“Travis Kelce is a Knucklehead”: Columnist Criticizes Chiefs TE for His Reaction to Harrison Butker’s Speech
April 2, 2023: Travis Kelce arrives for the CMT Awards at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Credit – USA TODAY Sports
Travis Kelce seemed to have been briefed rather well by his PR team on what to say about the Harrison Butker situation. And while he navigated the whole thing like butter, neither commending Butker nor criticizing him, he still drew the ire of Jason Whitlock, who thought the TE “respectfully disagreeing” was still too much criticism.
Advertisement
Whitlock, in his latest YouTube video, was seen in a fit of rage upon hearing Kelce’s plain sailing words for Butker. Kelce’s arguably diplomatic and evasive statement irked the veteran journalist, who called him a “knucklehead.”
“So, Travis Kelce said a whole lot of nothing there because he virtually has no self awareness…He thinks that he’s here and he’s famous and he’s rich and he’s super successful because both of his parents worked outside the home or you know, he doesn’t recognize because Travis Kelce is a knucklehead…”
He further argued that if Travis hadn’t won the “genetic lottery,” he wouldn’t have been a successful man in life, deeming him “dumb” and unremarkable if not for his height and physical stature.
The origin of Whitlock’s rage stemmed from what he perceived as a mass-appeasing statement by Travis. While the TE distanced himself from Butker’s views by saying they are not his own values, he also said he can’t pass judgment on Butker’s own religious views. It was the “distancing himself” bit that Jason Whitlock was really not pleased with.
He further questioned Kelce’s intelligence, attacking him for only doing it for social media, and not because of his own vested values or beliefs, of which Jason thinks Travis has none. Finally, he accused Travis of doing what all new Butker fans have been doing over the past two weeks: taking the kicker “out of context.”
“Now he gets to pretend like he has some sort of mature sophisticated perspective on the world [but] he does not… because of the social media pressure and he’s thinking about how these words will land on social media, [so] he has to take Harrison Butker out of context.”
Meanwhile, Jason Kelce had a much clearer justification for where he lies in the whole discourse around Harrison Butker’s statements.
Jason Kelce Agrees With Harrison Butker’s Stance on Mothers
In his commencement speech, Butker opined that a female’s “most important title” should be that of a “homemaker.” Saying this at a graduation ceremony in front of students entering the corporate world is truly baffling. However, when one removes the location, things will make a bit more sense. This is how Jason looked at Butker’s statements as he just focused on the kicker’s stance that mothers as extremely important in shaping families.
“I can listen to somebody talk and take great value in it, like when he’s talking about the importance of family and the importance that a great mother can make.”
But Jason too didn’t agree with everything that Butker said. But the elder Kelce brother didn’t make a fuss of it as he saw this as a natural inference of speech. Every statement may not be palatable to your ears. The ones which are not do not deserve your attention.
“When you’re listening to somebody talk, you take things in that you like. You listen to other things and you say, ‘I don’t f-king like that.’”
Jason Kelce summed it up by advising people to weed out what they don’t like and what they like in statements like these. The Harrison Butker speech discourse has now been going on for over two weeks, might it finally be time to lay it to rest forever?
