Patriots DE Chris Long owes no explanation of his decision to skip his team’s celebratory White House visit.
Oh Chuck. Planned on skipping, hadn’t been asked. Don’t need an open letter explaining my own words to me. Not *joining* anyone. My call. https://t.co/XWo9x2XT40
— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) February 9, 2017
Long wrote on Twitter that he had long planned to skip the visit but hadn’t been asked about it before. Long’s tweet is in response to an open letter written by Chuck Modiano of the New York Daily News. Modiano urged Long to skip the visit, and describes white players’ silence about Trump as “pathetic.”
Long says that his decision is “his call” and that he’s not joining anybody. Teammates Martellus Bennett, Devin McCourty and Dont’a Hightower have all elected not to visit Trump’s White House.