Kylie Kelce took issue with certain parts of Harrison Butker’s controversial graduation speech — as did her husband, Jason Kelce.
“A lot of the things he said in his commencement speech are not things that I align myself with, but he was giving a commencement speech at a Catholic university and — shocker — it ended up being a very religious and Catholic speech,” Jason, 36, said during the Friday, May 24, episode of his and brother Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast. “To me, I can listen to someone talk and take great value in it.”
Kylie, 31, however, had a different initial reaction.
“Obviously, my wife — she was, I think, a little bit frustrated by some of the comments,” Jason said before sarcastically adding, “I said, ‘Listen, you’re gonna need to go back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. [There’s] a game right now.’”
Jason and Travis, 34, then burst out laughing at the “ridiculous” joke, teasing that they’d done a good job of keeping the conversation serious until that point.
“I hope she doesn’t hear that,” Jason mumbled.
Butker, 28, delivered the commencement address at Benedictine College in Kansas earlier this month. In his speech, he made controversial comments on the LGBTQIA+ community, IVF and surrogacy, women becoming stay-at-home mothers and more.
The kicker, who plays with Travis on the Kansas City Chiefs, has not publicly addressed the backlash, but the NFL quickly distanced itself from Butker’s comments. Both Travis and Jason, meanwhile, pointed out that they can respect his beliefs despite feeling differently themselves.
“Like, when he’s talking about the importance of family and the importance that a great mother can make … [I] can also acknowledge that not everybody has to be a homemaker if that’s not what they want to do in their life,” Jason explained. “When you’re listening to somebody you take in things that you like [and] you listen to other things and say, ‘I don’t f—king like that.’”
Jason further noted that pursuing parenthood — he shares daughters Wyatt, 4, Ellie, 3, and Bennett, 14 months, with Kylie — is very serious. Jason also doesn’t think that “women are the issue here,” explaining that there’s a larger issue regarding dads raising children.
“I don’t think we have enough people talking about the foundations of families and the importance and the seriousness of parenthood,” he said. “If you are going to embark on being a parent, I do think it needs 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.”
Thinking about his own family, the retired Philadelphia Eagles center further spoke about how he would feel if his girls were in the crowd during Butker’s speech.
“If my daughters listen to anybody tell them what to do [and] that they should be homemakers, then I’ve failed as a dad,” Jason said. “What the f—k are you talking about? I don’t care who’s talking to them. If you let somebody up on a stage tell you that you can’t do that, then [think], ‘Well, f—k, I guess I can’t be a Fortune 500 CEO,’ like, you aren’t gonna make it.”
He continued, “If you don’t like what somebody says all you gotta say is, ‘That guy’s a f—king idiot,’ and then you move on.”
