Back in May, the entertainment realm was set ablaze by head-turning comments from NFL kicker Harrison Butker in regards to women and their careers. So when the time came for this year’s ESPY Awards, Venus and Serena Williams simply didn’t hold back from giving their two cents. And if there’s one thing the Williams sisters can do extremely well — it’s serve.
Joined on stage by the multi-talented Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), the Williams sisters pushed the rightful and necessary narrative that women’s sports are just as important as any other sport, and can happily be enjoyed as much as other sports. “Except for you, Harrison Butker, we don’t need you,” Serena insisted to close out the piece of dialogue — which received a whirlwind of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the live audience. “At all. Like ever,” Brunson delivered as the proverbial cherry on top of a women-empowered sundae.
The remarks were undoubtedly shots fired against Butker, the long-time kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, who delivered a controversial speech several months ago at a Catholic university. In his speech, Butker told a room full of young, female graduates that women have been told the “most diabolical lies” about leading their own careers, and instead insisted that the women graduates would be much more excited about “your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
After the video of Butker’s speech initially made its rounds all over TikTok and across other forms of social media, it certainly didn’t take long before an outpouring of distaste happened in the athlete’s direction. And yet, women all across the world have found their truth in being profound and successful in both their careers and their personal lives, which is obviously a sentiment that the Williams sisters and Brunson are echoing.
The best part? Butker was actually in attendance during the ESPYs when the line was uttered aloud. Whoops.
