Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is facing criticism on multiple fronts, from a high-profile golf outing with President Donald Trump to the resurfacing of offensive tweets by his fiancée. The twin controversies have sparked heated debate among fans and teammates, coinciding with the Eagles’ visit to the White House this week to celebrate their Super Bowl victory.

Golf Outing with Trump Draws Backlash

Barkley, 28, spent last weekend with Trump at the former president’s Bedminster, N.J., golf club and even hitched a ride with him on Air Force One to Washington. Photos showed the pair stepping off Marine One together, and Trump praised the Pro Bowl running back as “a nice guy,” joking to reporters that he “wanted to race him, but I decided not to do it”.

The sight of the Eagles star socializing with the polarizing ex-president quickly sparked a backlash online. Some fans criticized Barkley for associating with Trump just a day before the team’s White House celebration, accusing him of cozying up to politics. Barkley fired back on social media, urging people to “get out of my mentions with all this politics.” He noted that “some people are really upset ’cause I played golf and flew to the White House with the PRESIDENT,” and defended his actions by saying, “Maybe I just respect the office, not a hard concept to understand”. The Eagles veteran — who also recently golfed with former President Barack Obama — emphasized he was extending respect to the presidency regardless of who occupies it.

Fiancée’s Past Tweets Ignite Furor

Adding to Barkley’s off-field turmoil was an unrelated firestorm involving his fiancée, Anna Congdon. In the lead-up to the Super Bowl, old tweets from Congdon’s teenage years resurfaced, revealing posts in which she used racial slurs. Screenshots from 2012 and 2013 — when Congdon was about 13 years old — show her casually using offensive language, including the N-word in jokes and even in a play on a Kanye West lyric. The resurfaced posts spread on social media just as the Eagles were preparing for the championship game, prompting swift backlash.

Critics blasted the tweets as racist and inexcusable, with some questioning whether Congdon, who is white, still uses such language privately, especially given that she and Barkley are parents to a biracial child. “The internet has a long memory,” one report noted, as debate flared over whether youthful mistakes should define someone years later. Supporters of Barkley urged him to ignore the uproar and stay focused on the Super Bowl, calling the timing of the controversy suspicious. For now, neither Barkley nor Congdon has publicly addressed the resurfaced tweets. but the episode cast a shadow over what should have been a celebratory moment in Barkley’s career.

Eagles’ White House Visit Marked by Absences

Just a day after Barkley’s golf outing, the Super Bowl champion Eagles visited the White House on Monday to be honored by President Trump. The trip, however, was notable for who wasn’t there. Quarterback Jalen Hurts — the Super Bowl MVP — and a number of star teammates did not attend the ceremony, despite the team’s formal acceptance of the invitation. In total, about a dozen players skipped the event, including standout wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and several defensive starters. The White House officially attributed the absences to “scheduling conflicts” for the players, and Hurts had pointedly dodged a question about his plans days earlier, offering only an awkward “Umm” when pressed on the red carpet. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie had made clear participation was voluntary: “If you want to enjoy this, come along… and if you don’t, it is totally an optional thing,” he said of the White House visit.

At the South Lawn ceremony, Trump praised the Eagles for their championship season and singled out Barkley in particular. He called Barkley “a handsome guy” and lauded the running back’s performance. In a lighthearted aside, Trump even ribbed Barkley’s former team, the New York Giants, for letting him leave in free agency. The president made no mention of the missing players in his public remarks, aside from commending Hurts as “a terrific guy and terrific player” in a prepared statement. The festivities proceeded with coaches, executives, and many players in attendance — but the conspicuous no-shows underscored the lingering tensions.

‘Respecting the Office’ vs. Personal Conviction

Barkley’s willingness to meet with Trump, contrasted with some teammates’ quiet boycott of the White House visit, has reignited debate over the meaning of such gestures. Barkley insists his golf outing was about respecting the presidency as an institution, not politics, saying he “just respect[s] the office” regardless of who holds it. But for others, especially those mindful of Trump’s history, the personal and political cannot be so easily separated. During Trump’s first term, the Eagles’ 2018 Super Bowl victory celebration was famously canceled after many players vowed not to attend, amid anger over Trump’s attacks on NFL players’ racial justice protests. At the time, Trump lambasted players (most of them People of Color) for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality, and some Eagles felt attending the White House would implicitly endorse a president they sharply disagreed with. Similar sentiments linger today: several Eagles who skipped this week’s event have not explicitly stated their reasons, but their absence speaks volumes in a climate where visiting or snubbing the White House has become a statement in itself.

The divide is not limited to the locker room. Fans and commentators are likewise split. To some, a championship White House visit is a non-partisan honor that champions should uphold out of unity and respect for the country. To others, it’s a personal choice of conscience — with many people of color arguing that paying tribute to a president who they feel has disrespected their community crosses a line. The clash of viewpoints has been playing out across sports for years, from the NBA’s Golden State Warriors declining Trump’s invitation in 2017 to recent instances like the Eagles, and it mirrors a broader polarization in American society. As Barkley’s experiences illustrate, even a celebratory round of golf or a team visit to the White House can become entangled in the nation’s cultural and political divide. And in today’s America, that divide often runs straight through the world of sports.