During training camp, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker said that he plans to use his “platform” during the offseason. He has apparently since revised his position.
Via the Associated Press, Butker recently announced the launch of the “Upright PAC.” Says the new PAC at its website, “We’re seeing our values under attack every day. In our schools, in the media, and even from our own government. But we have a chance to fight back and reclaim the traditional values that have made this country great. We are working to mobilize Christians across this country to make sure we protect these values at the ballot box.”
While it’s his absolute right to do it, it does conflict with what he said he’d be doing in August.
“I kind of look at the offseason as a little bit of a maybe five-month period where I can just represent me as Harrison Butker as a faithful Catholic,” Butker said at the time. “And then obviously when it gets to the season, I try to focus as much as I can on football and not being a distraction for the Chiefs.”
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt doesn’t view it as a distraction for the Chiefs.
“One of the things I talk to the players every year about at training camp is using their platform to make a difference,” Hunt said, via ESPN.com. “We have players on both sides of the political spectrum, both sides of whatever controversial issue you want to bring up. I’m not at all concerned when our players use their platform to make a difference.”
Some owners were very concerned when players used their platform to protest during the national anthem, mainly because it triggered a chunk of the audience that disagrees strongly with the idea that freedom of speech includes the freedom to use a moment of forced patriotism to make a point.
To the extent that Butker’s views mesh more closely with a very loud minority that reacts to dissent by making threats and/or launching boycotts, few in the broader NFL ecosystem will complain about whatever he’s doing.
