WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden welcomed the Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs to the White House on Friday and said he, too, hopes to run it back.
The annual celebration of the NFL’s title team brought a slightly more tense backdrop Friday as White House guests included the Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker, who has become the unlikely lightning rod in cultural debates over gender roles.
Butker was among the players standing behind Biden during the congenial ceremony.
The Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champs by beating the San Francisco 49ers, 25-22, in overtime Feb. 11 in Las Vegas. The last team to repeat as champs was the New England Patriots who won in 2004 and 2005.
“The Kansas City Chiefs, the first team in 20 years to win back-to-back — winning back-to-back, I kind of like that,” said Biden, who faces a fierce fight for re-election in November.
Star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce took center stage Friday. When Kelce was given the mic, he opted to keep his words short.
“My fellow Americans,” Kelce said, gaining some laughs by uttering the oft-repeated presidential line. “It’s nice to see you all yet again. I’m not going to lie, President Biden, they told me if I came up here I’d get Tased, so I’m going back to my spot.”
There was no sign of Kelce’s world-famous girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift, at Friday’s event.
She’s in the middle of the European swing of her “Eras Tour.” Swift played Madrid on Thursday and she’s scheduled to be onstage in Lyon, France, on Sunday.
The only moderately cringey moment came when the team presented Biden with a Chiefs helmet and players egged Biden to put it on — and he did.
Butker and Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice were both at the White House.
Butker was recently in the news for a controversial commencement address at a Catholic liberal arts college outside Kansas City. He urged female grads to reject careers and devote themselves to their husbands and children.
Butker also criticized the Biden administration for its positions on abortion and the Covid pandemic.
Rice turned himself in to police last month in connection with a multicar crash in Dallas in March.
Monica Alba reported from Washington D.C. and David K. Li from New York City.