Travis Kelce has broken his silence on his teammate Harrison Butker’s controversial commencement speech. Kelce addressed the speech on the May 24 episode of his “New Heights” podcast.
“I cherish him as a teammate. I think Pat said it best where he is every bit of a great person and a great teammate,” Kelce stated. “He’s treated family and family that I’ve introduced to him with nothing but respect and kindness. And that’s how he treats everyone. When it comes down to his views and what he said at Saint Benedict’s commencement speech, those are his.”
“I can’t say I agree with the majority of it or just about any of it outside of just him loving his family and his kids,” Kelce continued. “And I don’t think that I should judge him by his views. Especially his religious views of how to go about life, that’s just not who I am.”
Travis Kelce Breaks Silence on Harrison Butker’s Controversial Speech
Travis Kelce went on to talk about his upbringing and how that affected his views on life.
“I grew up in a beautiful upbringing of different social classes, different religions, different races and ethnicities, in Cleveland Heights, and that’s why I love Cleveland Heights for what it was,” Travis stated.
“It showed me a broad spectrum. Just a broad view of a lot of different walks of life. And I appreciated every single one of those people for different reasons, and I never once had to feel like I needed to judge them, based off of their beliefs.”
Travis Kelce’s brother, Jason, also addressed the comments. He also noted the environment in which Butker was giving the speech may have contributed to what was said.
“There’s always going to be opinions that everybody shares that you’re going to disagree with,” Jason said. “And make no mistake about it, a lot of the things he said in his commencement speech are not things that I align myself with. But he’s giving a commencement speech at a Catholic university. And, shocker, it ended up being a very religious and Catholic speech.”
“To me, I can listen to somebody talk and take great value in it, like when he’s talking about the importance of family and the importance that a great mother can make, while also acknowledge that not everybody has to be a homemaker if that’s not what they want to do in life,” Jason concluded.