The Buffalo Bills aren’t the only beneficiaries of the knee injury to Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. 

News of Butker’s injury came out Thursday evening ahead of the Chiefs-Bills showdown Sunday, and, for many liberals disgruntled with the outcome of the recent election, the news was a reprieve and cause for celebration on social media. 

Several social media users posted in celebration of Butker’s injury, referencing the kicker’s previous comments on the benefit of women accepting domestic roles as mothers and wives and his endorsement of Trump. 

One widely circulated post had a caption that said, “Women seeing Harrison Butker get injured,” attached to a video of a television audience standing up and cheering passionately.

Another user wrote, “Please take all of Harrison Butker’s pain and have it stay exactly where it is.”

Some users took the injury as an opportunity to knock Butker’s masculinity.

One post said, “real men don’t miss work.” 

“Too busy bending the knee to Trump huh,” another post said. 

However, some fans stepped up to defend Butker from the harsh responses.

“Any of y’all, Chiefs ‘fans’ that are celebrating the Butker injury because of his ‘politics’ go find another team for we don’t need that kind of negative energy,” one fan wrote. 

Some used the injury as an opportunity to push conspiracy theories and make jokes about Butker being appointed for Trump’s Cabinet. 

HARRISON BUTKER’S FAITH-DRIVEN COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AT BENEDICTINE COLLEGE: READ THE SPEECH HERE

One user jokingly wrote, “Donald Trump announces that Harrison Butker will lead the Department of Women’s Rights and Home Affairs.”

Another user falsely wrote, “He’s holding out for a few weeks hoping for the ‘Director of Family Services’ cabinet position.”

The jokes and false claims about Butker come amid recent announcements of Trump’s Cabinet appointments, many of which have drawn praise and controversy. The appointments of Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency have been among the most discussed appointments in recent days. 

Butker endorsed Trump and Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley in the recent election. The kicker announced his Upright PAC along with Hawley, earning the praise of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.

The kicker’s shift into politics accelerated after he made remarks about women and their careers during a commencement address at Benedictine College. 

“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 began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” Butker said at the time. 

Shortly after the speech, Butker’s jersey sales soared. His jersey ranked 11th in NFL sales, from March 1 to May 31, the NFLPA said.

However, Butker’s speech also incited fierce and oftentimes emotional backlash from many in the mainstream media. Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins mocked Butker for being a kicker after delivering the remarks, while NBC’s “Today” host Hoda Kotb scolded the kicker, telling him “not to speak for women.” 

Butker later told Fox News host Laura Ingraham he’s “saddened” some people took his words in a “poor manner.” 

“I was trying to speak life for so many women that have dedicated their life to being the homemaker, being the one that raises the children. And it’s a beautiful role, but it’s not a role that should be diminished,” he explained. 

“There’s nothing shameful if you are a woman, and you want to spend time with your family and raise your children. So, it’s not putting down anyone who maybe wants to go get a great education and have a career. 

“But it’s more talking about how beautiful it is for women to maybe just step aside and prioritize their family and spend time with their children and raise their family. And that’s what I was just trying to speak love about.”

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Before he’d ever played the position, Jayden Maiava had a sense of what a Samoan quarterback could mean to his community. Growing up in Oahu’s Palolo Valley in a big Samoan family, he’d felt that power firsthand. Like so many other boys his age on the islands, he watched Marcus Mariota at Oregon and Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama with a sense of awe and wonder. He watched as the whole of Hawaii seemed to galvanize around them and boys emulated them, promising their friends they would be the next Marcus or Tua someday.

Maiava, at the time, had never been so bold as to envision a similar path for himself. Playing football had always been a foregone conclusion, but he’d never really considered playing quarterback. In his own family, where football roots ran generations deep, no one had ever tried the position. Most had settled along the defensive or offensive fronts, where Polynesian prospects were so often penciled in. Plus, Maiava was a quiet kid — not the type you’d first expect to welcome the pressure of the position.

