Bill Maher defended NFL kicker Harrison Butker on Friday night’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher.
The Kansas City Chiefs kicker has gone under fire for perceived misogynistic comments he made during his graduation speech at Benedictine College. A devout Christian, Butker promoted traditional family values, encouraging women to get married and have kids, claiming that many women find true happiness as mothers rather than from pursuing a career.
Despite the unrelenting backlash that Butker has received, Maher isn’t sure he agrees with critics’ perception, implying that the kicker’s comments are being taken out of context.
He first emphasized “how much this guy is not like me,” noting that Butker is “religious, he loves marriage, he loves kids,” — pretty much everything the comedian is against.
He then went on to dissect the kicker’s commentary.
“I don’t get the thing he said, talking to women, ‘Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world.’ OK, that seems fairly modern,” Maher said before continuing to read an excerpt from the speech. “‘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 don’t see what the big crime is, I really don’t.”
Maher explained, “I think this is part of the problem people have with the left, is that lots of people in this country are like this. Like he’s saying some of you may go on to successful careers, but a lot of you are excited about this other way that people, everybody used to be and now can. Can’t that just be a choice too? And I feel like they feel very put upon like there’s only one way to be a good person and that’s to get an advanced degree from one of those a**hole factories like Harvard.”
You can watch the HBO host’s full comments below.
Maher isn’t the only one to come to the kicker’s defense. The Hunt family, who own the Kansas City Chiefs, as well as one of the team’s stars Chris Jones, have made comments in support of Butker.
Butker also spoke at a Catholic college, where many of the attendees share his traditional views. Last week on the show, as he typically does, Maher criticized the media for blowing things out of proportion.
Let us know where you stand in the comments above and just as a reminder, you can catch new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO or streaming on Max.