Harrison Butker spoke to local Kansas City media at training camp today for the first time since his controversial May commencement speech at Benedictine College.

Butker became a lightning rod for suggesting that some of its female graduates looked forward to being wives and mothers more than entering the working world.

The Chiefs kicker isn’t backing down from those comments.

Butker recently signed a $25.6 million contract with the Chiefs to become the highest-paid place kicker in the NFL. He is coming off a career-best season in which he hit 94.3 percent of his field goal attempts and was a perfect 11-for-11 in field goals for the Chiefs’ most recent Super Bowl run.

Today, Butker said he “respected all the viewpoints” of people who disagreed with his speech, which included criticisms of President Joe Biden and his handling of COVID-19, and comments on abortion, IVF, surrogacy, and euthanasia.

“I prayed about it, I thought about it, and I was very intentional with what I said,” Butker said of his speech. “I stand by what I said.

“I really believe if people knew me as a person, and understood that it was coming from a place of love, and not a place of trying to attract or put people down,” Butker added. “I only want the best for people, that’s what I was trying to say there. I think the people that were in that gymnasium all understood what I was saying.”

Butker was criticized by many in the sports world, including Serena Williams at the ESPY Awards and a former Chiefs cheerleader.

“I’ve been in the league now seven years and I do have a platform,” Butker added Wednesday. “So with that comes people that want me to state what I believe to be very important.”

“I’m going to continue to say what I believe to be true and love everyone along the way.”

The Chiefs start the quest for their third-straight championship on Sept. 5 against the Ravens on Thursday Night Football.

The Kansas City Chiefs will face off with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday night in the team’s first action of the 2024 preseason. Following Wednesday’s training camp practice, head coach Andy Reid revealed his plans for KC’s first exhibition game.

“As far as the play time for this game, we’ll go the ones for a quarter, twos for the second quarter, threes the third quarter and fours for the fourth quarter, and we’ll just keep it at that,” Reid said.

Asked if he’s especially interested to see any particular players on Saturday, Reid said he’s expecting to see the whole roster hit the field.

“I’m gonna play everybody,” Reid said. “All those young guys, I’d love to see how they compete. The higher draft picks are gonna be in there [against] a little bit better competition, so I want to see how they handle that.”

Reid was asked about the fact that he consistently plays Mahomes and the starters in the preseason, despite the fact that much of the NFL has moved away from playing their star quarterbacks in exhibitions. Why has Reid’s philosophy stayed the same?

“I allow ’em to get into the swing of things, and the ones know how to do that,” Reid said, referring to the starters. “Both sides of the ball, they know how to go about doing that, but somewhere you’ve got to get on there and shoot, and so it gives him an opportunity to do that.”

Reid was asked directly if veteran left guard Joe Thuney will play in Saturday’s game, and Reid said he will not. Asked if any of the players who didn’t practice on Wednesday would play, Reid said he wouldn’t expect them to, but that there may be time for a player to make their way back by kickoff.

“I would probably say no,” Reid said. “We’ll see, we’ll get it to you. We’ve got a few days yet.”

In years past, Reid has announced similar plans for his starters beore ultimately pulling them earlier in the game. In last year’s preseason debut, Mahomes played one drive before being replaced by Blaine Gabbert. Gabbert played three drives before being replaced by Shane Buechele late in the second quarter.

With history in mind, Reid’s comments should be taken with a grain of salt. Reid has stayed old-school in regards to having his starters participate in preseason action, but you shouldn’t expect to see much of Mahomes and Co. on Saturday night.

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