Georgia Football Coach Kirby Smart Says “There’s Nothing Political About It” After Declining White House Invitation

Kirby Smart Georgia

Earlier this week, the Georgia football team announced that they were declining the White House’s invitation to celebrate their National Championship win.

According to the New York Post, Georgia’s athletic association said in a statement:

“The University of Georgia first received on May 3 an invitation for the Bulldog football team to visit the White House on June 12.

Unfortunately, the date suggested is not feasible given the student-athlete calendar and time of year.”

Months back, there were a number of Georgia supporters who were not happy that the team hadn’t been invited sooner.

A bipartisan group of Georgia’s congressional delegation wrote to the White House in January, saying:

“It is our hope that this repeat championship team can join the many teams prior that have been honored by the President.”

With that being said, Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart is breaking silence about their decision to pass on the invitation during an interview at the Regions Celebrity Pro-Am golf tournament in Birmingham, Alabama.

He said:

“Tough deal. Timing wise it didn’t work. Traditionally, you know I went three times when I was at Alabama, and we got invited right after the game, and that didn’t happen.

We didn’t have a date set, and we have some things planned, we’ve got 700 kids coming to a football camp on June 6, 7, 8, it’s the number one time for recruiting for football coaches, and when you’ve got 600 kids coming to your camp and take 200 people to the White House, you’ve got no one working the camps.

So the timing just didn’t work out. There’s nothing political about it.”

You can checkout the full interview here:

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