Harrison Butker Breaks Silence on Controversial Remarks About Women

It's been an offseason filled with outside noise for Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker.

Though he inked a lucrative extension earlier this week, becoming the highest-paid kicker in the NFL, the goings haven't been so smooth for Butker leading up to that contract.

Earlier this year, Butker made a lot of noise when giving what has turned into a controversial commencement speech at a graduation ceremony. In his speech, Butker said most women receiving degrees were arguably more excited about getting married and having kids, and took aim at President Joe Biden's policies, including his condemnation of the Supreme Court's reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, among many other things.

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When asked about his speech at the Kansas City Chiefs training camp on Wednesday, Butker had this to say:

"My whole career," he said, "I've talked about how I'm a husband and I'm a father before it comes to me as a kicker. 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."

Since the commencement speech earlier this year, Butker has seen a lot of backlash, with celebrities speaking out against his remarks and comedians making him the butt of the joke. Butker has also seen a lot of support from a certain subset of fans, with his jersey becoming the highest-selling among all NFL players for a certain period of time.

Ultimately, it doesn't sound like Butker has any regrets over what was said, or how things were handled.

"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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