Taylor Swift fans slam Kansas City Chief’s kicker for name-dropping her in his controversial commencement speech.
Throughout his commencement speech to the Class of 2024 at Benedictine College – a Catholic school in Kansas – kicker Harrison Butker made polarising remarks in the name of Catholic extremism, including comments criticising President Joe Biden for his faith, attacking LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and suggesting women should focus on motherhood instead of their careers.
Butker lambasted the fall of traditional Catholic values within society, telling the 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 noted that President Biden was only promoting the degeneration of these values by making it seem as though “you can be both Catholic and pro-choice”.
He then geared his speech toward the female audience members, saying that they’ve been told “diabolical lies” concerning their roles in society. He told them they shouldn’t pursue a career, noting that in his personal experience, 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 kicker continued to lambast the evolution of gender roles within the modern era, accusing world leaders of perpetuating the idea that women could also pursue careers and goals outside of motherhood and childbearing. He said that “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America” would only cause them to stray for the righteous path.
He commended the Benedictine graduating class for embracing their faith rather than giving into “deadly sin” celebrations like the upcoming Pride Month, which celebrates LGBTQ+ history and liberation. However, he called out Catholic parishioners for “misleading their flocks”, quoting his teammate Travis Kelce’s pop star girlfriend Swift and saying their “familiarity breeds contempt”.
Fans and non-fans alike were livid that Butker would name-drop the singer amid his pro-Catholic diatribe, with users online criticising his use of her name to legitimise his controversial opinions.
“One of the worst parts of this NFL player’s awful speech is that he quoted a Taylor Swift song before telling women they should be homemakers and serve their man’s career,” Outsports wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Telling an entire graduating class of women that they wasted the last 4 years of their life and that they should be focused on their husbands and future children is diabolical,” another person commented. “Following it up by quoting Taylor Swift is COMPLETELY UNHINGED.”
One user added, “Harrison Butker including a Taylor Swift lyric in his gross misogynistic speech and referring to taylor, probably the most famous and successful woman on the planet right now, as ‘my teammate’s girlfriend’… definitely says something.”
“All the Swifties trying to figure out how to support the Chiefs next season after the toxic/anti women Harrison Butker commencement speech…” someone else joked.
Butker was the 2017 seventh-round pick out of Georgia Tech and has gone on to become one of the NFL’s best kickers, having broken the team’s record with a 62-yard field goal in 2022. He was instrumental in the team’s first Super Bowl victory in 50 years in 2020, along with their second Lombardi Trophy in 2023. This February, he notably kicked the field goal the team needed to go into overtime in a Super Bowl that led to their win over the San Francisco 49ers.
