After winning Super Bowl 52 back in February, the Philadelphia Eagles earned themselves a trip to the White House.This is nothing new - as it's an invitation that has been extended for decades - one offered on behalf of the President to any championship winning team. However, in recent years, it's become a bit of an issue. Last September, Donald Trump withdrew the Golden State Warriors invitation to visit - blaming star player Steph Curry's hesitation to accept.And just less than two months ago the Houston Astros, who won the World Series in 2017, attended, but without their all-star shortstop Carlos Correa and a number of others. 

EAGLES VISIT

Earlier this week, the Eagles were expected to attend, only to have their invitation pulled by Trump just a day before.

Trump tweeted that the "official" reason for cancelling the visit was because he didn't believe the Eagles had been "patriotic" enough in disagreeing with his stance on the NFL's national anthem debate. 

However, he later revealed the real reason for stopping the Eagles from coming - and it was because barely any of them would have turned up. 

According to Philly.com, less than 10 players were planning to attend, and that would have been quite embarrassing for the President. 

ZACH ERTZ RESPONDS  

Unsurprisingly, his decision was met with a lot of backlash - and even his tweet, which claimed that some members of the team stayed in the locker room during the anthem - was wrong. 

Current Philadelphia players had stayed pretty quiet on the whole situation for a while - but Zach Ertz finally broke their silence on Tuesday. 

That morning, Fox News tweeted:

"President @realDonaldTrump says Philadelphia @Eagles won't attend @WhiteHouse ceremony amid national anthem dispute" and attached images of Eagles players "kneeling" on the sideline. 

The same images were also used in the video below - from a Fox News bulletin. 

Now, these claims didn't sit well with Ertz. They did not sit well at all. 

ERTZ BLASTS FOX

In fact, the tight end hit back very hard, quoting the tweet from Fox, one that has since been deleted. 

As Ertz explains, he and his teammates were not kneeling in protest to the anthem but were instead praying before kickoff. 

He rightly questioned the integrity of Fox, who were passing off these false images, even when they should have known that not a single Eagles player knelt for the national anthem once in 2017.   

Other NFL pros and former players supported his viewpoint as well, as teammate Chris Long tweeting out against Fox News as well. And that forced an apology from the broadcaster.  

In the end, the Eagles didn't get their visit to the White House. But that's probably not going to bother them too much, as they scheduled another OTA session instead.

It's straight back to work for the Super Bowl champs.