Patrick Mahomes is defending his controversial teammate, Harrison Butker, after the latter’s sexist, anti-LGBTQIA+ commencement speech went viral.
“I’ve known Harrison for seven years, and I judge him by the character that he shows every single day, and that’s a good person,” the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback told an inquiring reporter Wednesday after the team’s practice.
“That’s someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family and wants to make a good impact in society.”
Mahomes, 28, went on to say that locker rooms are filled with “a lot of people from a lot of different areas” who “have a lot of different views on everything.”
However, the married father of two made sure to note, “There’s certain things that [Butker] said that I don’t necessarily agree with.”
Sticking up for his kicker’s “character,” Mahomes continued, “I understand the person that he is, and he’s trying to do whatever he can to lead people in the right direction.”
He added that the two “might not” share the same “values” but ultimately branded Butker a “great person.”
“At the end of the day, we’re gonna come together as a team. I think that’ll help out as well as eliminating those distractions outside the building as well,” Mahomes stated, before another reporter asked what specific parts of Butker’s speech he disagrees with in an effort to provide clarification.
“There’s just certain values that some people emphasize more than others, and there’s just certain things that I didn’t necessarily agree with,” Mahomes replied vaguely. “But at the same time, I’m not gonna judge him by that. I judge him by the way he acts every single day.”
He went on to say that he would not “get into the full details of the entire speech” because he knows “what kind of person” Butker is.
Mahomes concluded, “I’m gonna make sure that I look at that first and then let the other stuff kind of handle itself.”
Earlier this month, Butker – who is also a 28-year-old married father of two – took the stage at Benedictine College’s graduation ceremony and railed against working women, Pride Month and other issues during his 20-minute address, which led to instant blowback on social media and beyond.
Butker – whose mother is actually an accomplished physicist – took aim at abortion, IVF, surrogacy and “dangerous gender ideologies” before informing the female graduates that their “most important title” should be “homemaker.”
Though Mahomes seems to have Butker’s back amid the controversy, the football players were not on speaking terms as recently as February.
The former said following the pair’s third Super Bowl win together that he and the latter “don’t talk.”