But one day, soon after his family moved from Hawaii to Las Vegas, his new youth football team was in need of a quarterback. Uriah Moenoa, a former Hawaii offensive lineman who Maiava calls uncle, was helping coach the team. Moenoa expected, with his size and athleticism, that the seventh grader would gravitate to defense. Until someone asked if anyone could throw, and Maiava raised his hand.

“He’s been a quarterback pretty much ever since,” Moenoa says.

Now that shy Samoan boy who watched Marcus and Tua captivate the Samoan community is poised to step into a place of similar cultural significance. When he takes the field Saturday against Nebraska, he’ll become the first passer of Polynesian descent to start a game at quarterback for USC.

The weight of that history — at a school known both for its wellspring of quarterbacks and lineage of Polynesian stars — hasn’t been lost on Maiava, who called it “a blessing and a privilege.” The fact that he’ll duel with Nebraska freshman Dylan Raiola, another quarterback of Polynesian descent, only adds to the special moment.

“It’s big shoes for me to fill,” Maiava said. “But I think, with the great team we have, the great players, great coaches we have, it takes a lot off. It makes my job easier.”

Consider the rest that’s at stake Saturday, with USC’s hopes of bowl eligibility hanging by a thread, and you might wonder if that weight would be too much to shoulder for a young quarterback still finding his way. But teammates and coaches say they’ve seen Maiava step seamlessly into that spotlight since being named the starter during USC’s bye last week.

“He’s been way more confident,” said wideout Makai Lemon.

“He’s been putting his heart out there,” added offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon.

That certainly seemed to be the case last Tuesday as Maiava strolled into a crowd of reporters with a newfound air of confidence, just 24 hours after he’d been named the starter. This quarterback was not the same one that had mumbled through his first meeting with the media months earlier. It was as if, suddenly, he’d found his voice.

“How’s everybody doing?” Maiava said for all to hear, smiling as he approached. “Why’s everybody so quiet?”

The irony of that moment was not lost on Moenoa, who’d known Maiava since he was born. He’d been on four-hour car rides to Las Vegas with Maiava where he barely spoke a word.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava runs off of the field during a game against Wisconsin on Sept. 28 at the Coliseum.

(Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

That was how Moenoa had always known Maiava to be as one of eight siblings on the island. Hed’ always been quiet – and quick to defer to others around him.

“In Samoan culture, you never talk out of turn,” Moenoa said. “You never overtalk. You never boast. You just do your thing.”

But football had a way of bringing Maiava out of his shell. Quiet as he was off the field, Maiava had never shied away from contact on it. He was big and physical at a young age, but he was less sure quarterback was the right fit.

“At first, I didn’t want to play the position,” Maiava said this week. “I didn’t think I had what it took to play the position, honestly. But [family members] really pushed me and told me I could do it. As long as I put my mind to it, the rest would take care of itself.”

It wouldn’t be long before he started to believe. Maiava recalls one particular game against national power Bishop Gorman during his freshman year at Sierra Vista High as the moment it dawned on him that he could hang at quarterback.

Moenoa never doubted Maiava had the tools. Anyone could see that just looking at him. But that one season at Sierra Vista, he watched Maiava assert himself in a way he never had before.

“As a freshman, he took command of the team,” Moenoa said. “He had a lot of seniors on that O-line, but he really took command and everyone listened. As an uncle, I was proud watching him.”

Maiava would never get long to set his feet as a quarterback after that. He bounced between three high schools in two states before taking the reins as a freshman at Nevada Las Vegas last season. When he transferred to USC this past January, he stepped into a locker room that already had an entrenched leader at quarterback in Miller Moss.

Maiava was slow, at first, to warm up.

“He was new,” running back Woody Marks said, “so he really didn’t feel ready to open up.”

But that would come in time. By last Monday, when Lincoln Riley called him into his office to tell him he was the new starter, his teammates had already come to count on his steady demeanor.

“He’s just a guy who puts his head down and works every day,” wideout Kyle Ford said. “He’s not really worried about the end outcome all the time. He’s worried about the process and how he can get better every day, and I think that’s what he’s done to put himself in position.”

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava holds up the ball as he runs into the end zone in front of Utah State players on Sept. 7.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Stepping in as the starting quarterback, Maiava knew that he would have to be more vocal. But it wasn’t in his nature to announce himself as such, either.

