Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker told members of the media during training camp last week that he stands by what he said during his commencement speech at Benedictine College in May.
The speech Butker delivered to students of the Catholic liberal arts colleges in Atchison, Kansas, has been the subject of considerable controversy.
Speaking to graduates, Butker, a devout Catholic himself, expressed his beliefs on COVID-19, President Joe Biden’s administration, the Catholic Church, abortion, Taylor Swift, marriage, and children.
He also praised his wife for being a “homemaker.”
“Isabelle’s dream of having a career might not have come true, but if you ask her today if she has any regrets on her decision—she would laugh out loud,” Butker said after he praised his wife for embracing “one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”
When asked last week if he’d change what he said during his commencement speech, Butker said, “I prayed about it, and I thought about it, and I was very intentional with what I said, and I stand behind what I said.”
“If people knew me as a person,” Butker added, then they would have “understood that I was coming from a place of love and not a place of trying to attack or put people down [and] that I only want the best for people.”
Butker expressed his love for women and said he wasn’t devaluing them by what he said. “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—something I’ve always preached,” he said.
“But then when I use that to talk about women, I say that they should embrace and love being wives and being mothers over their career,” Butker continued, “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, and it comes from a place of love.”
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The three-time Super Bowl Champion praised his wife for the “sacrifice” she has made for him. “She has completely changed her life around, and she has made sure she is focused on being the ultimate wife and the ultimate mother,” he said. “And I love her so much for that, and I see how happy and excited she is day to day to wake up and embrace that life.”
