Bill Belichick declines Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump, citing Capitol Building riot

Bill Belichick won’t be heading to the White House this week.

Donald Trump wanted to award the Patriots coach the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Belichick has declined, per a statement issued to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

“Recently, I was offered the opportunity to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which I was flattered by out of respect for what the honor represents and an admiration for prior recipients,” Belichick’s statement read. “Subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award. Above all, I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom and democracy. I know I also represent my family and the New England Patriots team. One of the most rewarding things in my professional career took place in 2020, through the great leadership within our team, conversations about social justice equality and human rights moved to the forefront and became actions. Continuing those efforts or remaining true to the people, team and country I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award.”

Trump has continued to award the medal in the aftermath of the insurrection — golfers Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player both accepted last week — and according to Politico, Trump had planned to honor Belichick on Thursday. It’s the highest honor a civilian can receive.

It’s noteworthy that the coach cited the Patriots’ social justice conversations in his statement, as Belichick also talked about their impact at length in his season-ending press conference without any sort of prompting.

“This was a very educational year from all the social justice meetings and things that we had in the spring which carried over into the season. I think our team did a great job of that,” Belichick said. “We had great leadership from Jason [McCourty], Devin [McCourty], Matt [Slater] and many others – Brandon King, guys that are involved in just many, many different aspects of that.

“But, most importantly, just bringing the awareness within the team for each other and us getting to know each other and appreciate each other’s background, story and thoughts. And that was very, again, educational for me, as well as everybody else. I think we all benefitted from it, and again, things that we’ve done this year that will help us going forward. That would certainly fall into that category – probably at the top of that category.”

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