ESPN Article Complains Harrison Butker Will Keep His Job Because He's White
Religion and gender roles are at the center of the controversy surrounding Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker's commencement speech at Benedictine College last week.
ESPN added race to that discussion Monday.
Andscape, an ESPN-run website dedicated exclusively to covering race, published an article titled, "Why Harrison Butker’s commencement speech comments won’t negatively impact his career."
The author is the son and namesake of civil rights activist David Dennis. ESPN added Dennis Jr. to "Around the Horn" a few years ago, as part of its push to overcorrect the number of white guys included when the show launched in 2002.
ESPN deploys Dennis to play the former role of Bomani Jones, which entails finding ways to make stories about race that have nothing to do with race. Not the most grueling of gigs available, is it?
Staying on brand, Dennis bewails in the article how Butker's speech is unlikely to cost the kicker playing time and suggests his race is part of the reason why.
"Harrison Butker delivered a commencement speech at Benedictine College on May 11 and it featured statements that are, at best, controversial and, more precisely, full of anti-trans bias, misogyny and anti-gay bias.
"Butker’s comments have been met with an NFL statement that’s tepid in its rebuking. And while some commentators have ironically turned the ‘stick to sports’ phrase usually aimed at Black athletes who speak up about injustices around on Butker, he most likely won’t suffer any tangible consequences for his comments," Dennis continues.
"It’s a reminder that athletes, especially white athletes, can speak out as much as they want about any number of marginalized groups as long as they are punching down at those who [sic] society deems unworthy of defending."
Dennis claims there's a history of white men in the NFL evading punishment for insulting marginal groups, as opposed to the inverse. To what examples does he refer? Unfortunately, he never listed or cited a single one.
His words are as amusing as they are dishonest.
The closest reference to an example he provides is a sentence bemoaning that the NFL did not discipline Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers for criticizing vaccine mandates and the influence of Big Pharma.
"Rodgers has been able to insert politics and conspiracies on every platform he feels like," Dennis complains.
But what does Rodgers have to do with the NFL's supposed intolerance for belittling marginal groups? We aren't sure. Dennis never explained that, either.
Again, Dennis likely only works for ESPN because of his father's resume.
And that statement holds true throughout his analysis.
"And any number of men, no matter their race, will continue to have careers unabated by their abuses of women because that’s how sports and the NFL operate," he concludes.
Hold the phone.
The article begins by saying the NFL looks the other way at the controversies of white players but uses the controversies of black players to push them out of the league.
Got it.
However, the story ends by accusing the NFL of downplaying domestic violence. The combination of the article's two statements befuddles us.
We scoured over an updating database that lists each NFL player arrested since 200. The list is extensive, sitting 54 pages long. Noticeably, the NFL has a domestic abuser problem. Almost every third entry is listed for domestic violence.
So, we considered what Dennis wrote – "players will continue to have careers unabated by their abuses of women" – when scrolling through the database, though unsure what it has to do with Butker.
Anyway, Dennis is right: players arrested and/or charged for domestic violence often serve a swift suspension and then return to the field. Recent examples include Von Miller, Zay Jones, Justyn Ross, Charles Omenihu, Willie Gay and Xavien Howard.
But here's where Dennis' thesis – white privilege! – falls to pieces. The vast, vast majority of players arrested for domestic violence are black. Chad Wheeler is the only white player we can find.
The article didn't mention that part, did it?
Now, we understand Andscape exists to look at stories through the lens of race, to find where white supremacy may be hidden beneath the surface. The problem: so few stories require such a dissection.
Today, white supremacy is more macro than micro. You'd think, as a whole, society would cherish that. However, there are entire brands dedicated to stoking the racial flame. ESPN's Andscape is one of them.
Look, the NFL's tolerance conversation is quite simple. Players get away with what their talent affords them, skin color be damned.
Tyreek Hill, Rashee Rice, and Deshaun Watson still have jobs in the NFL because, despite their despicable alleged behavior, they are good enough to still have jobs in the NFL. (In Watson's case, the Browns thought he was good enough.)
So, unless a player kills, rapes, or costs the NFL money (remember this key point), the league will grant that player a second, third, and fourth opportunity – regardless of their skin color.
The NFL is about as meritocratic of a business as exists today.
"But what about Colin Kaepernick?" the rabble-rousers shout.
Let's talk about Kaepernick, who Dennis also mentions.
Kaepernick, unlike Butker or Rodgers, expressed his political statement on the NFL field in front of thousands of fans and millions of viewers.
His protest of the national anthem cost NFL viewers. According to polling data, the ratings for the NFL crashed in 2016 and 2017, in large part, because of Kaepernick and other players kneeling before the anthem.
What's more, Kaepernick was a backup quarterback in the NFL by the time he embraced political activism, in 2016. NFL teams calculated Kaepernick, as a player, was not worth the distraction.
And, honestly, Butker wouldn't be worth the headache if he weren't one of the best kickers in the NFL.
Butker's message (his wife made his life better by staying home) shouldn't be as polarizing as Kaepernick's message (the police force is racist against black people). Nonetheless, the controversy emanating from Butker's address is national news and undoubtedly a distraction for the Kansas City Chiefs.
If the Chiefs could replace Butker with a player just as reliable, I wouldn't blame them for alleviating the noise by doing so. NFL teams, at its core, are about winning. Winning is all that matters. Noise often interferes with winning.
That said, the Chiefs don't win the past two Super Bowls without Butker's ace kicking in the clutch. There is not a kicker alive more reliable than Butker in the clutch. (Read about his record playoff stretch here.)
The Kansas City Chiefs are more likely to three-peat as champions this season with Harrison Butker on the team. Thus, like many of the black players arrested for violent crimes, his job is safe.
I know, another ambitious race-bait by ESPN derailed by the facts.