history of racism and sexism. NBA players have also said they won't attend, should their teams win championships while Trump is in office.
Update Wednesday 10:30 p,m. PST: The Patriots apparently weren't happy with the Times' coverage.
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Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.
