President Thanks Super Bowl Champs
By Emily Beaver
WASHINGTON, April 13 -Returning to the White House as Super Bowl champions for the third time in four years, players, coaches and owners from the New England Patriots were congratulated by President George W. Bush Wednesday.
“The commentators would say, ‘well, they’re not the flashiest bunch, they’re not the fanciest bunch, they just happen to be the best team,” said Bush, flanked by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft as he made remarks in the Rose Garden.
“They’re the team showed that when you play together, when you serve something greater than yourself, you win,” Bush said.
More than 30 players from the Patriots, who defeated the Philadelphia Eagles for a Super Bowl win in February, lined up on risers behind the president as he congratulated the team.
Bush congratulated line backer Tedy Bruschi, who suffered a stroke in February, for showing “courage on the field and off the field.”
He also thanked the eight team members, including Bruschi, quarterback Tom Brady, and wide receiver Deion Branch, who had visited injured soldiers in the Bethesda Naval and Walter Reed Army hospitals before the White House press conference.
“I think you saw firsthand the definition of courage when you saw those young soldiers who had been wounded that are working hard to overcome their injuries ,” Bush said.
“There’s nothing better than a Super Bowl champ encouraging somebody to continue to work hard to recover.”
After the ceremony, Brady said he admired the recovering soldiers he had seen earlier that day.
“To go in to Walter Reed and see those soldiers.makes what we do seem so unimportant,” he said.
Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy attended the ceremony. After the press conference, Kerry said the team was a group of “down-to-earth” guys who spent four hours visiting soldiers in the hospital.
“They’re just a good bunch of guys,” he said.
