Harrison Butker’s jersey sales surpass Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes: But Benedictine College nuns denounce kicker’s speech

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has seen a surge in jersey sales, outpacing those of his superstar teammates Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

This spike in sales follows Butker's commencement speech at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, which has drawn sharp criticism and support from various quarters.

According to the official NFL Shop, Butker’s No. 7 jersey had become the top seller among Kansas City Chiefs merchandise as of Friday afternoon. CBS Sports confirmed this trend, noting that Butker’s remarks during the graduation ceremony had significantly influenced his jersey’s popularity.

Although specific sales numbers were not disclosed, the jersey was listed among the “Top Sellers” on the NFL Shop website.

Butker’s speech at Benedictine College addressed several issues, including gender roles, abortion and cultural values. His speech included comments suggesting that many women are most excited about their roles as wives and mothers rather than pursuing professional careers.

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you,” Butker said. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

His remarks sparked backlash, particularly from the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, who issued a statement condemning Butker’s views. The nuns, associated with the college, said his comments did not reflect the institution’s values.

“The sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested,” read the statement posted on Facebook.

“We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and through their God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers.”

Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, said Butker’s views were his own and not reflective of the league’s stance. Harrison Butker “gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger,” Beane stated.

GLAAD, an LGBT activist organization, also criticized Butker’s speech, describing it as “a clear miss” and “woefully out of step with Americans about [p]ride, LGBTQ people and women.” The organization also reacted Butker’s denouncement of so-called LGBT pride month.

However, Butker also received support from prominent individuals, including Tavia Hunt, the wife of Chiefs' owner Clark Hunt.

In an Instagram post, Tavia Hunt defended Butker’s praise of motherhood, noting that affirming the role of mothers is not bigoted. “Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted,” she wrote.

Over 216,600 people have signed a petition calling for the NFL and the Chiefs to release Butker, labeling his speech as “sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion and racist.”

Butker’s speech also included criticism of President Joe Biden and addressed issues such as abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia and what he described as “degenerate cultural values.”

He urged graduates to align their lives more closely with God’s will, using his wife, Isabelle, as an example of finding fulfillment in traditional roles. “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 ‘heck no,’” Butker told the audience.

In a public appearance, Gracie Hunt, the daughter of Clark Hunt, expressed respect for Butker’s Christian faith and accomplishments.

“I really respect Harrison and his Christian faith and what he’s accomplished on and off the field,” she said. Gracie Hunt shared her own positive experiences growing up with a stay-at-home mother, acknowledging that while not all women can make that choice, it was formative for her and her siblings.

Some nun/priest stories:

1) I was in grade school. We had a thing called “going on patrol” where we would take a cane pole with a flag on the end and use it when kids needed to cross the street. One of the older boys taught me a new word that started with “F”. The poles were kept in a machinery room. One nun, Sister Ellen, asked me to take one outside to which I replied “I don’t f’ing want to”. I had no idea what the “F” word meant but the 6 ft 2 nun did. This was an old school face only nun. I woke up in front of my first period class because she backhanded me and knocked me out then dragged me down the hall. She was also the school nurse, so she checked me before just leaving me there. I came to and saw all the kids in class wide-eyed looking at me. They thought she had killed me. When my parents found out they looked at me and said, “bet you won’t say that again” and that was that.

2) In high school we had this ancient nun who was our art teacher. It was right before summer vacation, and we went to this place where a guy we called “the hippie” was going to teach us how to make pottery. We tried to do a good job but were pretty bad at it. As we were leaving the “hippie” gave a beautiful pot to the nun and we telling her something but we could not hear what he was saying. When we got back after summer break, we were in her art class and the principal came in. He was a big Irish Catholic black-haired guy who was walking around saying hello to everyone and suddenly he yells “Jesus Mary Joseph” and runs out of the room with something. We heard a commotion in the hallway, as he runs past the classroom door, he is holding the pot that the hippie had given the nun months back and in the pot was a somewhat large marijuana plant. She had watered it and fed it all summer just as he told her. We never saw that nun again.
3) My buddy and I were going down a road across town and saw a new movie that was playing. We stopped and got in line. I looked up the line and saw the back of a fellow’s head and instantly knew it was our school principal. We buddy looked up the line on his side and said to me “hey, that’s the head cheerleader”. I looked and darn if it wasn’t the high school principal (a different one that the Irish guy above) and the head cheerleader. I told my buddy “You go up that side of the line and I’ll go up this side. Just stop and say hello and turn around and leave, don’t say anything else”. We walked up on each side, and they were holding hands. We both said “hello” and the priest turned white and jerked his hands away. She just went “uh oh”. The next Monday we saw the priest and I said “father, it was nice to see you. We would like for you to write a note to the folks in the front office saying that we are doing a special project and can leave at any time”. He first said he could not do that but changed his mind after I said “I know (name of head cheerleader) father pretty well you know. He said OK and from that point on we came and left school as we pleased. Usually going to a pizza place and ordering boxes of pizzas and selling slices at lunch for outrageous prices because we got permission for that too.
4) Senior year the nuns made us leave school because we had to sell advertisements for the senior play. They would be published in the program for the play. Since there was a somewhat seedy part of town about 30 minutes away, I had the bright idea to go to a few clubs and see if we could get in and raise some money. These were not what you would call high class clubs with high class women, but we had made our way into a few of them in the past. Yea, these were very seedy places with pole dancers. Management could care less about our ages and only if we had cash and cash we had. That year we broke a record for the most money ever raised for senior play advertisements, nearly $5,000. It seems the management of the places agreed with me that it would be super amusing to see if their ads could get into the program. For some reason the nuns did not appreciate our efforts and none of the ads made it into the programs. They were very mad but kept the money.

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