Retired Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce, who is the father of three young girls, shared his reaction to the controversial commencement speech by Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, in which he encouraged the women in the audience to be homemakers over having careers.
Jason Kelce and his brother, Chiefs All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce, each gave their thoughts on Butker's speech on the May 24 episode of their "New Heights" podcast.
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"I've had so many people ask me, 'What would you do if your daughters had to sit there and listen to somebody tell them after they just earned a degree that they should just go to align to be homemakers?'" Jason Kelce said. "And I would say if my daughters listen to anybody tell them what to do — that they should be homemakers — then I failed as a dad."
In his speech to the graduating class of Benedictine College in Kansas on May 11, Butker called being a homemaker one of the “most important” roles for a woman and said his own wife’s life “really started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
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“Isabelle’s dream of having a career might not have come true, but if you ask her today if she has any regrets on her decision, she would laugh out loud without hesitation and say no," Butker said about his wife in his speech.
Jason Kelce is the father of daughters Wyatt, 4, Elliotte, 3, and Bennett, 1, with wife Kylie Kelce. He hopes to imprint on them that they should be free thinkers.
"If you let somebody up on a stage tell you that you can’t do that, and then you’re like, ‘Oh f---, I guess I won’t go be a Fortune 500 CEO,' like you weren’t going to make it," he said. "Like what are we talking about? If you don’t like what somebody says, all you’ve got to do is say, ‘Oh, that guy’s a f------ idiot’ and then you move on."
"I get what the fuss is about because I know that certain of these groups have been persecuted against for a long period in this country, and women in particular."
He then relayed what Kylie Kelce thought about Butker's speech before making a joke.
"My wife, she was I think a little bit frustrated with some of the comments," Jason Kelce said. "Initially I said, ‘Listen, you’re going to need to go back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich, I’m listening to the game right now.’"
"We were doing so good," Travis Kelce said of their conversation prior to his brother's joke while laughing. "We were killing it."
"I hope she didn’t hear that," Jason Kelce said.
"You’re ridiculous. She’s gonna use the sword before this episode’s over with," Travis Kelce responded, referring to the sword Jason Kelce recently gave his wife as an anniversary present.
Earlier in the episode, Travis Kelce reacted to his teammates's controversial speech. The tight end explained that while he "can't agree with the majority" of what Butker said, he recognizes that those are Butker's personal opinions and that he shouldn't "judge him by his views, especially his religious views, of how to go about life."
Jason Kelce also echoed some of his brother's comments when it comes to being teammates with someone who may have a much different view of the world.
"There’s always going to be opinions that everybody shares that you’re going to disagree with,” Jason Kelce said. “And make no mistake about it, a lot of the things he said in his commencement speech are not things that I align myself with. But, he’s giving a commencement speech at a Catholic university, and, shocker, it ended up being a very religious and Catholic speech.
“To me, I can listen to somebody talk and take great value in it, like when he’s talking about the importance of family and the importance that a great mother can make, while also acknowledge that not everybody has to be a homemaker if that’s not what they want to do in life," he continued.
There was one aspect of Butker's speech that Jason Kelce agreed with.
"He talks about family," he said. "I don't think we have enough people talking about the foundations of families and the importance, and the seriousness of parenthood. If you are going to embark on being a parent, I do think it's got to be the most important thing in your life. If your kids are not the most important thing in you and your wife's life, you are failing, in my opinion.
He also reflected on their own mother, Donna Kelce, who has become a popular figure in her own right.
"We had a mother who was a very, very hard-working woman, career-oriented, and also a homemaker," Jason Kelce said.
"If you want to go on and be a businessman, go on and be a businessman," he later continued. "If you want to go on and be a female doctor, go on and be a female doctor."
The Kelce brothers were the latest to share their opinions on Butker's speech. Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid each spoke about it on May 22, affirming their support of Butker while disagreeing with the content of his commencement address.
Butker also spoke out in his speech against birth control and IVF while taking a shot at Pride Month, which begins June 1 in celebration of the LGBTQ+ community.
The NFL reacted by saying his comments were “not those of the NFL as an organization.”
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