The Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce, addressed kicker Harrison Butker‘s controversial graduation speech on their podcast.
During the May 24 episode of “New Heights,” Jason mentioned that his wife, Kylie Kelce, wasn’t a huge fan of Butker’s message, during which he urged women to embrace their true vocation as a “homemaker.”
“My wife, she was a bit frustrated with some of the comments,” Jason told Travis. “And I said, ‘Listen, you’re gonna need to get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. I’m listening to the game right now… ”
Jason starts laughing immediately while Travis can’t help himself. “We were doing so good!” Travis said. A video of the joke racked up over half a million views. One woman responded, “I love how Jason is looking to see if Kylie is coming after he said it. lol 😂.”
Jason also offered his genuine thoughts on Butker’s speech, which included digs at the LGBTQ community, Jews, IVF, and pro-choice Catholics. He didn’t understand what the “big fuss” was about, but the former All-Pro center also did. “Certain of these groups have been persecuted against for a long period in this country,” Jason said.
“I’ve had so many people ask me, ‘What would you do if your daughters had to sit there and listen to somebody tell them after they just earned a degree that they should just go to align to be homemakers?’”
“And I would say if my daughters listen to anybody tell them what to do — that they should be homemakers — then I failed as a dad.”
“There’s always going to be opinions that everybody shares that you’re going to disagree with and make no mistake about it, a lot of the things he said in his commencement speech are not things that I align myself with,” he added.
“I can listen to somebody talk and take great value in it, like when he’s talking about the importance of family, the importance of that a great mother can make, while also acknowledge that not everybody has to be a homemaker if that’s not what they want to do in life. When you’re listening to somebody, you take in things that you like, you listen to other things and you say, well I don’t f****** like that.”
Chiefs TE Travis Kelce Shared Support for Harrison Butker, But Disagreed With ‘Majority’ of His Speech
While discussing Butker’s speech, Travis shared support for the kicker while also distancing himself from his views. “I think Pat [Mahomes] said it best where he is every bit of a great person and a great teammate, Travis said.
“He’s treated friends and family that I’ve introduced to him with nothing but respect and kindness. That’s how he treats everyone. When it comes down to his views and what he said at Saint Benedict’s 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.”
Travis gave a shout-out to his parents, Ed and Donna Kelce. “Both my mother and my father made home what it was,” he said. “They were homemakers and they were providers and they were unbelievable at being present every single day in my life.
“That was a beautiful upbringing for me. I don’t think everyone should do it the way that my parents did, but I certainly, 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.”
Chiefs News: Patrick Mahomes & Andy Reid Shared Their Views on Harrison Butker’s Speech
Butker received a lot of backlash for his speech, including from the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica. However, Butker’s speech received full support from the Chiefs co-owner Clark Hunt’s wife and daughter, Tavia and Gracie Hunt.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid shared his support for Butker on May 22. “We respect each other’s opinions,” Reid told reporters. “Not necessarily do we go by those, but we respect everybody to have a voice. That’s a great thing about America, man.” Reid also noted, “I don’t think he was speaking ill toward women, he has his opinions. We all respect that. I let you guys in this room and you have a lot of opinions that I don’t like.”
Mahomes told reporters of Butker, “When you’re in the locker room, there’s a lot of people from a lot of different areas of life, and they have a lot of different views on everything. And we’re not always going to agree.”
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Jason Kelce’s Joke About Chiefs Kicker’s Speech Goes Viral [Watch]