- The Washington Times - Thursday, May 16, 2024

The Los Angeles Chargers mocked a rival player on social media for a commencement speech that had said motherhood should matter to women more than careers.

When the NFL schedules were released Wednesday night, the Chargers’ account on X released the order of their games in the style of a “Sims” video that, among other things, made fun of Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker.

Near the end of the 3:20 clip, there is about five seconds portraying a man in a Chiefs #7 jersey — Mr. Butker’s number — in the kitchen, putting food in the oven and doing other domestic chores.

Mr. Butker has been at the center of criticism from feminist and liberal attacks for his address to the graduates at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, on Saturday.

The kicker, who has publicly and frequently spoken about his Catholic faith and his traditionalist take on society, warned the students against “dangerous gender ideologies” and “degenerate cultural values.”

At one point, he specifically addressed the women in the audience, saying that their “most important title” should be “homemaker.”

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you,” he 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 her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”

The comment was widely decried as sexist and the Chargers’ post drew rounds of applause.

“Putting Harrison Butker in the kitchen after all of his comments was A+ trolling inside of the division and the kind of thing that years ago I don’t know if NFL teams would have necessarily gone along with,” podcaster Mike Golic Jr. said, calling the Chargers “the gold standard” for this sort of post.

Ironically, the Chargers also mocked a different Chiefs player for his very contemporary relationship.

The Chargers play one of their two games annually against the Chiefs in Week 4 and on that segment of the video, all-pro tight end Travis Kielce is portrayed as a subordinate being led around by his girlfriend, megastar singer Taylor Swift.

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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