“It’s just a matter of being present for them, letting me know I’m here for them,” Maiava said. “I’ve got my teammates’ back.”

For now, that’s all he’s worried about. He has tried to set aside the significance of Saturday, training his focus instead on his preparation.

“I know he’s hearing it, and he’s feeling it,” Moenoa said. “The message is still the same. Do what you need to do. Drown out the noise, focus on the task at hand.”

But for those who have watched his progress firsthand, it’s hard not to imagine what it would mean for a Samoan quarterback to become a star at USC.

Maybe, safety Akili Arnold wondered, he would even inspire other Polynesian football players to “not shy away from being that guy.”

“Now that Jayden is the first one at USC,” Arnold said, “it opens a lot of eyes for us.”

Barcelona announced last weekend a new multi-year partnership with kit supplier Nike, extending and updating a deal which had been set to end in 2028.

In recent months Barca president Joan Laporta has regularly boasted that he would secure a deal which would be “the biggest in all of world football”, and the extended contract could now be worth €1.7billion (£1.4bn;$1.8bn) over the next 14 seasons to 2038, bringing a major boost to the club’s troubled and complex financial situation.

Confirmation of the new arrangement ends a year-long saga which hurt relations between the Catalan club and the American sportswear giant. Yet it remains to be seen whether the deal will bring immediate relief to the team’s issues with La Liga’s salary limits — including most pressingly whether last summer’s signings Dani Olmo and Pau Victor can be registered to play for the team over the second half of this season.

The Athletic spoke to figures inside and outside Camp Nou, all of whom wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, about whether this is a good deal for Barcelona.

What did Barcelona say?

Announcing the contract on Saturday, Barca said in a statement: “This new partnership consolidates Nike as a main partner of the club and official technical partner across all professional and amateur teams, bringing a unique model that strengthens the brand association and fuels the global retail and licensing business growth.”

What are the financial details?

Barca officially told The Athletic that the details of the deal were confidential, but club sources stated a total figure of €1.7bn over the next 14 years.

The new contract will have two phases. The first is from 2024 to 2028, the latter year being when the previous agreement was to expire. Club sources say that for each of the next four years, the income will now be around €108million (£90m;$115m), close to doubling what the club had been earning in recent seasons.

From 2028, that figure will increase to around €120m each campaign over the following decade, according to the club sources.

These sources said that Barcelona would also receive a ‘signing bonus’ of €158m which will be divided over the 14 years of the deal, including the current season’s accounts.

Barca consider it to be a big victory for Barca following tough negotiations, guaranteeing that most of the promised annual income will be received, regardless of the team’s performances on the pitch.

When previous president Josep Maria Bartomeu’s board signed the previous deal in 2016, a headline figure of €105m a year was trumpeted. However, under that deal, when the team were not as successful as hoped, for instance dropping out of the Champions League early, the club actually received only €50-60m from Nike.

What are Nike saying?

Nike and Barca have worked together closely since their first deal was signed in 1998. When asked by The Athletic to comment on the new deal extension, Nike said it was delighted to continue this deep and meaningful relationship.

A Nike spokesperson said: “We are excited to progress our work together at all levels, from grassroots football initiatives that inspire and empower young players, to elevating FC Barcelona as a global icon of style and culture. Together, we are particularly passionate about advancing the growth of the women’s game, and our partnership with FC Barcelona’s women’s team is a testament to our shared dedication to equality and inclusivity in sport.”

Nike said they could not confirm details of the financial or business sides of the agreement.

What’s the optimistic view?

The €1.7bn headline figure is huge, even by the standards of multi-million kit deals at the elite level in club football. It would be a huge improvement on Barca’s previous earnings from Nike, a significant boost in revenues which would help improve the club’s financial situation over the coming years.

Importantly for many around Camp Nou, with the signing bonus included it would also mean that Barca have achieved Laporta’s often-stated ambition to top Real Madrid’s €120m-a-year agreement with Adidas, currently accepted as the most lucrative in world football.

This would back the current board’s case that they are working successfully to fix the financial problems they inherited from their predecessors.

