New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady says he has no problem with some of his team-mates backing out of a trip to see his “good friend” Donald Trump at the White House.

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Following their remarkable Super Bowl victory over the Falcons, a slew of Patriots including Martellus Bennett, Devin McCourty, Chris Long, Dont’a Hightower and LeGarrette Blount have said they won’t be accepting the president’s invitation to Washington because of his divisive politics.

Brady, who has frequently alluded to his friendship with the president without ever expressly confirming which way he voted in November’s election, said he was fine with some of his team-mates opting out of the trip.

On ProFootballTalk on Tuesday morning, Brady said: “Everybody has their own choice. There’s certain years, like a couple years ago, I wanted to go and didn’t get the opportunity based on the schedule – we didn’t get told until I think like 10 days before we were going, and at that point I had something I’d been planning for months and couldn’t get there.”

In 2015, Brady missed the visit to see President Obama because of what he described as a “family commitment”. Speculation grew that Brady snubbed the trip because he took exception to a jibe from White House press secretary Josh Earnest, who had gently mocked Brady’s less-than-stellar PR skills in the wake of the Deflategate scandal.

The Patriots won three Super Bowls when George W Bush was president, and Brady also went to the Clinton White House after Michigan won the national championship in 1997. Brady said the experience was unforgettable, regardless of who was in the White House.

“It really is a great experience,” he said. “Putting politics aside, it never was a political thing. At least, it never was to me. It meant you won a championship and you got to experience something cool with your team, with your team-mates. Everyone has their own choice. It’s an offseason. These days are valuable for everybody. You only get so much time with your family and friends, and if people don’t want to go, they don’t want to go – and that’s their choice.”

Despite several strong hints of where his politics lie – not least the ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap prominently displayed in his locker – Brady has generally dodged questions about Trump and the election. He said a few months back that his wife Gisele Bündchen had told him to stick to football. “I talked to my wife and she said I can’t talk about politics any more,” he said. “I think that’s a good decision for our family.”