Several Super Bowl winning football players to skip traditional White House visit

  • 06/02/2018
Malcolm Jenkins is the latest player to announce he will skip the visit.
Malcolm Jenkins is the latest player to announce he will skip the visit. Photo credit: Getty

Safety Malcolm Jenkins intends to skip the traditional White House visit after the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history on Sunday night.

Jenkins, wide receiver Torrey Smith and defensive end Chris Long are among several Eagles players who have already indicated that they will not participate in the visit, citing their opposition to President Donald Trump.

"Nah, I personally do not anticipate attending," Jenkins told CNN's "New Day" on Monday, a day after the Eagles' 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

Meanwhile, one of the most exciting Super Bowls saw a television ratings drop.

Despite two of the nation's major media markets being represented and a thrilling game that wasn't decided until a Hail Mary throw at the final whistle, Nielsen revealed on Monday that average television viewership fell 7 per cent.

Sunday's average viewership of 103.4 million on NBC ranked as the 10th-highest viewed program in US history.

But those viewer figures made it the least-watched Super Bowl since 2009.

Reuters