The animated Los Angeles Chargers kicked Kansas City Chiefs star Harrison Butker into the kitchen Wednesday night, creatively mocking his belief that women should ditch careers for home life.
Moments after the NFL released its 2024 schedule, the Chargers dropped a 3½-minute Sims-style video that spared no one and cast their opponents as everything from clowns to criminals.
At the 2:55 mark, the Chargers' post shows a Chiefs player wearing No. 7 (Butker’s number) toiling away in an old-fashioned kitchen — baking, cleaning and struggling with a flower arrangement.
ESPN’s Mina Kimes, one of the most respected football analysts on TV, used emojis of laughing tears to sum up the Chargers’ Butker content.
Butker was recently accused of putting his powerful field-goal-kicking foot in his mouth with a commencement speech advocating for women to give up careers and concentrate on spousal and motherhood duties.
The speech at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, was widely decried as sexist and misogynistic. He told female grads that their career aspirations are "diabolical lies” and that their only real happiness will come in service of their husbands and their offspring.
“How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world,” said Butker, the NFL's fourth-leading scorer last season. “But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
The Chargers’ social media team is widely viewed as one of the league's most creative and cutting, not afraid to poke fun at opponents.
Podcaster Mike Golic Jr. said he was impressed with the Chargers' fast work to take on the controversy.
“The Chargers have been the gold standard for this for a while now because their team allows them to take shots at their opponent," Golic said.
"And being able to quickly turn around putting Harrison Butker in the kitchen after all of his comments was A-plus trolling inside of the division and the kind of thing that years ago I don't know if NFL teams would have necessarily gone along with," he said.
Butker wasn't the only person or team the Chargers targeted for mockery.
- The Chargers recalled Travis Kelce's amazement that squirrels can eat bread and how he's now at the beck and call of jet-setting Taylor Swift.
- The Chargers, with first-year coach Jim Harbaugh, play host to the Baltimore Ravens and their longtime coach John Harbaugh on Nov. 25. The brothers are depicted as children jumping on their childhood beds.
- Chiefs superfan Xaviar Michael Bubuda, once known for wearing a wolf costume in his role as “ChiefsAholic,” pleaded guilty this year to a string of bank robberies. The Chargers gleefully took note of this transgression.
- Although the New York Jets aren't on the Chargers schedule, that didn't stop them from reminding fans of Gang Green QB Aaron Rodgers' fondness for conspiracy theories.
The NFL's regular season kicks off Sept. 5 with the Ravens visiting the defending champion Chiefs in a Thursday night game televised by NBC.
The season ends on Feb. 9 with the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
