Travis Kelce on controversial Harrison Butker comments: 'I can’t say I agree with the majority of it'

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said on his “New Heights” podcast that he cherishes Harrison Butker as a teammate even though he didn’t “agree with the majority” of his controversial commencement speech earlier this month at Benedictine College, a Catholic school in Atchison, Kansas.

“I cherish him as a teammate. I think Pat said it best where he is every bit of a great person and a great teammate,” Kelce said. “He’s treated family and family that I’ve introduced to him with nothing but respect and kindness. And 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.”

Butker, who spoke for more than 20 minutes, told the women receiving degrees that he’d venture to guess “the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

“I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” Butker said. “How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

“I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”

Patrick Mahomes on Harrison Butker: ‘I’m going to judge him by the character that he shows every single day’

Like Kelce, Patrick Mahomes gave his take on Butker’s comments during OTAs on Wednesday.

“Yeah, I mean, kind of like I was talking about with the Rashee [Rice] thing, I think it’s just — I know Harrison,” Mahomes said. “I’ve known him for seven years. And I judge him based on the character that he shows every single day. And that’s a good person. That’s someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family, and wants to make a good impact in society. 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.” 

Mahomes acknowledged that not everyone in a locker room will share the same opinion on everything. That, however, doesn’t mean he lost respect for Butker or others depending upon their views.

“And we’re not always going to agree but — and there’s certain things that he said that I don’t necessarily agree with,” Mahomes said. “But I understand the person that he is, and he’s trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction. And that might not be the same values as I have, but at the same time, I’m going to judge him by the character that he shows every single day and that’s a great person and we’ll continue to move along and try to help build each other up to make ourselves better every single day. 

“But at the end of the day, we’re gonna come together as a team. I think that’ll help out as well as eliminate those distractions outside the building as well.”