Chiefs’ kicker challenges men to be faithful leaders

Life is good for Harrison Butker. 

The 26-year-old Kansas City Chiefs placekicker already has one Vince Lombardi trophy on his mantle and odds are that he will need to clear space for more.

He is married to his high school sweetheart and has young children. The six-year veteran is enjoying the spoils of being a rising star in the National Football League but despite all of his success, all of his burgeoning fame courtesy of his talented foot, Butker remains rooted in his Catholic faith, admitting that without God as his spiritual placeholder, success would be fleeting.

“I don’t think I would even be the kicker for the Chiefs if not for my father and grounded in what is most important,” Butker, who reads Scripture before every kickoff, said. “If I am strong in my faith, that goes out in every other area of my life.” 

Butker was one of three featured speakers at the Men of the Immaculata Conference on March 5 at St. George Church in Baton Rouge. Also speaking at the daylong conference, which had as its theme “Behold the Man,” were popular Catholic author Dr. Brant Pitre, Immaculate Conception Church in Lakeland pastor Father Todd Lloyd and Chef John Folse.

The conference also featured Bishop Michael G. Duca celebrating Mass.

In what was an audible from the traditional conference playbook, Communications Secretary Father Chris Decker moderated a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with Butker, who touched on a number of subjects, including the importance of being men of faith, being unapologetically Catholic, strong leaders of the family unit and developing authentic male friendships, which was the underlying theme of the conference.

Butker also discussed his love of the traditional Latin Mass and added that before the COVID-19 pandemic he was a server at a daily Latin Mass in Kansas City.

Butker repeatedly urged the nearly 900 men in attendance to celebrate their manhood and develop authentic friendships with men that will help them grow in their faith and spiritual and family lives.

“Sticking up and being a man in our society where manhood is not celebrated, we need to take that back and be unapologetic men and lead our families to be closer to God, he said. “I think a lot of times we can have relationships that are very surface level. Are you just trying to hang out? Or go golfing, which is great.”

“But you would hope that it would go a little deeper, that it would get into the faith, pushing each other, letting the other person know you care about them as a person, care about their soul, knowing Jesus Christ and learning more about the other person’s faith.”

He said getting to that point comes from a place of love, that one must love that person, wanting to spend time with him and not being afraid of being vulnerable. 

“As men we don’t want to be vulnerable,” he said. “We don’t want to open up but we need do that. We need to have strong male friends.

“There is something different with having another male that can push you that a wife or any other female friend just cannot. I think it’s super important. As much as you can try to get deeper and deeper with those in your close circle to help you be a better man, better husband, better father, better at your job. Be the best you can be.”

Butker was raised Catholic in Atlanta but admitted during high school and his early years at Georgia Tech he had fallen away from his faith. But through the intervention of Yellow Jackets’ teammate Grant Aasen, he returned to the faith.

“If you are leading a life of sin, it will change your focus,” Butker said. “It will deviate you from God. 

You can walk into the holiest place, talking to the holiest person and you could want to get away from them because of issues you have. It was on me that I wanted to push away all of these things that were holy, that were revered. 

“That is why it is so important to get sin out of our lives.” 

“I’m very thankful for Grant for not being afraid to go out of his comfort zone and challenge me,” he added.

“He needed it!” Aasen, who appeared with Butker at the conference, said with a smile.  “He felt like he was hiding from the fact that he was Catholic.”

During his sophomore year Butker began to pepper Aasen about Catholicism so he issued an invitation to his newfound friend to attend Mass. He said Butker had so many questions so Aasen suggested why not go to church, why not go to prayer, why not go to a priest who has the answers? 

“Obviously God used me to nurture some of that curiosity but I would say his openness and not being afraid of being a Catholic and being a man at the same time (led to Butker returning to the church).” 

Upon returning to the church, Butker found great peace in the traditional Latin Mass. Upon moving to Kasnas City he became a server at a daily Latin Mass, although admitting he had to learn a new language.

“For me, being able to see a priest celebrating Mass where everyone receives Communion kneeling and on their tongue made me feel connected to the sacrifices in the Old Testament,” he said. “The (Latin) Mass is a great place for us to enter into mental prayer instead of always ‘I want the priest to talk to me, to entertain me.’ 

“Silence is good. A lot of times we can grow in our holiness, in our prayer, grow closer to God through our silence watching the priest offer this beautiful sacrifice to God that has been developed for more than 2000 years. It’s not about what we want but what God wants.”

Butker challenged the men to be the leader of their household but admitted the task is not easy. He said the ultimate goal for fathers is getting their children to heaven, of being Christ-like in their role of father.  

“If God is not No. 1 in my life, all of the other stuff comes crumpling down,” he said. “I hope I can continue to grow. If I stopped the process of surrounding myself with people (of faith), of going to church, how can I expect the people around me to grow?

“If my faith is not growing, it trickles down to my wife and children.”

Pitre spoke on the three kinds of prayer, explaining that those include vocal, meditation and contemplation. He explained each in great detail and also advised the men to spend an hour in prayer in the early morning,

“We need time with the Lord,” he said. “If you can’t start out with an hour, start out with 15 minutes, or five minutes. Five minutes is better than no minutes.”