Travis Kelce’s defense of ‘great person’ Harrison Butker is textbook white male privilege

Over a week after Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave a draconian commencement speech at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, several of his fellow teammates and his head coach have broken their silence. And their responses are both revealing and incredibly disappointing.  

Tight end Travis Kelce — current boyfriend of Taylor Swift, a notably ambitious and childless billionaire who has apparently bought into Butker’s “diabolical lies” about pursuing a career — said he doesn’t believe he should judge his teammate “by his views.” 

“I cherish him as a teammate,” Kelce said on the Friday episode of his “New Heights” podcast. “He is every bit of a great person and a great teammate.”

“I cherish him as a teammate,” Kelce said on the Friday episode of his “New Heights” podcast. “He is every bit of a great person and a great teammate.” Kelce went on to claim Butker “treats everyone” he meets with “nothing but respect and kindness.”

Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes similarly told reporters that, despite Butker claiming LGBTQ+ people are committing “a deadly sin” and arguing women should not make their own decisions about their own bodies, his teammate is a “good person” who just “wants to make a good impact on society.” 

“When you’re in the locker room, there’s a lot of people from different areas of life and they have a lot of different views on everything,” he continued. “We’re not always going to agree … but I understand the person that he is and he’s trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction.” 

Head coach Andy Reid mirrored Mahomes’ sentiments, adding that “everyone has got their own opinion” and “that’s what’s so great about this country.” 

The underlying message is clear: Butker’s speech was just a harmless sharing of ideas, a moment of self-expression that reaffirms the enlightened purpose of the First Amendment.

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