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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes broke his silence on Harrison Butker’s commencement speech, but fans are not happy with what he had to say.
Earlier this month, Butker, who is teammates with Mahomes, delivered a graduation speech in which he spoke on COVID-19, gender roles, President Joe Biden, and the LGBTQ community.
The speech sparked controversy over his statements, specifically that women’s “vocation” is to be “homemakers” while men “set the tone of the culture.”
Days after the speech went viral, Butker’s teammate Patrick Mahomes released a statement.
Patrick Mahomes told reporters that he has known Harrison for “seven years” and he “judges him by the character that he shows every single day, and that’s a good person.”
“That’s someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family and wants to make a good impact in society,” the NFL quarterback said. “When you’re in a locker room, there’s a lot of people from a lot of different areas in life and they have a lot of different views on everything.”
He then acknowledged that not everyone will always agree and “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 added that “might not be the same values as I have,” but “I’m going to judge him by the character that he shows every single day.”
“That’s a great person, and we’ll continue to move along and try to help build each other up to make ourselves better every single day,” he concluded.
Following his statement, fans are flooding Patrick Mahomes’s latest Instagram post, expressing their frustrations and disappointment in his statement.
“Sexism is not an opinion. It’s hate speech. Women’s bodily autonomy has already been diminished in this country. This narrative from your organization is insulting,” one user commented.
“Disappointed – cute family, but what you stand for shows your family why they should respect you. How would you like Harrison to talk to you girls as he did to the graduating class that just accomplished getting a degree and being independent and not relying on a man, only if one wants to,” another said.
Shameful – you got a boost in your audience from Kelce and Taylor Swift and now Harrison has not only jeopardized that improvement but also the existing fans – I personally am eyeing at other teams to support. Done with the Chiefs!” they added.
Another user expressed, “Really disappointing statement about Butker. There will be no progress of men don’t stand up to each other.”
“Sticking up for Butker is not having your daughter’s back,” another wrote.
“We need real men, men that will stand up for women. We do not need men that support other men that are trying to tear women down,” one Instagram user wrote. “Real men are not scared of the success of women and don’t feel the need to simplify the role of women. @patrickmahomes Be the change, you have a voice, use it good. Stop locker room talk, end the thinking that boys will be boys. Be better for your daughters and wife.
