(Screenshot from YouTube)
Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, is receiving backlash following a commencement speech he gave over the weekend.
The Benedictine College commencement speech was posted to YouTube May 11. Critics of the speech have been progressively posting on various social media platforms.
Butker, 28, touched on multiple topics commenting on issues such as abortion, IVF, COVID lockdowns and Pride Month. While taking jabs at the previous topics, the majority of his speech and subsequent backlash comes from his ideas surrounding gender roles.
Primarily the backlash comes from comments Butker made addressing women in the graduating class. He called the educational and professional success these women looked forward to “the most diabolical lies told.”
“Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” Butker said. “I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
These are not the only comments receiving scrutiny on social media.
Butker opened his speech slating political and religious leaders who are Catholic.
“From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common,” Butker said. “They are Catholic.”
Butker addressed an Associated Press article from earlier this month about the Catholic church’s move to traditional practices, which addressed Benedictine College by name. He referred to a sense of pride shared with the congregation following the article and used this as moment of wordplay against the LGBTQ+ community.
“Benedictine wouldn’t be met with anger but instead met with excitement and pride,” Butker said. “Not the deadly sin sort of Pride that has an entire month dedicated to it.”
Addressing the men in the audience, Butker took a swing at the societal roles of men. He addressed what he believes to be a societal removal of men from the home and community.
“Be unapologetic in your masculinity fighting against the cultural emasculation of men,” Butker said.
While comments on the Youtube video have been disabled, that has not stopped users on other platforms from voicing their opinion of the speech. The Instagram pages of Butker and the Kansas City Chiefs are seeing an influx of comments on the most recent posts of their pages.
One comment by Instagram user @julzfawn on a Chiefs post reads:
“FYI: Your kicker told a graduating class of women that they need to be homemakers and help their man be successful! Then he continued his insults and went after LGBTQ community. I hope the Chiefs organization comes out and denounces his beliefs and that they are not aligned with the Chiefs organization. Unless they are ??”
It is not all hatred for the Chiefs kicker though. A comment by Instagram user @ahorvath87 on Butker’s most recent post reads:
“God bless you, and I’m praying for you during this time of backlash while proclaiming truth. I pray the Holy Spirit guides you at this time.”
In a statement obtained by TODAY.com, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, Jonathan Beane, said the kicker “gave a speech in his personal capacity.”
“His views are not those of the NFL as an organization,” Beane said. “The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
