If Patriots players opt out of the customary visit to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl win whenever it is scheduled, they certainly won’t be the first.

In fact, they won’t even be the first from their team to do so.

Tom Brady skipped the White House visit when Barack Obama was in the White House, at the time citing a scheduling conflict. When the Ravens won the Super Bowl, Matt Birk skipped the team’s visit, citing his opposition to Obama’s pro-choice policies. Manny Ramirez didn’t visit George Bush in the White House. Three members of the 1972 Dolphins team vowed to not visit Obama after he belatedly honored that team in 2013. “I want to be careful, because mom said if you have nothing good to say about someone, then don’t say anything. I don’t have anything good to say about someone,” one of the former players explained at the time.

But as the names continue to build up for the Patriots players who plan on declining their invitation — Martellus Bennett, Devin McCourty, LeGarrette Blount, Chris Long and possibly Super Bowl hero James White so far — it’s becoming an even bigger story than the one-story mention the other declined invitations sparked.

"I will NOT be going to the White House. I don't feel welcome in that house. I'll leave it at that." –@LG_Blount — Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) February 9, 2017

Here’s one reason: We’ve all been waiting for the moment that there’s massive holes in a team photo from the White House since Richard Jefferson warned he (and likely with him a number of Cavaliers players) wouldn’t go back for their celebration as long as Donald Trump was in office.

“I just look across this league, there’s been other players with ‘scheduling conflicts’ as they like to call it, not necessarily a political stance. But I could see other ‘scheduling conflicts’ coming up,” Jefferson said at the time. “More than anything, you have to respect the presidency. If you have different views, you’re allowed to have different views. That’s what’s amazing about this country. We’re not going to imprison people with different views. But if you want to stand up and you want to say, ‘Hey look, my views don’t coincide with this current administration,’ then you have opportunities, especially being leaders in your respective communities.”

His teammate, Iman Shumpert, later chimed in to say he was opting out of the visits too.

Jefferson wasn’t the only one to warn of the moment. “What we’re going to see in professional sports — NBA and NFL — mark my words, there will be players that decline the opportunity to visit the White House under [Trump’s] presidency,” ESPN’s Jalen Rose said before Cleveland’s visit.

Thanks to the power of social media, these athletes can be a lot more vocal in more ways about their views than any generation of stars before — and many of them aren’t afraid to do it. Compound that with the divisive era of politics we’re in and it becomes instantly a thing people start yelling about on social media. The President that they’re protesting is also far more likely to react on social media than any before him.

Your favorite athlete stands on his platform to be seen. I stand on my platform to shout. To be heard. — Martellus Bennett (@MartysaurusRex) February 7, 2017

Regardless of how many of the Patriots players or future champions skip their White House visit, it’s incredibly unlikely that there will be a team-wide boycott when New England heads to the White House, which would be a historical moment — and one that could happen before Trump’s time in DC is up.

After all, both Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have some sort of friendship with Trump, and Robert Kraft is a huge supporter. And like any president, Trump has the support of a number of athletes — including likely beyond Brady on the Patriots. Then there’s the guys, who like always, will go out of respect for the office.

“I would go to your house, I would go to the neighbor’s house that has his Christmas lights up before Thanksgiving and I don’t condone that at all – I’m still mad at him right now — I’d go to his house,” Pittsburgh running back DeAngelo Williams told me late last year. “I’d go to anybody’s house that they told me to go over to when we won the Super Bowl.”

It’s possible in a few years — or even weeks after the visit — we’ll look back and the missing players will be no big deal in the historical footnotes of the Patriots’ White House visit.

But unlike in past years, it seems like the world’s eyes are focused on who is going to kneel during the national anthem, wear a t-shirt to support a cause or say something that can help fans form our feelings about whether or not they like the player on their favorite team beyond what they do on the football field or basketball court.

And this generation is not willing to let that stop them.