Controversial Harrison Butker sends Taylor Swift wild with Kansas City Chiefs heroics

It felt inevitable the moment Cincinnati punted the football to Kansas City with 2:46 left and a 25-23 lead: Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker was going to kick a game-winning field goal as time expired.

Kansas City certainly did it the hard way; facing a fourth-and-forever from their own 35 with just 0:48 left, quarterback Patrick Mahomes ' errant pass toward receiver Rashee Rice was bailed out by a pass interference call.

The Chiefs proceeded to milk the clock down to three seconds to line up Butker with a chance to kick a game-winning 51-yard field goal. Butker cooly converted, sending the Travis Kelce box featuring Taylor Swift and Donna Kelce into a frenzy. CBS was quick to pan to Swift whenever the Chiefs landed a big play.

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Butker drew the ire of many, particularly fans of Taylor Swift, following his commencement speech at Saint Benedict's College this spring full of sexist and homophobic remarks.

“I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother," he said .

“I’m on this stage today, able to be the man that 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 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.”

Many Chiefs players, including Swift's boyfriend Kelce, were quick to emphasize how they respect Butker's right to have his own opinion while disagreeing at the same time. "When it comes down to his views and what he said at Saint Benedict’s commencement speech, those are his," Kelce said about his kicker.

"I can’t say I agree with the majority of it or just about any of it outside of just him loving his family and his kids. And I don’t think that I should judge him by his views, especially his religious views, of how to go about life, that’s just not who I am.”

Butker is one of the most accurate kickers in the history of the NFL. He also holds the record for the most career Super Bowl field goals with 9.

He converted all four kicks in Sunday's victory - two field goals and two extra points - to bail out a turgid Kansas City offensive display. Mahomes only mustered 151 passing yards against a stingy Bengals defense. Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow rebounded from a brutal Week 1 showing by completing 23 of his 26 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns.

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