Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker is under fire for remarks he made during a commencement speech at Benedictine College in Kansas over the weekend. The three-time Super Bowl champion used the platform to encourage women graduates to embrace traditional gender roles as homemakers and wives.
In his roughly 20-minute address, Butker praised his wife Isabelle for converting to Catholicism, getting married, and taking on “one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.” He credited her domestic role as enabling his success.
“I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” Butker stated. “I’m on this stage today and able to be the man that I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation.”
The 27-year-old kicker also took aim at wokeness and abortion. He criticized Pride month as a celebration of the “deadly sin… of pride.” Regarding Joe Biden, Butker called him “delusional” for his vocal support of abortion despite being Catholic.
Butker’s Christian views on women’s roles and social issues sparked both support and criticism on social media, with Catholics speaking out in his defense. However, the Chiefs organization did not publicly comment on the controversial speech by their kicker.
The NFL distanced itself from Butker’s remarks, with a spokesperson clarifying he spoke in a “personal capacity.” The league reiterated its “steadfast commitment to inclusion” in a thinly veiled rebuke of the Chiefs kicker’s remarks.
Selected by the Carolina Panthers in the 2017 draft, Butker never played for them and instead joined the Chiefs that same year. He has kicked in 107 games for Kansas City over six seasons, winning three Super Bowl rings.