At the height of the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty, kicker Harrison Butker became a symbol for conservative values after discussing his religiously motivated views on family life during a speech at Benedictine College.<\/p>\n
The 2024 speech became a lightning rod across the\u00a0media, with everyone from ESPN\u2019s\u00a0Laura Rutledge<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Serena Williams<\/a>\u00a0to Eddie Vedder\u00a0ripping<\/a>\u00a0Butker for comments in which he cited \u201cdiabolical lies<\/a>\u201d told to women and called \u201chomemaker\u201d \u201cone of the most important titles of all.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chiefs stood by Butker: Head coach Andy Reid defended<\/a> him in the media, and tight end Travis Kelce sidestepped<\/a> the controversy on his popular podcast. And while Butker continued as the team\u2019s kicker, he also launched a conservative political action committee (PAC) and a menswear brand called Shepherd\u2019s.<\/p>\n After a couple decent seasons following the controversial speech, the 31-year-old kicker has made less than 70 percent of his field goals this year and went just 1-for-3 in Kansas City\u2019s Week 7 loss on Sunday Night Football.<\/p>\n Reacting to the Chiefs\u2019 loss Monday on\u00a0First Things First, host Nick Wright, a noted fan of the team, called out Butker\u2019s \u201cactivism\u201d as a reason for his decline.<\/p>\n \u201cHe started splitting his time between football and activism, and he hasn\u2019t been quite as good,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is just the timeline of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Nick Wright on Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker after 1-3 performance on Sunday Night Football:<\/p>\n \u201cHe started splitting his time between football and activism, and he hasn\u2019t been quite as good. That is just the timeline of it.\u201d \ud83c\udfc8 \ud83d\udcfa https:\/\/t.co\/uw97bigoaw<\/p>\n \u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 26, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n While Wright also noted Butker\u2019s age, he said he no longer feels as confident when the kicker steps up for a field goal as he did for the entirety of Kansas City\u2019s dynasty.<\/p>\n The comments matter not only because they pin Butker\u2019s struggles through the first two months of the season on his off-field work, but also because they sharply diverge from what Wright\u2019s co-host, Chris Broussard, said after Butker\u2019s campus speech in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cToday is so polarizing that people on national television or radio, people are blatantly misinterpreting what people are saying when what they actually said is right there and contradicting what you say,\u201d Broussard said at the time<\/a>. \u201cWith Harrison Butker, people took it like he was saying \u2018women shouldn\u2019t work\u2019 and \u2018women should be at home in the kitchen cooking and having babies.\u2019 He didn\u2019t say that!\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the backlash to Butker\u2019s comments was far more wide-ranging than many worse athlete quotes in recent years. As Broussard noted, the quip become a rallying cry for women in sports media and beyond despite the fact that Butker did not directly argue<\/a> that women should not pursue meaningful careers.<\/p>\n Butker\u2019s political work in the years since may offend some more, and it certainly qualifies more as the \u201cactivism\u201d Wright lamented than a speech at a university. But the Chiefs won a Super Bowl the season after Butker\u2019s speech, and the kicker didn\u2019t truly fall off until this season, more than two years after he moved toward \u201cactivism.\u201d<\/p>\n