Harrison Butker, an NFL player who recently won Super Bowl LVIII with the Kansas City Chiefs, used a graduation speech on Saturday to attack the LGBTQ community and tell women to forget about a career and serve their man instead.
Now the NFL has released a statement distancing itself from him, and a petition has popped up to have him released by the Chiefs.
Butker was the commencement speaker at Benedictine College, a Catholic school in Kansas. This is the same Benedictine College that several years ago forced Jallen Messersmith, an out gay basketball player at the school, to remove a Pride flag.
After attacking “dangerous gender ideologies” in his speech — a clear slam at the transgender community — Butker highlighted a recent Associated Press article that discussed how Benedictine College and the Catholic Church are seeing “an immense shift toward the old ways.”
He said that while the AP intended it to create anger, instead people in the Church took “pride” in the article.
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“Not the deadly sins sort of Pride that has an entire month dedicated to it,” he said in a clear slam at Pride Month this June, “but the true God-centered pride that is cooperating with the holy ghost to glorify him.”
Even the largely Catholic audience in attendance groaned.
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He also took a large chunk of his speech to speak directly to the women in the audience. He said that while many of them likely are excited to start a career and get promotions, they should instead consider the only vocation that will make them most happy: homemaker.
“I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and a mother. I’m on this stage, and able to be the man I am, because I have a wife who leans into her vocation.
“I’m beyond blessed with the many talents god has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”
This was just after quoting Taylor Swift, the girlfriend of his Chiefs teammate. He just had to get that Swift-song quote in, even if it was on loan from someone else.
A large part of his speech was about people in life “staying in their lane,” centering much of that conversation on “leaders.” It certainly seems clear that Butker thinks the “lane” for women is between a refrigerator and an oven.
Butker has won three Super Bowls since joining the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017. He holds the record for the longest-ever field goal in a Super Bowl — 57 yards — as well as the most field goals in a Super Bowl: nine.
