Harrison Butker beats Travis Kelce in merchandise sales — just the second kicker ever to make NFL's top-50 list



Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker placed 11th on the NFL's list of top merchandise movers, beating teammate and pop culture crossover Travis Kelce.

Kelce has been featured in commercials for controversial brands like Bud Light and Pfizer (to promote vaccines) and is famously dating pop singer Taylor Swift.

Butker, on the other hand, has made headlines for daring to promote Christianity while standing against woke and diversity-centric ideologies.

Earlier in the summer, Butker became the highest-paid NFL kicker of all time when he signed a four-year, $25.6 million extension. This has Butker averaging a salary of $6.4 million through the 2028 season.

The NFL Players Association recently released its top 50 sales list, which tracks sales of officially licensed NFL player merchandise from online and traditional retail outlets. This includes jerseys, T-shirts, hoodies, bobbleheads, and much more.

Butker placed 11th on the list just ahead of Kelce, who placed 12th.

Not only was this Butker's first appearance on the list, but he became only the second kicker to ever sell enough merchandise to make the top 50. The first was Evan McPherson, who appeared on the list in 2022.

'I just really wanted to show love and show people what I stand for. I pray for everybody.'

While Butker's teammate Patrick Mahomes II was second on the merchandise list, a somewhat surprising No.1 entry was C.J. Stroud.

Stroud, quarterback for the Houston Texans, openly proclaimed and promoted his faith throughout his rookie season. Fans flocked to Stroud to hear what he had to say due to his refreshingly open views on his religion.

Some controversy developed in January 2024, however, when NBC edited an interview with Stroud to remove his mentions of Jesus.

At the start of the interview, Stroud said, "First and foremost, I just want to give all glory and praise to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." He then added, "Thank you, God bless," at the end of the interview.

When the interview hit social media, however, both sections were removed with an obvious edit, as the camera angle jumped to a closeup, leaving out the shout-outs to Jesus.

Stroud eventually spoke to Fox News on the subject after his team had been eliminated from the playoffs, weeks later.

"I just really wanted to show love and show people what I stand for. I pray for everybody. I don't really have any feeling towards it, I just pray for everyone," the quarterback said.

"It's cool to see people use their platform to show their purpose and the Lord. I think we have a really good community of a lot of believers in the league, really around the sports world."

Stroud and Butker have led a charge among athletes in the last couple years to be more open about their Christian beliefs. In turn, fans have responded by supporting them both on and off the field.

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Kansas City fires employee who used official social media to dox Harrison Butker



Kansas City confirmed they have fired the city employee who used the government account on X, formerly known as Twitter, to post the area Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker lives in after leftist backlash to his commencement speech at a private Catholic college.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas confirmed the employee was fired during an interview with KCMO Talk Radio on Thursday, according to KBTX. The city also released a statement, "The employee has been separated from the City workforce for violation of City policy by posting outside the scope of authorized City communications. The City will have no further comment on the post or individual employees related to it.”

'I don’t think he was speaking ill to women.'

The initial post was up for nearly 30 minutes before it was deleted. The city's account then posted an "apologies" for the "error."

— (@)

"Over the past 24 hours, some seeking to harass, bully, and intimidate have sent slurs and threats to and shared photos of women employees with no involvement with recent City posts. Honestly, please just stop, be decent. The buck stops with me. Please leave them alone," Lucas said in response to the outrage of the city's post.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey threatened to sue the city for abusing it position to go after Butker for his religious beliefs.

"I will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion," Bailey announced.

— (@)

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes said they support Butker when asked about his pro-family speech he gave at Benedictine College.

“I don’t think he was speaking ill to women,” Reid said. “He has his opinions, and we all respect that. I let you guys in this room, and you have a lot of opinions that I don’t like, so.”

“I’ve known him for seven years. I judge him by the character he shows every day, and that’s a good person. That's someone who cares about the people around him, cares about his family,” Mahomes explained. “We’re not always going to agree. He said certain things I don’t necessarily agree with.”

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Kansas City 'apologies' for doxxing star kicker Butker over Catholic beliefs — but that's not enough for the Missouri AG



Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, 28, gave a commencement speech last weekend at Benedictine College wherein he dared to articulate beliefs anchored in the millenniums-old moral teachings of the Catholic Church, now codified in the Catechism and followed by millions of Americans nationwide.

The three-time Super Bowl champ drew the ire of radicals in the liberal media and political establishment for doing so — for echoing the late Pope John Paul II in noting that "abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for the degenerate cultural values and media all stem from pervasiveness of disorder."

