The hits keep coming for Harrison Butker. The Kansas City Chiefs outraged the internet when his May 11 commencement speech at Benedictine College, a private liberal arts Catholic college in Kansas, went viral for some of his inflammatory remarks about women, LGBTQ+ communities, and political policies like *checks notes* IVF.
Some of the gems in his speech include a rant about “diabolical lies” women were told about their career goals, urging them to pursue traditional gender roles and become fulfilled by being wives and mothers. He also spouted anti-LGBTQ+ hate in referring to the “deadly sin” associated with Pride Month, among other highly controversial thoughts.
Video clips of the speech began circulating social media in the week following his speech, with many hurt, offended, and shocked by his statements. Some of the commentary points out the fact that Butker’s own mom is a renowned physicist — not exactly the homemaker he is encouraging newly graduated college women to be. Further, Swifties have entered the chat: In response to Butker referencing a lyric from Swift’s “Bejeweled” (in a way that totally misses the point of the song), Swifties have clapped back, using another Swift lyric to call Butker “the smallest man who ever lived.”
Among those calling out Butker are celebrities, who have been vocal about their disagreement with the NFL player. Here are just some of the celebrity reactions to Harrison Butker’s graduation speech.
Drew Afualo
TikTok star Drew Afualo had a lot to say about Butker, posting a three-minute roast of the NFL player. “You’re a f*cking kicker, so relax,” she says in her video. “I can tell based on that f*cking speech … you have a lot of toxic masculinity going on, and that position is the least manly position on that entire f*cking team, coaches included. Maybe you ought to quit and go be a homemaker, ya b*tch.” She went on to add, on a more serious note, “If you’re violently bigoted because your mediocrity makes you feel bad, you are never gonna be happy.”
Jason Kelce
Underneath an Instagram post of Butker’s speech, former Philadelphia Eagles player and brother of Butker’s Chiefs teammate, Travis Kelce, Jason Kelce reportedly commented, “Yeah, this is not the type of values I want people and my children seeing on TV. Spread love. Hate and judgement is never the answer.”
Maren Morris
Maren Morris kept her criticism of this short and to the point: “I choose the bear,” she wrote, sharing a clip of Butker’s speech on her IG story. If you’ve seen the “man or bear” commentary on TikTok lately, you know exactly what she means.
Hoda Kotb & Jenna Bush Hager
The Today With Hoda & Jenna hosts did not hold back when it came to criticizing Butker’s comments. “Who is [Harrison] to tell us?” Bush Hager said on their May 16 show. “Don’t speak for us. I think that’s kind of the thing,” Kotb added. “Stop speaking for women out there.”
Maria Shriver
“As a woman who has leaned into my vocation of living a meaningful life inside and outside the home to not only raise good humans but also raise up our country in various ways, I think it’s demeaning to women to imply that their choices outside of wife and motherhood pale in comparison to that of a homemaker,” former First Lady of California Maria Shriver wrote on X.
Flavor Flav
“Sounds like some players ‘need to stay in their lanes’ and shouldn’t be giving commencement speeches,” Flavor Flav wrote on X about the speech, which is a reference to Butker’s quote during the speech: “I have no other choice but to … preach more hard truths about accepting your lane and staying in it.”