Missouri Attorney General demands accountability over Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker's address doxing
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has been in the spotlight over the past 24 hours over his speech made at Kansas’ Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school.
Butker was called to the college to give a commencement speech at the graduation ceremony over the weekend. The speech in question, however, boiled over when Butker said :
“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.”
Speaking on diversity in education, Butker said:
“The world around us says that we should keep our beliefs to ourselves whenever they go against the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The official X (Twitter) account of the city of Kansas then proceeded to make the Chiefs kicker's address publicly available on social media before deleting the post and issuing an apology. However, Missouri's Attorney General is not quite satisfied with the apology.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey tweeted on May 16:
"My office is demanding accountability after @KansasCity doxxed @buttkicker7 last night for daring to express his religious beliefs.
"I will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion."
Thousands of NFL fans sign petition demanding Chiefs release Harrison Butker
Butker's commencement speech did more than just court controversy on social media.
Fans have now started a petition calling for the Chiefs to release the three-time Super Bowl champion.
At the time of writing, the petition garnered over 100,000 signatures.
The NFL also released a statement on Butker's speech, saying:
“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
It remains to be seen if the league will take any action, though several fans have pointed out that Colin Kaepernick was blackballed from the NFL for taking a strong political stance during his time in the league.