Where is Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker after Super Bowl win? Not at Disneyland
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes took his family to Disneyland. Tight end Travis Kelce is hosting “Saturday Night Live” next weekend.
And where is kicker Harrison Butker basking in the glow of the Super Bowl win, which he sealed with a 27-yard field goal in the last seconds of the game?
The devout Catholic is spending the first week of Lent, which began this week on Ash Wednesday, in silent prayer at an abbey in California.
Colm Flynn, a contributor for the Catholic news network, EWTN, interviewed Butker this week at St. Michael’s Abbey, a monastery in Orange County, California.
“So while the other guys, they go, I don’t know, to Vegas apparently, or they go to Disneyland as some of them famously say, or they’re partying, enjoying the win and the sweetness of the Super Bowl, Harrison Butker is taking a week of silent prayer and meditation and reflection in an abbey here in California,” Flynn said on EWTN’s nightly news Thursday.
Butker isn’t the only NFL player seeking contemplative time. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has reportedly emerged this week from a “darkness retreat” at a facility in southern Oregon, according to ESPN and several news outlets.
Rodgers said before going in that he had scheduled four days and four nights in darkness isolation hoping to “have a better sense of where I am in my life.” The facility owner told ESPN that Rodgers stayed in a 300-square-foot room, partially underground, devoid of light but with lights that could be turned on from inside the room.
The abbey where Butker has retreated to is home to about 50 priests — Norbertine Fathers — and 30 seminarians studying for the priesthood, according to its website.
On Wednesday, Butker filmed a Lenten greeting from the abbey standing next to two priests.
“In order to be a champion like this man right here, we gotta work hard mortifying ourselves, coming closer to our Lord, then become a champion on Easter,” said one of the priests in the brief video, posted to the abbey’s YouTube channel.
“Some devils are only cast out by prayer and fasting,” said Butker. “We need to embrace this penance to bring order to all the chaos amongst us. So best of luck during this Lenten season.”
Butker, who is 27, is followed and admired by fellow Catholics for being outspoken about his faith. His anti-abortion stance came to the forefront last year when he campaigned for the unsuccessful Value Them Both anti-abortion effort in Kansas.
The faith community showered him with congratulations on social media after the Super Bowl, most messages mentioning his faith.
“Harrison Butker would rather pray to be a good husband and father than win a football game. Turns out Super Bowl LVII was decided by a game winning field goal by a good husband and father. God is awesome.”
“Here’s something beautiful for Lent. Harrison Butker just kicked the game-winning field goal in the Super Bowl. Wonder why we don’t see any mainstream media profiles about his inspiring life?”
“I hope Harrison Butker appreciates what a role model he is for little Catholic kids everywhere. Mine smile reallll big every time they see one of those pictures of him getting a blessing or wearing his scapular.”
“The kicker for the Chiefs ... is a faithful husband and father, a true Catholic role model. He is a witness to strength of body, mind, and soul. Staying really fit for the Kingdom! Proud of you, my friend!”
Photos emerged online of Butker wearing a scapular during the game. It is a sacramental object made of two small pieces of wool worn looped around the neck — one in front, one in back — and can mean many things, mainly that the wearer is living as a disciple of Christ.
Flynn told EWTN on Thursday that he has interviewed Butker several times and asked the kicker’s manager for a sit-down after the Super Bowl.
The manager told Flynn he’d have to wait a few weeks, but if he wanted to do the interview now he’d have to go to an abbey in California where Butker is on retreat. So he did.
In an August 2020 interview with Flynn, after the Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years, Butker said his “faith is the most important thing to me. From there, it goes to being a great husband and a great father, and then I look to football and trying to be the best football player I can be.
“But it definitely helps keep perspective on the fact that God’s got me in this arena playing football for a reason. He wants to use my platform for good but at the end of the day he can take that away from me whenever he wants to.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 10:12 AM.
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