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Patriots coach Bill Belichick in early January
Photo: Adam Glanzman / AFP
The legendary football coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots rejects the award of the Freedom Medal by the outgoing US President Donald Trump after the storming of the US Capitol last week.
This emerges from a statement by the 68-year-old that was distributed on Monday (local time) and is available to the news agencies dpa and AP.
The "Presidential Medal of Freedom" is the highest civilian award in the USA.
Trump wanted to honor Belichick on Thursday, according to US media reports (here and here).
Belichick justified his waiver of the award with the riots in Washington.
After the "tragic events of last week" the decision was made to forego the planned honor, wrote Belichick, who is considered a friend of Trump and supported him in the 2016 election campaign with a letter.
Belichick is considered a Trump friend
The coach went on to write that one of the most enriching experiences of his coaching career had been to see how in the past year "conversations about social justice, equality and human rights came to the fore and turned into action."
To continue these efforts while "remaining loyal to the people, the team and the country I love outweighs any individual award."
After the riots in Washington, there were protests against Trump, especially from US basketball.
His golf course lost the hosting rights for one of the most important tournaments in the world on Monday.
One day after the storm on the Capitol, Trump had awarded Gary Player and Annika Sörenstam with the Medal of Freedom - both golf professionals had accepted the award.
Belichick is one of the most successful coaches in NFL history.
He won the Super Bowl six times with the Patriots and has more league wins than any other active coach.
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ngo / dpa / AP / Reuters