Harrison Butker says he has no regrets after controversial commencement speech

In his first public comments since a divisive commencement speech that sparked accusations of sexism and homophobia, Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker said he has no regrets about expressing his views.

“As to be expected, the more I’ve talked about what I value most — which is my Catholic faith — the more polarizing I’ve become. It’s a decision I’ve consciously made and one I do not regret at all,” Butker said Friday evening in an address at a gala in Nashville, Tennessee.

The “Courage Under Fire Gala” was hosted by the Regina Caeli Academy, which offers hybrid homes-chooling for Catholic families. Butker is on the academy’s board of directors. The Daily Wire, a conservative news site, was first to publish a video of Butker’s speech on Friday.

In his address, Butker added, “If it wasn’t clear that the timeless Catholic values are hated by many, it is now.”

The comments appeared to be a response to controversy arising out of a commencement address Butker gave earlier this month at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Kansas. In part of the speech that quickly went viral, Butker said being a homemaker was one of the “most important” titles a woman could hold, adding that his own wife’s life “truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” he said, and added: “Some of you may go