The kicker further enraged leftists by celebrating the institution of marriage, the vocation of motherhood, the link between male weakness and cultural dysfunction, the sinfulness of pride and Pride month, and by highlighting the incompatibility of President Joe Biden's professed faith and his views on abortion.

After all, the Catholic Church has made clear that abortion "is gravely contrary to the moral law"; "formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense" carrying the canonical penalty of excommunication; and Catholic political leaders have an obligation to stand up for the rights of the unborn.

Besides upsetting talking heads on cable news shows, Butker's expression of Catholic views at a Catholic school evidently enraged the person running Kansas City's social media accounts.

Doxxed

Kansas City's X account posted, "Just a reminder that Harrision Butker lives in ...," then provided the location where the kicker could be found.

This tweet, which was posted at 7:41 p.m. on Wednesday, qualifies as textbook "doxxing," defined as the public identification or publication "of private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge."

There was a swift backlash against the city online as it was widely understood this tweet amounted to an effort to punish and possibly endanger Butker over his opinions.

'Use of government social media to retaliate against an individual based on their religious beliefs amounts to discriminatory behavior that is not tolerated under our Constitution or Missouri statute.'

Matthew Peterson, editor in chief at Blaze News, noted, "If our cities are revealing private information about the residents they are supposed to be serving simply because local government officials disagree with their political views and statements, that's a call to action. Solving this problem will take a lot more than complaining on the internet. Americans need to band together and work locally to hold their local governments accountable."

Just hours later, at 9:21 p.m., the Kansas City account posted, "We apologies [sic] for our previous tweet. It was shared in error."

That tweet ostensibly served to draw further attention to the now-deleted doxxing effort, prompting even more outrage.

Catholic conservative commentator Michael Knowles wrote, "@KansasCity: not only criminal but also illiterate."

Some social media users have suggested that the author of the tweet may have been Andrea Watts, whose LinkedIn profile similarly contained a rather glaring spelling error — "Social Media Mangement [sic]" — and was recently been deactivated.

Michael Caputo, a former Department of Health and Human Services official in the Trump administration, said, "The City of Kansas City, MO must fire its entire social media team immediately."

Twenty minutes after the initial apology, Mayor Quinton Lucas joined in the damage-control effort, writing, "A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account. The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels."

Lucas' response was also met with ridicule.

'Your office apparently believes it is appropriate to denigrate a devout Catholic for comments he made about his own faith at a religious college.'

Garrett Henson, chairman of the Kansas Federation of College Republicans, mocked the mayor's response, writing, "'We now realize that it's bad to dox people with the Kansas City X account. Rest assured that there will be no consequences for this action moving forward.'"

Missouri AG weighs in

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was not impressed by the city's apparent effort to intimidate a Christian over his deeply held beliefs — and he didn't need a tweet to know where to direct his ire.

Bailey indicated on Thursday, "My office is demanding accountability after @KansasCity doxxed @buttkicker7 last night for daring to express his religious beliefs. I will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion. Stay tuned."

Bailey subsequently penned a letter to Mayor Lucas noting, "It has been reported that the city of Kansas City has retaliated against a well-respected local resident and member of the Kansas City Chiefs after he spoke about his religious views."

"Your office's X account likely publicly released residential location information on a private citizen, Harrison Butker, in an attempt to retaliate against him for expressing his sincerely held religious beliefs at a religious college's commencement ceremony — to an audience that largely shares his views," continued Bailey. "Use of government social media to retaliate against an individual based on their religious beliefs amounts to discriminatory behavior that is not tolerated under our Constitution or Missouri statute."

The AG underscored that America is founded upon a commitment to the free exercise of religion and that Missouri law "specifically prohibits faith-based discrimination against Missouri residents."

Bailey added, "Your office apparently believes it is appropriate to denigrate a devout Catholic for comments he made about his own faith at a religious college."

Extra to indicating the city may have violated state law, Bailey made abundantly clear to the NFL, without naming it outright: "I assure you that I am prepared to use the authority provided in statute to defend the principle of free religious expression."

"Mr. Butker was well within his rights to discuss his religious views — views which are shared by millions of members of his faith tradition," wrote Bailey. "Sadly, history is filled with examples of people of religious faith being targeted for their beliefs by government officials."

Radicals have targeted Butker, and the NFL has reportedly hung him out to dry. On the flip side, Butker's jersey is now reportedly among the most popular in the league.

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