Barca need cash to be able to play Dani Olmo in the second half of the season (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

What’s the reality of the situation?

It is not typical in football for a club to renegotiate a kit deal with four years still to run. But the agreement with Nike was identified by Barca’s board as a potential way to increase their revenues by ‘levering’ more money into their annual accounts.

Nike were only going to agree to a new deal if it suited them, and there had been anger within the U.S. multinational at how they had been treated through the whole negotiation process, including the Catalan club trying (unsuccessfully) to find a legal way to exit their previous agreement.

Laporta and his closest executives took charge of the negotiations which finally led to the weekend’s announcement. Full details of the agreement were not even shared with the board before last Friday’s vote to accept.

Some industry sources consulted by The Athletic were sceptical about the figures being claimed, with doubt from some in the Spanish capital about whether Barca’s deal really was going to be bigger than Madrid’s.

There were also concerns voiced about the effect of the new arrangement on the Catalan club’s Barca Licensing and Merchandising (BLM) arm, with the statement announcing the deal appearing to suggest a deeper role for Nike in this area of Barca’s business.

Since its launch by Bartomeu in 2018, BLM has been a big success. The €179m that Barca earned from kit and merchandising revenues was the most of any European club according to UEFA.

There are concerns that Nike playing a greater role in the many ‘casual’ ranges of clothing and other merchandise sold in official club shops will mean less of the profits end up in its coffers. Club sources have denied that this will be the case.

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What’s the latest on Barca’s salary limit?

As so often in recent years, Barca had to work hard this summer to be able to register all their current squad members with La Liga, including Spain international playmaker Olmo, a €60m arrival from RB Leipzig, and young striker Victor, a €2.7m signing from Girona.

Both were only registered at the last minute, using La Liga’s financial rule 77, which allows for the temporary replacement of injured players (in this case Andreas Christensen). That meant they were only registered with La Liga until December 31. For either or both to feature after the winter break, the club must find more money from somewhere.

Victor is another player experiencing uncertainty at Barcelona (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)

During a press conference in early September, Laporta said that Barca were “€60million away” from returning to a situation where La Liga would let them sign and register players as normal.

A few weeks later it emerged that Barca’s auditors had required a write-down in its 2023-24 accounts of the value of the club’s troubled ‘Barca Vision’ subsidiary, which holds its current and future media rights and activities.

This meant that Barca now needed to raise an estimated €120m to get back within its allowed salary limit for the current campaign.

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Reading Barca’s accounts – and why a ‘€12m profit’ is actually a €91m loss

How could the new Nike deal affect the situation?

When Laporta has been asked about the Barca Vision problem, he would often mention the bumper benefits of a new kit deal as at least part of the solution.

One hope was that a ‘bonus’ of €100m-plus could fill most or all of the immediate holes in the club’s accounts caused by the failure of the Barca Studios lever. The agreed deal now divides this bonus over its 14-year term — meaning only an estimated €9m extra in 2024-25 (plus the extra €40m in normal revenues over the course of the season).

Club sources have told The Athletic that the new Nike deal helps but does not resolve the Barca Vision issue. So the search continues for more investors in that project. There is confidence at the highest level at Camp Nou that this will be successful, and player sales will not be required in the winter transfer window. However, as so often under the current regime, it looks likely to go right down the wire.

And over the longer term?

The general impression is that this new Nike deal fits well with Laporta’s policies during his second presidency. The club is gaining upfront money which it can use to fix holes in the accounts and continue to spend on the squad.

A longer-term issue with the new Nike contract flagged in multiple conversations with industry sources is that Barca are now locked into this deal for another 14 years. Given the inflation in the market, €127m a year may not look so good by 2034. “This deal could tie the hands and feet of the next president,” an ex-Blaugrana board member told The Athletic.

However, there is also an understanding that Barca are where they are, and the numbers coming from the club are impressive and necessary. “Financially this new Nike deal is a tremendous boost of oxygen,” said one influential figure in the club’s ‘entorno’ who has not always backed Laporta’s lever policies.

(Additional reporting: Pol Ballús)

(Top photo: Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)