Retired NFL legend Peyton Manning’s reason for not turning down President Donald Trump’s golf invitation was simple.

“I heard Arnold Palmer say one time, ‘If the President of the United States ever asks you to play golf, you do it,'” Manning told Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night show, via Jon Heath of Broncos Wire. “It’s a no-brainer. It was a fantastic experience.”

Pretty straightforward. Manning has aligned himself with Trump before, reportedly speaking at a GOP retreat shortly after Trump’s inauguration. In this politically charged climate, however, Manning said he had people telling him to not golf with Trump. He did so anyway, in early June.

Manning said accepting the invitation to golf with Trump had nothing to do with his political affiliation.

“I’ve had a chance to play with President Bush before — if President Obama or President Clinton asked me, I’d be there in a heartbeat,” Manning told Kimmel, according to Broncos Wire. “It was just the experience of playing with the office that was pretty cool to me. And I think it would have been almost un-American to have said no.”

Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins offered a similar explanation for why he golfed with Trump earlier this year (there’s no shortage of opportunities to golf with Trump during his presidency). While some quarterbacks have gone out of their way to avoid discussing Trump since he was elected, golfing with him doesn’t necessarily indicate a endorsement.

Maybe all Trump needs to do to rekindle his friendship with Tom Brady is invite him golfing.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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