Kansas Metropolis Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker stated he has no regrets about expressing his beliefs in a current graduation speech and famous that he has acquired help in addition to “a surprising stage of hate” from others.
Butker, 28, spoke Friday night time at Regina Caeli Academy’s Braveness Below Hearth gala in Nashville, Tennessee.
He made his first public feedback since his controversial current graduation speech at Benedictine School in Atchison, Kansas, the place he stated most girls receiving levels had been in all probability extra enthusiastic about getting married and having youngsters; argued some Catholic leaders had been “pushing harmful gender ideologies onto the youth of America”; referred to a “lethal sin form of pleasure that has a month devoted to it” in an indirect reference to Satisfaction month; and took goal at President Joe Biden’s insurance policies, together with his condemnation of the Supreme Court docket’s reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade determination.
“It’s now, over the previous few days, my beliefs or what folks assume I imagine have been the main target of numerous discussions across the globe,” Butker stated Friday. “On the outset, many individuals expressed a surprising stage of hate. However as the times went on, even those that disagreed with my viewpoints shared their help for my freedom of faith.”
Butker, a three-time Tremendous Bowl winner, stated he understands being criticized for his efficiency on the sphere. He stated he values his faith greater than soccer.
“It is a determination I’ve consciously made and one I don’t remorse in any respect,” he stated.
The NFL has distanced itself from Butker’s feedback. The league stated the feedback and “views should not these of the NFL as a company.”
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes stated Butker is entitled to his beliefs, though he would not all the time agree with him.
Talking about Butker on his “New Heights” podcast, Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce stated he cherishes Butker as a teammate.
“When it comes all the way down to his views and what he stated at [the] graduation speech, these are his,” Kelce stated. “I am unable to say I agree with nearly all of it or simply about any of it exterior of simply him loving his household and his youngsters. And I do not assume that I ought to choose him by his views, particularly his non secular views, of the way to go about life, that is simply not who I’m.”
Kelce does the podcast together with his brother Jason, who lately retired after an impressive profession with the Philadelphia Eagles.