{"id":121702,"date":"2025-08-05T19:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/121702\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T19:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:49:08","slug":"saquon-barkley-declines-president-trumps-invitation-to-serve-on-sports-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/121702\/","title":{"rendered":"Saquon Barkley declines President Trump\u2019s invitation to serve on sports council"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley told reporters he declined an invitation to serve on President Donald Trump\u2019s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. The clarification came days after Trump signed an executive order<\/a> bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test for students in public schools and mentioned Barkley as one of many prominent sports figures on the council.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of months ago, it was brought to my team about the council, so I\u2019m not really too familar with it,\u201d Barkley told reporters on Monday. \u201cI felt like I\u2019m going to be super busy, (so) me and my family thought it was probably in the best interest to not accept that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely a little shocked when my name was mentioned,\u201d Barkley said, \u201cbut I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s something great, so I appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump<\/a> revived the fitness protocol on Thursday with several council members in attendance, including Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor, LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau, retired LPGA star Annika Sorenstam and WWE executive Paul \u201cTriple H\u201d Levesque. Trump said other council members include former NFL quarterback Tony Romo, current players Nick Bosa and Tua Tagovailoa, as well as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.<\/p>\n

The fitness test was established in the 1960s but ended during the administration of former President Barack Obama. According to the White House<\/a>, the order reiterates the administration\u2019s \u201ccommitment to ending the childhood chronic disease epidemic and ensuring the strength, vitality, and excellence of future generations of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barkley flew on Air Force One and played golf with Trump before the Eagles visited the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl LIX victory in April. Amid backlash, Barkley defended himself<\/a> in a post on X, saying he respects the office and similarly played golf with Obama \u201cnot too long ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fitness executive order was the latest example of Trump\u2019s focus on sports during his second term.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, he signed an executive order<\/a> intended to bring order and stability to college sports. In March, Trump established a White House task force<\/a> for the 2026 World Cup, and on Tuesday, Trump plans to create a task force for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, according to The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Gregory Shamus \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley told reporters he declined an invitation to serve on President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1232,1105,62,222,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-121702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-sports-business","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114977896089739880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}