Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama welcomed the Super Bowl 47 champion Baltimore Ravens for the traditional championship visit to the White House. We've got a gallery of photos from the event for your perusal.
The Ravens are in the midst of their final set of organized team activities (OTAs), which means much of last year's Super Bowl team was free to come to Washington, D.C. Newly-retired Raven Ray Lewis and free-agent departure Ed Reed were in attendance, while Anquan Boldin and Bernard Pollard were not.
Over the course of his brief speech, President Obama discussed the various key players on the Ravens, and how they impacted the team's run to the Super Bowl. This gave Obama a chance to unload a broad mix of amusing and awkward one-liners.
He pointed out Joe Flacco's big performances down the stretch, congratulating him on great timing in his contract year. He also discussed Ray Lewis' pre-game dance. In mentioning Lewis's tradition of picking some grass and rubbing it on his jersey, Obama told him, "Don't be doing that on the South Lawn."
Obama mentioned Jacoby Jones's 70-yard touchdown to tie the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game. Naturally this led to a Dancing With The Stars joke, "I can't tell if that was the two-step or the fox trot." Don't quit your day job, Mr. President.
He also addressed Ed Reed at one point, pointing to Reed's gray hair and telling the crowd, "Ed's getting some gray area. I'm not the only one. Ed's getting old. I don't feel so bad."
Finally, he wished the Ravens luck in the 2013 season. He especially wanted to emphasize the Ravens Week 11 trip to Chicago to face his hometown Bears. There were some kids from a Chicago high school in attendance, but that wasn't enough to overcome some of the boos from Ravens fans in attendance.
I had a chance to attend the event and got some video of different moments. This first one was before President Obama and the Ravens arrived. We are out on the South Lawn. Ravens friends and family were in front, media in back.
The Ravens came out from the White House for the ceremony:
And of course, we've got some Vine video. The White House wireless is surprisingly dreadful, so it was hard to get too much video together.
Heading in for the ceremony vine.co/v/b3VFOxXzeLb
— David Fucillo (@davidfucillo) June 5, 2013
Obama talking Ravena vine.co/v/b3V1aXeK0Bh
— David Fucillo (@davidfucillo) June 5, 2013
More Obama with Ravens vine.co/v/b3V1xzaBDnw
— David Fucillo (@davidfucillo) June 5, 2013