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Louise Thomas
Editor
Serena Williams didn’t hesitate to throw shade at Harrison Butker during the 2024 ESPY Awards.
On July 11, the 42-year-old tennis champion hosted ESPN’s annual awards show, which recognizes athletic achievements and other sports performances from the last year. During one point of the ceremony, as shown in a video shared to X (formerly known as Twitter), Serena took the stage with her older sister, Venus Williams, and actor Quinta Brunson.
Venus stepped in to applaud the successful female athletes in the country, telling the crowd: “So go ahead and enjoy women’s sports like you would any other sports, because they are sports.”
Serena then jumped in to add to her sister’s statement, saying. “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you.” After the audience laughed in response, Brunson agreed with the two athletes’ thoughts about Butker.
“At all,” the Abbott Elementary star added to Serena’s remark about not needing the NFL star. “Like, ever.”
While the broadcast of the ceremony didn’t show Butker’s reaction, he was at the event and even walked the red carpet before hand.
Serena’s quip came months after Butker sent shockwaves to the internet with his controversial graduation speech at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. During his speech in May, he criticized President Joe Biden for his faith, attacked LGBTQ+ Pride month, and suggested that women should prioritize motherhood over their careers.
When speaking directly to the female graduates in Benedictine College’s class of 2024, Butker claimed they were told “diabolical lies” concerning their roles in society. After he encouraged these graduates to avoid pursuing a career, he referred to his personal experience, noting that his family was successful because his wife became a homemaker.
“Her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” he claimed.
The Kansas City Chiefs kicker also told the entire crowd of graduates that “abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media” were a byproduct of “the pervasiveness of disorder.” He alleged that Biden was only promoting the degeneration of these values by making it seem as though “you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.”
As the commencement speech went viral and met with immense criticism on social media, the kicker’s teammates also spoke out, with Travis Kelce addressing the speech during an episode of his and his brother Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast. The Chiefs tight-end explained the even though he did not agree with what Butker said in the speech, he wouldn’t judge his friend based on his religious views.
“I can’t say I agree with the majority of it, or just about any of it, outside of just him loving his family or his kids,” Kelce explained. “And I don’t think I should judge him by his views, especially his religious views of how he goes about life. That’s just not who I am.”
Days later, Butker didn’t hesitate to double down on his remarks, while he attended a gala that was presented by a Catholic homeschool organization, the Regina Caeli Academy, where he is a board member.
“The theme for tonight’s gala, Courage Under Fire, was decided many months ago, but it now feels providential that this would be the theme after what we have all witnessed these last two weeks,” Butker said at the event on May 24. “If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now.”
He continued to stand his ground and reiterated that the remarks in his speech came from religious beliefs. “Our love for Jesus, and thus, our desire to speak out, should never be outweighed by the longing of our fallen nature to be loved by the world,” he added. “Glorifying God and not ourselves should always remain our motivation despite any pushback, or even support. I lean on those closest to me for guidance, but I can never forget that it is not people, but Jesus Christ who I’m trying to please.”
