Alabama Football Team Visits White House, Prays for Trump-Mostly Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
After winning the college football national championship, the Alabama football team visited the White House and included President Trump in a prayer huddle.
The Truth:
The University of Alabama football team visited the White House and included President Trump in a prayer huddle. But claims that the media didn’t cover the team’s White House visit — signaling media bias or negativity — are false.
The college football national champions visited the White House on April 10. Team members posed with the president and posted pictures on social media. And a group of players also surrounded the president and prayed during the visit, as reported by Inside Edition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42nK8wo_fwE
The team prayer was reportedly initiated by punter J.K. Scott. In an interview, Scott said, “I said, ‘Mr. Trump, would you be ok if I prayed over you? He said ‘yeah, come on.'” Asked about the president’s mood, Scott said, “I had this feeling that he has so much weight, and so much hurt, and so much stress. He was very thankful, he said ‘thank you’ and gave me a hug.”
After winning the NBA title, the Golden State Warriors declined a customary visit to the White House, prompting the White House to withdraw its invitation. Likewise, the Philadelphia Eagles weren’t invited to the White House after winning the Super Bowl amid rumors that numerous players would decline the invitation.
So, after the Alabama football team visited the White House, rumors spread that the media had ignored the visit to fuel the narrative that sports figures dislike Trump. That’s not true, however. Alabama’s visit was covered by the Washington Post, USA Today, and other media outlets across the country. The media wasn’t covering the story when the rumor went viral in May 2018 because the story was more than a month old.
Rumors about Alabama’s visit to the White House are true. But given that media coverage has been misrepresented, we’re calling this one “mostly truth.”