CBS News
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s jersey ranks among top-selling NFL jerseys after commencement speech
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s jersey is among the NFL’s top-selling jerseys after his controversial commencement speech drew widespread criticism.
As of Friday afternoon, Butker’s red Nike No. 7 jersey is the “most popular” for Chiefs players on the NFL’s online shop, ahead of popular teammates star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce. His jersey, which can be bought for $129.99, is currently listed as one of the “top sellers,” according to the website.
Fanatics is the exclusively licensed retailer of NFL merchandise. CBS News reached out to the company for additional information on jersey sales.
The apparent increased sales come after the three-time Super Bowl champion’s graduation speech at Benedictine College, where he suggested women should be homemakers, railed against LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and took aim at President Joe Biden and abortion. His comments produced widespread backlash, and a petition circulated online calling for the Chiefs to dismiss him has more than 186,000 signatures. The NFL distanced itself from the kicker.
“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer told CBS News in a statement. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”
Amid the backlash, Butker received support from Chiefs owner Clark Hunt’s wife, Tavia, and daughter, Gracie, online. Tavia Hunt, who was a stay-at-home mom, defended him in a social media post.
“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,” she said.
“Affirming motherhood and praising your wife, as well as highlighting the sacrifice and dedication it takes to be a mother, is not bigoted,” she added.
In a Fox News interview, Gracie Hunt praised her mother and said she respects Harrison and his Christian faith.
CBS News
7/5: CBS Evening News – CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Moderate Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran’s presidential runoff election
Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran’s runoff presidential election Saturday, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country’s mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic.
Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country. But even Pezeshkian’s modest aims will be challenged by an Iranian government still largely held by hard-liners, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and Western fears over Tehran enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.
A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million in Friday’s election.
Supporters of Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, entered the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator.
But Pezeshkian’s win still sees Iran at a delicate moment, with tensions high in the Mideast over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and a looming U.S. election that could put any chance of a detente between Tehran and Washington at risk.
The first round of voting June 28 saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials have long pointed to turnout as a sign of support for the country’s Shiite theocracy, which has been under strain after years of sanctions crushing Iran’s economy, mass demonstrations and intense crackdowns on all dissent.
Government officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted a higher participation rate as voting got underway, with state television airing images of modest lines at some polling centers across the country.
However, online videos purported to show some polls empty while a survey of several dozen sites in the capital, Tehran, saw light traffic amid a heavy security presence on the streets.
The election came amid heightened regional tensions. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
Iran is also enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build several nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so. And while Khamenei remains the final decision-maker on matters of state, whichever man ends up winning the presidency could bend the country’s foreign policy toward either confrontation or collaboration with the West.
The campaign also repeatedly touched on what would happen if former President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, won the November election. Iran has held indirect talks with President Joe Biden’s administration, though there’s been no clear movement back toward constraining Tehran’s nuclear program for the lifting of economic sanctions.
More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 were eligible to vote, with about 18 million of them between 18 and 30. Voting was to end at 6 p.m. but was extended until midnight to boost participation.
The late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash, was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader.
Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.
CBS News
Biden set for pivotal 24 hours with primetime interview
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.