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Harrison Butker Kicks Balls

Scott Gilman
8 min readJun 20, 2024

The kicker’s hurtful commencement address was belittling and insulting towards women, and demeaning and misguided towards men.

Football goalposts
Photo by Daniel R. Blume / Flickr

Harrison Butker is a man who kicks balls.

For kicking balls, he received $3.5 million just for signing a contract — and earns an average annual salary of more than $4 million.

As a professional ball kicker, he’s good. Last year he was successful on 33 of his 35 attempts to kick a ball through yellow goalposts. His team won a championship for the second consecutive season.

Most of the days on which he kicks balls for a living are Sunday, which to many is a holy day, given over to rest, contemplation and prayer. For Butker, Sundays, at least those in the fall, are given over to labor and making more money than 99% of Americans.

A small, private Catholic college in Kansas, Benedictine College, chose Butker, a practicing Catholic, to deliver a commencement address to new graduates. What wisdom, what sage life advice, would a professional ball kicker offer to those embarking on their careers and lives as young adults?

Was it to follow their dreams? Was it to choose to forsake fame and fortune and instead commit to service of others, in betterment of the world? Was it to continue a lifetime of learning and personal growth? Was it to be empathetic and…

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Scott Gilman
Scott Gilman

Written by Scott Gilman

Thinking and writing about my place in the world, and making myself (and the world) a little bit better. I can be reached at scottmgilman@gmail.com.

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