Not because I was offended — I personally am not in a group he targeted — but because his comments are so objectionably offensive both to women and to everyone who is not heteronormative.
If I were his teammate, I would prefer he would not drag the rest of us in the organization into his judgmental little orbit with public speeches like this one, especially since I am 100% opposed to his religious beliefs about both the “role” women were “created” to fulfill and his dismissal of the reality of non-heteronormativity. Having said that, I also defend his right to say what he wants when/where he wants.
Because Butker so publicly declared his “side” on these societal issues, though, he has opened the door both to positive reinforcement of and negative feedback from his opinions.
The Butker grad speech also reflects the Chief’s owners religious views. Do not assume from this that the viewpoints enumerated in that speech are indicative of anything close to a majority viewpoint of the rest of the team and organization employees or the community as a whole. Hold off on that until you have evidence.
I’d hold off on making a judgement about these sales sans actual knowledge about who is making the purchases. A large amount of the number of RWNJ ideological socio-political-religious book sales in the USA are made by deep-pocket conservative organizations/individuals in hopes of stimulating purchases by on-line shoppers who make purchase choices based on starred reviews and total sales numbers, and while sales in the KC area on either side of the state line are high, that does not necessarily establish a reliable baseline for calculating fan support for Butler’s Benedictine U graduation speech.
Don’t forget to include the fact that somewhere near half of all NFL fans in the KC area and the entire nation, and a like number of non-sports fans everywhere in the US, are highly motivated to purchase anti-“Woke” gear (a Butker KC Chiefs jersey being the current prime example) as a result of the enormous publicity generated last season (and continuing) of the Taylor Swift and Chiefs TE Travis Kelcy ongoing romance. A lot of these Butker jersey sales are perhaps as much a STFU to that as they are support for the Butker grad speech.
‘Many fans have implored the Chiefs to part ways with Butker due to his divisive address. A petition calling for the 28-year-old to be removed from Kansas City’s roster is closing in on 200,000 signatures.’ msn. com/en-us/sports/other/harrison-butker-jersey-sales-go-through-the-roof-after-chiefs-kicker-s-speech/ar-BB1mALJ3
I want to be careful not to over-generalize, here, but if’n-you-ain’t-with-me-you-has-to-be-agin’-me seems to be a common denominator for the more extreme branches on the social-economic and/or religious conservative tree.
Quite a sweeping generalization you’ve presented here, knudtl. Who exactly would you list under the heading ‘dumb people’? What evidence would you provide if asked to prove your claim that ‘most’ of that group put sport’s first in there life?
I am a Chiefs fan. There were a number of times during the past season where Butker punts got the Chiefs out of a tight spot while simultaneously placing their opponent in one, and I commented to friends I was watching the game with that I thought our punter would challenge for All-Pro. I did not know of his objectionable (to me) socio-religious convictions until I read articles about his graduation speech last week, and now I’d prefer the Chiefs replace him.
Cool story, bro. It’s your story, tell it any way you want. If you believe it, it has to be true.
Like I said, it’s your story.