NFL World Floods Social Media With Kitchen Jokes As Chiefs Announce Harrison Butker’s Unavailability

What goes around comes around. That’s what Harrison Butker would have realized if he’d checked his social media accounts over the last day or so.

The Kansas City Chiefs kicker made headlines during the offseason for his polarizing remarks during his address to the 2024 graduating class at Benedictine College. Among other things, Butker expressed controversial opinions on the role of women in society. His exhortation of young women to embrace their roles as homemakers certainly ruffled some feathers.

It wasn’t the first time Butker had voiced his views on such topics. He made similar comments during his commencement address at his alma mater, Georgia Tech, in 2023.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and star QB Patrick Mahomes both commented on Butker’s speeches, essentially saying that while they may not agree with all of his opinions, they respect him and his views nonetheless. Fans were not so calculated, as many flocked to the pro- and anti-Butker sides of the argument.

That animosity resurfaced on Thursday when it was announced that Butker had suffered a knee injury that would send him to injured reserve. Being placed on IR means that the kicker will have to miss at least four weeks of action.

The part of Butker’s speech that really split opinion was his argument that society should celebrate women for taking on the role of homemaker and family woman rather than professional woman. Now, with Butker on the shelf for a month, the “make yourself useful in the kitchen, Harrison” jokes—among others—have been flying around.

While there were also messages of support for Butker in those replies, they weren’t nearly as clever or funny.

All jokes aside, however, the loss of Butker is no small thing for the Chiefs. Kansas City’s offense has not been as dominant as in years gone by, and their kicking game has been crucial in maintaining their perfect 9-0 record heading into Week 11.

Butker likely won’t miss more than 4 games

During the years of Patrick Mahomes‘ offensive dominance, Harrison Butker would account for less than 20 percent of the team’s points across a full season. Last year, when the team’s identity became more defense-heavy, Butker accounted for about 35 percent of his team’s points. He’s hovering around that same level right now.

That means that KC really needs to make sure they find themselves a reliable kicker for the next month. Safety Justin Reid has been known to sub in for an emergency boot from time to time, but this is a little more serious.

With that in mind, the Chiefs went out and signed Spencer Shrader off the New York Jets practice squad to fill the void. Shrader is a rookie who went undrafted out of Notre Dame this year. During his time in college, he converted just 69 percent of his field goals, which isn’t ideal.

Butker is not elite like he once was, but he’s still reliable as they come from inside 50 yards. He has not missed a field goal of 49 yards or less this year, while he’s just 2-for-4 from long range. Shrader certainly has large shoes to fill.

Thankfully for the Chiefs, it seems Butker’s absence will be a clean one. The injury he suffered was to the meniscus on his non-kicking leg, which could have been trouble, as the meniscus is essentially in charge of handling torque during twisting movements, per Jesse Morse.

Butker opted to simply trim the ligament, as the tear isn’t large enough to require a full repair. With that in mind, it seems like there will be no lingering issues for Butker here. He should be ready to go for their matchup with the Cleveland Browns in Week 15 as scheduled.