Angry Taylor Swift fans call Chiefs’ Harrison Butker ‘the smallest man who ever lived’

The controversial commencement speech Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker gave last weekend was, as kinder critics are calling it, “a teachable moment.”

One lesson is clear: Do not anger Taylor Swift fans.

Derision from Swifites is plentiful amid the growing backlash to Butker’s address at Benedictine College, a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Atchison, Kansas, north of Kansas City. Butker is a devout Catholic who speaks openly about his faith and conservative politics.

He criticized President Joe Biden on several issues, referred to Pride Month as an example of the “deadly sins” and said one of a woman’s most important titles is “homemaker.”

He also referenced a Swift lyric, a self-inflicted wound because it gave her fans a reason to comment, and they are roasting him on social media for bringing her up in a speech being criticized as misogynistic.

Swift is dating Butker’s teammate Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who was with her over the weekend in Paris as she resumed her record-breaking Eras Tour.

Since the speech, a Missouri man has collected more than 19,000 signatures on a Change.org petition calling for the Chiefs to fire Butker “for discriminatory remarks.”

But Swifties are their own force, and anyone who knows this fandom predicted, and even encouraged, their response.

“Everyone knows you just don’t mess with Swifties,” one Swiftie said in her TikTok takedown of Butker.

While others watch Swifties activate, they wonder if it will diminish the affection Swift’s fans have for the Chiefs. Neither Swift nor Kelce have commented on Butker’s speech.

Some fans seem shocked that Butker quoted a musician who writes and sings songs celebrating and championing other women.

“So clearly you don’t listen to your teammate’s girlfriend’s music,” one Swiftie charged in a TikTok titled “keep Taylor Swift’s name OUT of your mouth.”

Some have nicknamed Butker “the smallest man who ever lived,” the title of a song from Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

“Not only is he completely on the wrong side of history here, but he’s on a team that just happens to have recently gotten the largest influx of progressive women fans in the history of sports. Take him down, Swifties,” one critic wrote on X.

The Swift reference came as Butker criticized priests who derive “much of their happiness from the adulation they receive from their parishioners. And in searching for this, they let their guard down and become overly familiar.

“This undo familiarity will prove to be problematic every time because as my teammate’s girlfriend says, ‘familiarity breeds contempt.’”

That’s a line from “Bejeweled,” a song on Swift’s Grammy-winning 2022 album, “Midnights.”

The Human Rights Campaign, working to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, reached for other Swift lyrics in its rebuke of Butker: “You need to calm down.”

Some fans found Butker disrespectful in referring to Swift — a billionaire with 14 Grammys and the hottest concert tour on the planet — as someone’s “girlfriend.”

“It’s not your teammate’s girlfriend. She’s Taylor freaking Swift,” one fan said in a TikTok.

And here’s the part of his speech that is drawing much of their fire.

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you,” the 28-year-old Butker told the Class of 2024. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, 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.”

“I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and a mother,” he added. “I’m on this stage, and able to be the man I am, because I have a wife who leans into her vocation.

“I’m beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker.”

How ironic, some Swifties noted, that Butker gave that speech on the same weekend Swift filed a trademark for “Female Rage: The Musical,” which is how she described a new section she added to her tour featuring songs from her new blockbuster album.

Her management group filed the paperwork on Saturday, the day of Butker’s speech.

“This post is dedicated to the new Tortured Poets section of the Eras Tour (aka Female Rage The Musical!) and everyone who made these memories so magical,” Swift wrote Sunday on social media.

“To my crew, fellow performers, and band who worked tirelessly in their break to concoct this surprise for you — but mostly for the fans in Paris.”

A lot of TikToks have sprung up comparing Butker’s speech to the commencement address Swift delivered at New York University in 2022, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate and said this:

“In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong people, under-react, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrongdoing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat.”