Jason and Travis Kelce weighed in on Harrison Butker’s controversial commencement speech, stating they didn’t share his views — along with a joke by Jason that had Travis nearly falling out of his chair — but also reiterating that they viewed him as “a great person and a great teammate.”
Butker, a kicker on the Kansas City Chiefs along with Travis, made headlines earlier this month for comments he made during a graduation speech at a Catholic university, including criticizing President Joe Biden, and saying that the female graduates “may go on to lead successful careers in the world” but he “would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” calling homemaker “one of the most important titles” a woman can have. Butker, himself a devout Catholic, also criticized gay pride events, in vitro fertilization, surrogate pregnancies, abortion, and other culture issues.
The speech was condemned by some and praised by others, even resulting in a bizarre moment at a recent White House Press Briefing when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if Butker would be banned from the White House’s traditional invite for Super Bowl winning teams. The Chiefs’ star quarterback Patrick Mahomes was asked to weigh in, as was Coach Andy Reid, with both saying they might not agree with his views but he was a “good man.”
The Kelce brothers offered their own two cents Friday in the latest episode of their podcast, New Heights.
Travis began his comments by noting he had known Butker — whom he calls “Harry,” even though he might be the only one who does so — for “seven-plus, eight-plus years.”
“I cherish him as a teammate,” he continued. “I think Pat [Mahomes] said it best, where he is every bit of a great person and a great teammate. He’s treated friends and family that I’ve introduced to him with nothing but respect and kindness, and that’s how he treats everyone.”
The younger Kelce brother then addressed the controversy and made it clear he didn’t agree with Butker’s views:
When it comes down to his views, and what he said at the [Benedictine College] commencement speech, those are his. 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.
I think, I grew up in a beautiful upbringing of different social classes, different religions, different races and ethnicities in Cleveland Heights. That’s why I loved Cleveland Heights for what it was. It showed me a broad spectrum, a broad view of a lot of different walks of life. I appreciated every single one of those people for different reasons and I never once had to feel like I needed to judge them based off their beliefs.
You know, my household, my mother and my father both provided for our family. Both my mother and my father made home what it was. They were homemakers and they were providers and they were unbelievable at being present every single day in my life. I think that was a beautiful upbringing for me. I don’t think everyone should do it the way that my parents did, but I certainly and sure as hell thank my parents and love my parents for being able to provide and making sure that home was what it was, because I’m not the same person without both of them being who they were in my life.
Jason agreed with his brother, adding his own “no doubt” and other comments agreeing with Travis when he spoke about their parents, and saying that it was important to hear from “people who actually know people” instead of just “reacting to comments without ever having met the guy,” so he put more weight in what Butker’s teammates and coach thought.
Jason then noted that there was “no mistake about it” that “a lot of the things he said in his commencement speech are not things that I align myself with,” but there were “always going to be opinions that everybody shares that you’re gonna disagree with,” and what was important was to “learn more about people” from “who they are on a daily basis.”
He also highlighted the venue of Butker’s speech. “He’s giving a commencement speech at a Catholic university,” said Jason, “and shocker, it ended up being a very religious and Catholic speech.”
Jason, the father of three daughters with his wife Kylie Kelce, added that he found “great value” in Butker’s comments about “the importance of family and the importance that a great mother can make, while acknowledging that not everybody has to be a homemaker if that’s not what they want to do in life.”
He had been asked how he would feel if someone made similar comments at one of his daughters’ graduations. “If my daughters listened to anybody tell them what to do, that they should be homemakers, then I’ve failed as a dad. What the f*ck you talking about, I don’t care who’s talking to them. If you let someone up on a stage tell you that you can’t do that, then you’re like, ‘oh f*ck, I guess I won’t go be a Fortune 500 CEO,’ like you weren’t going to make it!”
Travis burst out laughing at what Jason said, and the elder Kelce continued, saying that his philosophy on these speeches was to just dismiss the parts where you don’t agree as “that guy’s a f*cking idiot, and then you move on!”
Jason did acknowledge he understood “what the fuss was about” because of longstanding persecution of women, and brought up his wife Kylie being “a little bit frustrated” at some parts of Butker’s speech.
“Initially I said, ‘Listen, you’re going to need to go back in the kitchen to make me a sandwich. Listen — it’s a game right now,'” Jason joked as Travis laughed so hard he put his head down and then leaned way back in his chair, unable to speak for several moments.
“I hope she didn’t hear that,” Jason quipped, looking over his shoulder.
“You’re ridiculous,” said Travis, and then referenced a long-running joke that Kylie was going kill Jason with a sword he’d given her as an anniversary present.
Jason then got serious, saying that “not enough people” were talking about the “importance of family” and “seriousness of parenthood,” and if your children were not the “most important thing” in you and your spouse’s life, “you are failing, in my opinion.”
In the end, though, he said that looking back at his career and his brother’s career, and they never totally agreed with their teammates on every issue, but “you find a way to work together, you find a way to grow together –”
“You put your differences aside for one goal in common, and that’s the beauty of team sports, that’s the beauty of the NFL,” Travis interjected. “You get so many different walks of life, so many different beliefs.”
Watch the video above, via YouTube (the relevant section starts around the 23:40 mark).
