WALKING A TIGHTROPE

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Weighs in on Harrison Butker Controversy

He defended his teammate’s character while making it clear that he doesn’t “necessarily agree with” the content of Butker’s remarks.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on Wednesday weighed into the still-brewing controversy over a regressive commencement speech given by Harrison Butker, the team’s kicker, defending his teammate’s character while making it clear that he doesn’t “necessarily agree with” the content of Butker’s remarks. The star kicker told a class of graduates at Benedictine College in Kansas that working women have been the subject of “diabolical lies” told by contemporary culture, and that they should embrace their “vocation as a wife and as a mother”—as well as a series of anti-LGBTQ and pro-Republican comments that were received poorly outside the friendly confines of Fox News. Mahomes, however, attempted to dial down the invective with a statement of his own, telling reporters during the Chiefs’ first week of organized team activities: “There’s certain things that he said that I don’t necessarily agree with, but I understand the person that he is, and he is trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction,” Mahomes said. “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.” He added later: “At the end of the day, we’re going to come together as a team, and I think that’ll help out as eliminating those distractions outside of the building, as well.”