Did the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks refuse an invitation to the White House? No, that's not true: There's no evidence the team has been invited to Washington for a reception with President Donald Trump or that the team has refused such an invitation. The White House has not responded to inquiries from Lead Stories about the matter. The Seattle Times reported that an NFL source who was not authorized to speak on the matter said no White House invitation had been extended to the Seahawks as of February 18, 2026.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on February 17, 2026. The text in the post read:
Seattle Seahawks decline White House invitation! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of Facebook post.)
A similar claim also appeared in a post (archived here) on X published on Feb. 18, 2026. The text in the post said:
The #Seahawks have been uninvited to the White House.
WOW.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Feb 19 16:35:16 2026 UTC)
There's no evidence to suggest a White House invitation has been extended to the Seahawks nor refused by them. The Seattle Times reported (archived here) on Feb. 18, 2026:
According to an NFL source who was not authorized to speak on the matter, no White House invitation has been extended to the Seahawks as of Wednesday, despite online speculation that the team had declined an invite.
The White House did not respond to multiple inquiries from Lead Stories.
Championship teams usually visit the White House a few months after they win -- most often in the spring or summer. Since the Seahawks won Super Bowl LX on February 8, 2026, it's completely normal for the visit to still be in the early planning stages, if it were going to take place.
Lead Stories searched Google News' index of thousands of news sites for any mention of the terms Seattle Seahawks, invitation, White House. Google News reported (archived here) finding no reliable news reports to support the social media claims.
