Make women barefoot and pregnant again
The kicker on a football team is like the coxswain on a rowing team — they play a key role. But if you ranked 25 NFL positions by importance, the kicker would be no higher than 22.
In other words, they’re among the most expendable players. Indeed, teams famously show little patience if a kicker lets them down by missing a critical field goal.
Therefore, it’s understandable that teams would show even less patience if a kicker offends over half the fan base. Yet that’s exactly what Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has done.
Because never before in NFL history has a kicker put his foot in his mouth quite like this:
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker stirred controversy off the field this weekend when he told a college graduating class that one of the ‘most important titles’ a woman can hold is ‘homemaker.’
Butker denounced abortion rights, Pride Month, COVID-19 lockdowns and ‘the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion’ in his commencement address at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kan.
(NPR, May 16, 2024)
Butker claims he was sounding a clarion call for graduates to bring back 1950s values to Make America Great Again. In fact, this telegenic spawn of “Archie Bunker” was calling for the days when:
- Men were chauvinists,
- Women were Stepford Wives/Handmaidens, and
- Blacks, Hispanics, and gays were all Jim Crowed.
In short, Butker’s commencement address was a mishmash of male chauvinism, White supremacy, homophobia, and MAGA conspiracies. Just the kind of inspiration graduates need to thrive — in red-state America.
Butker, the anti-Swiftie?
Of course, the Taylor Swift phenomenon drummed up unprecedented interest in NFL games among women last season. This was especially true in Kansas City, where Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays as Butker’s much more valuable teammate.
So, imagine the backlash among women fans alone. After all, he’s insinuating that, on any given Sunday, they should be in Church worshiping God or at home doing domestic chores.
The last place Butker thinks they should be is in stadiums cheering on modern-day gladiators or, God forbid, performing scantily clad for delirious fans like Swift does. Because, as he says of his own wife, a woman’s life truly starts only when she starts “living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
What must Butker’s Black teammates think?
Butker extolled the halcyon days of the 1950s. As indicated, he seems blissfully unconcerned about what that implies for Black folks.
Frankly, he seems as bigoted as he is self-righteous. What’s more, he probably harbors Trumpian resentment. That, of course, would have him thinking Black Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is just an affirmative-action, DEI recruit.
Chiefs will cut Butker
I’d be shocked if Butker is still on the Chiefs in August when the NFL pre-season opens. If he is, Black teammates are bound to find his mere presence inimical to the bonding needed for effective practice and play.
The Chiefs will readily acknowledge his right to champion his beliefs — no matter how chauvinistic or racist. But Mahomes only has to hint that Butker championing such views is inconsistent with his efforts to lead the team to another NFL championship.
Not to mention that the logical extension of Butker’s call for 1950s values would make Mahomes’s own interracial marriage un-American again.
So, here’s to him dropping that hint. Because, trust me, that’s all it would take for the Chiefs to drop Butker like a hot potato.
Besides, the last thing the NFL wants is a misogynistic scandal that could cause disaffection among its growing female fan base.