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Wife of Chiefs Owner Says Praising Motherhood 'Is Not Bigoted' After Harrison Butker Graduation Speech

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In the wake of the controversy surrounding Harrison Butker's commencement address, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt is supporting many of the same values the kicker championed in his speech.

In a lengthy post on Instagram, Tavia Hunt shared her thoughts on motherhood and a woman's role — and cautioned others not to take "things out of context."

"I've always encouraged my daughters to be highly educated and chase their dreams," the mother of three began. "I want them to know that they can do whatever they want (that honors God). But I also want them to know that I believe finding a spouse who loves and honors you as or before himself and raising a family together is one of the greatest blessings this world has to offer."

Hunt continued, "Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted. It is empowering to acknowledge that a woman's hard work in raising children is not in vain. Countless highly educated women devote their lives to nurturing and guiding their children. Someone disagreeing with you doesn't make them hateful; it simply means they have a different opinion."

The Kansas native went on to suggest that her followers "celebrate families, motherhood and fatherhood," and quoted a bible verse.

She concluded, "I also caution against taking things out of context. Sound bites overlaid with hateful comments are not what we want to model for our children or others. We need more dialogue (and VALUES, IMO) in this country and less hate."

On Fox & Friends Friday, Hunt's daughter Gracie also seemingly endorsed Butker's beliefs.

"Well, I can only speak from my own experience, which is I've had the most incredible mom who had the ability to stay home and be with us as kids growing up," Hunt, 25 said. "And I understand that there are many women out there who can't make that decision but for me in my life, I know it was really formative in shaping me and my siblings to be who we are."

She added, "And I really respect Harrison and his Christian faith and what he's accomplished on and off the field."

Tavia and Gracie's comments come as Butker's May 11 speech at Benedictine College, in which the kicker took aim at the LGBTQ+ community, working women, abortion rights and more, has faced increased scrutiny.

On Thursday, Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager slammed the athlete's remarks on Today with Hoda and Jenna, while Maria Shriver and Flavor Flav have also spoken out against it.

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Meanwhile, on The View, Whoopi Goldberg defended Butker's address, and compared him to another athlete — former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who famously kneeled during the national anthem in 2016. "The same way we want to represent when Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, we want to give respect to people whose ideas are different than ours," Goldberg said.

A petition on Change.org asking the NFL team to kick Butker off its roster had garnered over 180,000 signatures by Friday morning.

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