Travis Kelce supports Harrison Butker and his right to express his views, even if the Kansas City Chiefs star tight end disagrees with his teammate's recent controversial comments during a college graduation speech private catholic.
During Friday’s installment of the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce became the latest member of the Chiefs, following quarterback Patrick Mahomes and coach Andy Reid earlier this week, to express similar opinions about the commencement speech from Butker at Benedictine College, during which the Kansas City kicker expressed radical views on gender roles and attacked abortion, President Biden and Pride month.
“I've known him for over seven years, probably over eight years, and I appreciate him as a teammate,” Kelce said. “I think Pat said it best that he is a great person and a great teammate. He has treated the family and family I have introduced him to with nothing but respect and kindness. And that's how he treats everyone.
“When it comes to his views and what he said in the [Benedictine] graduation speech, those are yours. I can't say I agree with most or any part of it other than that he loves his family and his children. And I don't think you should judge him by his views, especially his religious views, on how to live life. “That’s just not who I am.”
Kelce and his co-host/brother Jason Kelce, the recently retired Philadelphia Eagles center and recently hired ESPN analyst, spent several minutes early in the episode discussing Butker's comments and the reactions they have generated.
“Make no mistake about it, a lot of the things he said in his commencement speech are not things I align with,” Jason Kelce said. “But he was giving a commencement speech at a Catholic university and, surprisingly, it ended up being a very religious and Catholic speech.
“And for me, I can listen to someone talk and value it a lot, like when they talk about the importance of family and the importance that a great mother can have, and at the same time recognize that not everyone has to be a housewife if that's how it is. not what they want to do in life.”
One part of Butker's speech that wasn't mentioned in the podcast was the part where the three-time Super Bowl-winning kicker referenced Travis Kelce and his pop superstar girlfriend, Taylor Swift, while criticizing certain Catholic priests.
“Tragically, many priests derive much of their happiness from the adulation they receive from their parishioners, and in seeking this they let their guard down and become too familiar,” Butker said during his May 11 speech. “This overfamiliarity will always be problematic because, as my teammate's girlfriend says, familiarity breeds contempt.”
Butker paused, looked up and smiled after making the Kelce/Swift reference, prompting some laughter from the audience. Swift used the phrase in the song “Bejeweled” from her 2022 album “Midnights,” but the saying has been around for centuries and even appeared in a contemporary translation of the New Testament.
Like Kelce, Swift has not publicly responded to the reference from Butker, who in the same speech told male graduates to “make no apologies for their masculinity” and female graduates that he “would venture to guess that most of you “They are more excited about their masculinity.” marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
Butker also told those women that “my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly began when she began to live her calling as a wife and mother. …It cannot be overstated that all of my success was made possible by a girl I met in high school band class converting to the faith, becoming my wife, and adopting one of the most important titles of all. : housewife”.
On their podcast on Friday, both Kelce brothers offered their perspectives on those feelings.
“You know, my home – my mother and father supported my family and my mother and father made home what it was,” Travis Kelce said. “They were housewives and providers, and it was incredible to be present every day of my life. And I think it was a beautiful education for me.
“Now I don't think everyone should do it like my parents did, but I sure appreciate and love my parents for being able to provide and make sure that home is what it was because I'm not the same person. without both of them being who they were in my life.”
Jason Kelce, father of three young daughters, added: “Many people have asked me what they would do if their daughters had to sit there and listen to someone tell them, after they've earned a degree, that they should just go and line up to be a stay-at-home mom. . And I would say that if my daughters listen to someone tell them what to do (that they should be homemakers), then I have failed as a parent.”
