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Athlon Sports
Chiefs' Harrison Butker Breaks Silence on Controversial Commencement Speech
By Richie Whitt,
3 hours ago
A noisy offseason for Harrison Butker just grew a little louder.
After creating a controversy with his ultra-conservative commencement speech in the spring to this week signing a contract to make him the highest-paid kicker in the NFL, Butker has remained in the headlines. Until now, it's all happened without talking to the media.
Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker at Allegiant Stadium on February 5, 2024.
Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports
But on Wednesday, the Kansas City Chiefs ' star finally broke his silence, amplifying a message that ruffled many feathers and prompted a statement from the NFL.
"My whole career, I've talked about how I'm a husband and I'm a father before it comes to me as a kicker," Butker said at training camp. "It's something I've always preached. But then when I use that to talk about women and I say that they should embrace and love being wives and being mothers over their career, I think then it gets construed that I'm trying to put women down. Which I'm not at all. I love women. I love my wife."
For his speech — which took aim at topics ranging from President Joe Biden to abortion rights — Butker received both major criticism from celebrities and comedians and support from conservatives. His No. 7 jersey was briefly the league's best-seller.
To his credit, Butker isn't apologizing or backing down.
"I'm going to stand behind what it is I'm saying,'' Butker said. "I kind of look at the offseason as a little bit of a maybe five-month period where I can just represent me as Harrison Butker as a faithful Catholic. And then obviously when it gets to the season, I try to focus as much as I can on football and not being a distraction for the Chiefs."
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