On May 11th Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker was invited to speak at the commencement of Benedictine College in Atchison Kansas. The college is a Catholic institution of higher learning. And Butker himself is Catholic. He spoke to the group of graduates on his catholic values. Butker spoke of problems with our culture. Many people were openly critical of his commencement speech, and some claim that the speech was unfounded.

Butker did say that women should embrace their roles as wives and mothers. He did not say that women belong in the kitchen. Butker spoke of the values that he lives by and believes.  At first the NFL was quick to distance themselves from what Butker said. But recently the NFL Commissioner, Chiefs Head Coach, and Chiefs starting quarterback all voiced reasonable responses to Butkers commencement speech.

This week the Kansas City Chiefs held their organized team activities at the team’s practice facility. The team was prepared for the questions regarding Butker’s speech. This was because immediately following the commencement speech, people were outraged and heavily disagreed with what he said. There was even an online petition to have him fired by the Kansas City Chiefs. But what Chiefs Coach Andy Reid, Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said was not a rebuke of Harrison Butker. It was an endorsement of the free society where we all reside. Here are the posts on X of their statements.

I love these responses from Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid on the Harrison Butker comments. Just love them. This is how adults behave. Well done, Chiefs: pic.twitter.com/rxoR4fB9pv

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 22, 2024

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Harrison Butker’s commencement address: “We have over 3,000 players. We have executives around the league. They have diversity of opinions and thoughts just like America does. That’s something we treasure.” Otherwise defers to league statement.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 22, 2024

Today we still live in a free society with free speech. However today we also live in a hypersensitive era of social media. People today seem to get easily offended or outraged at someone else’s opinion. I personally try to avoid an emotional reaction to online hot button issues. That is not easy to do. But we all do have the ability to unify with sports.

Goodell, Reid, and Mahomes all understand that football and sports in general unite fans from all different backgrounds, values and beliefs. They at the very least respected Harrison Bukter’s values and religious beliefs This is because we live in the United States of America. I will fight and die to give someone the right to say what they want to say. But I don’t have to agree with it. And neither do you.