The NFL has released a statement about Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s recent commencement speech at Benedictine College. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has been dealing with backlash from his recent commencement speech at Benedictine College for several days. And now the NFL has finally weighed in.
“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, told People magazine in a written statement. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
Butker, who is a devout traditional Catholic, gave his speech at Benedictine College, a small Catholic liberal arts college in Atchison, Kansas, and it reflected his values and those of the school. He spoke against Pride Month, President Joe Biden, abortion, surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization, trans people and women in the workforce. He believes women have been told “diabolical lies” about having a career, saying about his wife that “her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
Butker and his speech have been roundly criticized on social media, but no community has been more vocal than Swifties. Butker quoted Taylor Swift, who is currently dating his teammate Travis Kelce, in his speech, using the lyrics “familiarity breeds contempt” from the song “Bejeweled.” But instead of referring to Swift as a multi-Grammy Award winning artist or the single biggest musical act in the world, he referred to her as “my teammate’s girlfriend.”
Swifties were not happy about that.
Maybe @buttkicker7 should lean into his vocation of being a football player and not telling women what they can or can’t do with their lives
— chell (tortured poet dept era) (@chell_chell13) May 14, 2024
2024-05-16 14:29:30
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