Sanders Accuses Eagles of ‘Political Stunt’

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) - The White House isn't backing off its stance that the Eagles were to blame for the last-minute cancellation of a scheduled Tuesday visit.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called pairing down a list of 81 players, coaches, management and support staff given to the Secret Service for clearance on Thursday to a handful of representatives by Monday was a political stunt by the Super Bowl champions.

“If this wasn’t a political stunt by the Eagles franchise, then they wouldn’t have planned to attend the event then backed out at the last minute," Sanders asked rhetorically. "They wouldn’t have attempted to reschedule the visit when they knew that the President was going to be overseas.

“If this wasn’t a political stunt, they wouldn’t have waited until Monday when well after over 1,000 of their fans had traveled and taken time out of their schedules and offer a tiny handful of representatives to attend the event.”

Trump shut down the visit less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to begin at 3 P.M.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Want more NFL? Check out John's piece on why 'The Cleanse' in Cleveland was about more than losing at GetMoreSports.com