Two female members of the family that owns the Kansas City Chiefs defended star kicker Harrison Butker after far-left activists circulated a petition calling for the team to “dismiss” the outspoken Catholic.
Last Saturday, Butker spoke at Benedictine College, a small Catholic institution in Kansas about an hour’s drive from where the Chiefs play. In the viral commencement speech, he called on graduates to “be authentically and unapologetically Catholic.”
Butker told female graduates: “[T]he majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
A petition calling on Butker’s team to “dismiss” him alleged that his speech was “sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion and racist.” The petition received over 190,000 signatures in four days. The NFL this past week issued a statement distancing itself from Butker.
However, Tavia Hunt, the wife of Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, pushed back against the critics in a Thursday Instagram post.
“Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted,” she wrote. “It is empowering to acknowledge that a woman’s hard work in raising children is not in vain.”
“I’ve always encouraged my daughters to be highly educated and chase their dreams,” Hunt added. “I want them to know that they can do whatever they want (that honors God).”
“But I also want them to know that I believe finding a spouse who loves and honors you as or before himself and raising a family together is one of the greatest blessings this world has to offer,” she continued:
Studies show that committed, married couples with children are the happiest demographic, and this has been my experience as well.
…
Countless highly educated women devote their lives to nurturing and guiding their children. Someone disagreeing with you doesn’t make them hateful; it simply means they have a different opinion.
“Let’s celebrate families, motherhood and fatherhood,” Hunt stressed.
She concluded: “Sound bites overlaid with hateful comments are not what we want to model for our children or others. We need more dialogue (and VALUES, [in my opinion]) in this country and less hate.”
Contrary to the claims of some of his critics, Butker did not at any point in his speech say that he is against women entering the workforce or having successful careers. His own mother Elizabeth Butker is a longtime clinical physicist at Emory University School of Medicine.
Tavia and Clark Hunt’s daughter Gracie also defended Butker during an interview with FOX News host Steve Doocy. Her interview aired Thursday morning, hours before her mother took to Instagram to support the Chiefs kicker.
“I really respect Harrison and his Christian faith and what he’s accomplished on and off the field,” Gracie Hunt told Doocy.
The host told her: “[America] would like to know the reaction from the Hunt family regarding [Butker].”
“I can only speak from my own experience, which is I had the most incredible mom who had the ability to stay home and be with us as kids growing up,” the younger Hunt answered. “And I understand that there are many women out there who can’t make that decision but for me in my life, I know it was really formative in my shaping me and my siblings to be who we are.”
Doocy asked her if she understood what Butker was saying in his speech. To this, she replied “for sure.”
Clark Hunt’s father is Lamar Hunt, the founder of the Chiefs. The trophy annually given to the winner of the AFC Championship Game is named in honor of the elder Hunt.
Butker is a three-time Super Bowl champion. He won in Super Bowls LIV, LVII, and LVIII, all with the Chiefs. He is a key contributor to the team’s recent string of success, which sportswriters have dubbed a “dynasty.”
Notably, the kicker’s game-winning field goal gave the Chiefs a three-point win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.
Football analysts widely consider Butker to be one of the top three kickers in the NFL. In addition to being known for his record-setting field goal length, Butker is the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history with a career 89% field goal percentage.
Prior to Butker’s speech, many analysts regarded the 28-year-old Chiefs kicker as a potential future candidate for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.