“I stand behind what I say,” says Harrison Butker, who caused worldwide outrage in the spring with a sexist and homophobic speech to college students.

It is now almost three months since Harrison Butker caused a worldwide sensation and outrage with a sexist and homophobic speech.

However, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker is still not backing down from his stance, although there was even a petition with tens of thousands of signatures calling for the 29-year-old to be sacked.

“I stand behind what I say,” Butker explained on Wednesday on the sidelines of training camp: “I look at the offseason as kind of a five-month period where I can just present myself as Harrison Butker and as a devout Catholic. And then when the season starts, I try to focus on football as much as I can and not be a distraction for the Chiefs.”

In his speech on May 11 to students at Benedictine College, a strict Catholic school near Kansas City, Butker explicitly spoke out against a diverse society and advocated arch-conservative positions.

Butker becomes record kicker despite controversy

He described social processes as the “tyranny of inclusion”, saying that attending Pride events was “a mortal sin” and that women’s calling was to be “housewives and mothers” instead of pursuing an academic career. Men should not allow themselves to be “robbed of their masculinity”, Butker also declared.

These statements not only provoked fierce opposition from the public and other sports stars, but also in the Chiefs’ locker room. However, there were no serious consequences, and in the meantime the Chiefs even made Butker the highest-paid kicker in the NFL.

By his own admission, Butker has long since come to terms with his teammates. “That’s what makes sport so special and football even more so. There aren’t many sports where you have between 50 and 100 guys with very different beliefs all fighting together to win,” he explained.

“So you have a bunch of different personalities, a bunch of different views, but we’re all there together trying to understand each other and realize that at the end of the day we all have one common goal – and that’s to win football games,” Butker said.

Butker wants to continue using his platform

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, head coach Andy Reid and tight end Travis Kelce also spoke out at the time, saying they disagreed with Butker’s statements but still accepted his opinions.

“For them to say publicly, ‘Harrison has made all these statements that people may not agree with, but I’ve seen Harrison do his job for seven years and he’s someone with good character’ … I think that meant a lot to me,” Butker said.

The staunch Catholic has no intention of backing away from his views. On the contrary, he announced that he would continue to stand up for his views in the future.

“I’ve been in the league for seven years now and have a platform. That means that people want me to say what I think is very important,” he said, announcing that he would continue to stand up for his conservative values in future.