Colin Kaepernick knows a thing or two about being ‘cancelled,’ as they would say. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has found himself blackballed from the league ever since he took a knee before a game against the Chargers. While Kaepernick has been on the outside looking in owing to his beliefs, the same fate hasn’t befallen Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker.
The Chiefs kicker made some comments at a commencement speech at Kansas’ Benedictine College that ignited a fair bit of controversy. Butker said in his speech:
“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.
“I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
In addition to these, Butker’s comments on a range of issues, including IVF and diversity raised eyebrows, kicking up a storm.This week, Whoopi Goldberg compared Butker’s situation to Colin Kaepernick, saying:
“These are his beliefs and he’s welcome to them. I don’t have to accept them. In the same way, we want respect when Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, we want to give respect to people whose ideas are different from ours. I’m OK with him saying whatever he said.”
On Thursday, May 23, Kaepernick reposted a couple of posts to his Instagram stories, most of which highlighted the difference in Roger Goodell’s response to him kneeling and to Butker’s speech. Here’s a few:
Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid break silence on Harrison Butker’s commencement speech
Speaking to reporters this week, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said:
“We’re from different areas, different religions, different races. We all get along. We all respect each other’s opinions. And not necessarily do we go by those, but we respect everybody to have a voice.”
Patrick Mahomes took note of the incident in a similar vein. The Chiefs superstar told reporters:
“I know Harrison. I’ve known him for seven years. And I judge him by the character that he shows every single day, and that’s a good person. That’s someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family, and wants to make a good impact in society.
“When you’re in the locker room, there’s a lot of people from a lot of different areas of life, and they have a lot of different views on everything. And we’re not always gonna agree.”
