By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Multiple media outlets reported that President Donald Trump will be in Atlanta Monday night for the College Football National Championship Game.
Trump is reportedly set to attend the game with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, First Lady Melania Trump and Nick Ayers, a Georgia native who is Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff. The game will be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium under stepped-up security. Perdue is a former governor of Georgia.
On Monday, the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, the number 4 team in the country, will play the University of Georgia Bulldogs, the number 3 team in the country, in the national championship game. On Monday, Jan. 1, Alabama beat the Clemson Tigers, the number 1 team in the country, in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans by the score of 24 to six to earn a place in the NCG. Georgia defeated the Oklahoma Sooners and Heisman Trophy Winner Baker Mayfield 54 to 48 in the Rose Bowl. Oklahoma was the number 2 team in the country according to the Playoff Committee.
Alabama head football Coach Nick Saban is seeking his sixth national championship – it would be his fifth at the University of Alabama. Georgia football coach Kirby Smart was Nick Saban’s longtime defensive coordinator. This is just his second year as Georgia’s head coach. If Georgia wins, this will be Georgia’s first national championship in 37 years. Alabama, on the other hand, has won six over that same time period.
This is Trump’s first appearance at a football game since the 2016 Army-Navy game. Earlier this year, the president suggested that NFL players who kneeled during the National Anthem should be fired. Trump was widely criticized for his comments, but the NFL’s TV ratings and in-game attendance has dropped substantially since the start of the divisive protests. Former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback, Collin Kaepernick, who started the protests last year, was cut by his team in the off season and was not signed by any of the NFL’s 32 teams, even teams like the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, who suffered devastating injuries to their starting quarterbacks during the season.
