The White House visit, and other thoughts
May 5, 2025
Throughout my 33-year tenure as a sports-talk host, I followed the credo of a far more accomplished radio (and TV) performer named Charles Osgood, who often said:
Nothing could be finer than a crisis that is minor in the morning.
How true that is. I took Osgood’s philosophy so seriously, I became adept at turning molehills into mountains, at creating a firestorm from the flickering embers of a largely pointless conversation.
Hey, I had four hours to fill every day.
That’s why I can only chuckle at my reaction last week to the kerfuffle over the decision by the Eagles to visit the White House in celebration of their Super Bowl victory in February.
I shrugged.
I didn’t care.
I still don’t.
Retirement really does change one’s perspective, doesn’t it?
Last Monday and Tuesday I accepted several invitations on podcasts and radio shows to address the reactions, pro and con, to the proceedings at the White House choreographed by the most polarizing president of our lifetime.
One side of the debate was that agreeing to attend the ritual was an endorsement of President Trump’s agenda, encompassing everything from tariffs to immigration.
This was a ridiculous position for one very simple reason. Does it mean I have to study the politics of everyone whose path I cross because it might be construed as supporting his or her belief system? Have we really become so paranoid that everything we do now is a political statement?
The other side of the argument – the right side – is that the Eagles won a championship, and they were acknowledged in public as a great team by – like him or not – the most powerful man in the world. Giving the fans one last chance to celebrate a Super-Bowl win is never a bad thing. Never.
In the end, star quarterback Jalen Hurts chose not to attend the event, while star running back Saquon Barkley did go – preceding his attendance by playing a round of golf with the president.
The ensuing social-media debate was, like all such viral conversations, shrill and idiotic.
Last Tuesday, the issue was the focus of wild speculation. The White House visit was going to create factions in the clubhouse, to spoil the culture of the team. The dynasty was over already. President Trump was ruining the Eagles!
By Wednesday, the talk was subsiding. By Friday, it was on to other issues of equal irrelevance. Today, if you bring up the White House controversy, you might have to recount the details because it has already been purged, gone, done.
As someone who embraced minor crises for almost half my life, I can assure you that the White House visit is an issue no more.
In fact, it never really was.
Though, if I still had a show, I cannot say for sure I would have ignored the story. The truth is, I would have probably milked it.
And, I’m pretty sure the late, great Charles Osgood would have, too.
———————————————————-
Speaking of crises, I would have milked for weeks the current Bill Belichick debacle with his 24-year-old girlfriend Jordan Hudson.
Now, though, it is something I am trying unsuccessfully to avoid. I hate this story.
At 73, Belichick is a victim of either dementia or elder abuse, or both. Either way, the GOAT is acting more like a jackass these days.
His CBS interview last week was interrupted often by a clueless young woman who clearly has an obnoxious approach similar to. . . . well, Bill Belichick himself back in his heyday with the New England Patriots.
During my tenure at WIP, I mocked mercilessly the six-time Super-Bowl champ at every opportunity. His answer to most questions back then landed somewhere between a growl and a sneer. I responded with venom and sarcasm.
Belichick never gave a damn about the media – or, for that matter, the fans – so it is more than a little ironic that he’s become a punchline while hawking a book on TV.
It would be so easy for me to enjoy his humiliation, but for some reason it’s not comfortable for me at all.
Hell, I may even feel a bit sorry for the jerk.
I guess you’d have to be 73 – or 74, in my case – to understand.
———————————————————————-
Finally, I would like to report a burglary in progress.
Sixers owner Joshua Harris is at it again, feathering his golden nest with the money of hard-working people while his net worth floats into the stratosphere.
Harris, who also owns the Washington Commanders and New Jersey Devils, somehow coaxed the dumbass political operatives in D.C. into agreeing to use over $1 billion of taxpayer money to help build the billionaire a glittering $3.7-billion football palace at the former site of RFK Stadium.
Hey, at least Harris didn’t try to build this one in Chinatown.
If you are unfamiliar with my contempt for Harris, please check back a few blog posts when I did what the Philadelphia media should have done years ago – hold a carpetbagging bean-counter accountable for his money-grubbing ways.
It takes a special kind of chutzpah to have a net worth of over $11 billion now and still expect the taxpayers to help build your new stadium.
And it takes a special kind of stupidity for political leaders to assist the multi-billionaire in his endless quest for money.
Of course, for their efforts, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D. C. City Council negotiated separate complimentary luxury suites all future mayors and council representatives. Ugh.
You can smell the stench of this deal all the way from D.C. to Philadelphia, where Harris just snookered Mayor Cherelle Parker and the City Council in a bait-and-switch maneuver that got him a sweet new arena agreement with Comcast.
Joshua Harris is very good at taking taxpayer money.
He is far less adept at winning championships.
(He has none so far.)
All I could think throughout this boondoggle in D.C. was how much we already miss the fearless journalist and author John Feinstein, who died suddenly at age 69 in March.
Feinstein harassed Daniel Snyder for decades, perhaps even hastening the banishment of the hideous Commandeers owner from the NFL two years ago.
Who will have the balls to do the same thing to Harris?
Sadly, no one.
RIP, John.