commencement speech at Benedictine College, a Catholic school, continues to cause outrage.
The NFL player’s 20-minute address included attacks on working women, the LBGTQ+ community and families who utilize surrogacy and in vitro fertilization (IVF).
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Butker and the Chiefs did not immediately return PEOPLE’s requests for comment. In a statement, the NFL’s Chief Diversity Officer Jonathan Beane says, “Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
Former Kansas City commissioner Justice Horn went further, slamming Butker in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Harrison Butker doesn’t represent Kansas City nor has he ever,” “I’m sure your high school graduation was not what you had imagined and most likely neither was your first couple years of college. By making it to this moment through all the adversity thrown your way from COVID, I hope you learned the important lesson that suffering in this life is only temporary,” he said. “As a group, you witnessed firsthand how bad leaders who don’t stay in their lane can have a negative impact on society.”
