Harrison Butker on shooting at Chiefs rally, giving jersey to family of woman killed
Harrison Butker is a devout Catholic, so he had a choice to make on Ash Wednesday.
That was the day the Chiefs held their Super Bowl championship parade, so Butker knew he’d have to be at church early.
“I made that a priority and I’m glad I did it. At first I didn’t really want to do it,” Butker said in an interview on EWTN. “I didn’t want people commenting on the ashes. It turned out to be a really amazing thing that a lot of people were commenting on. There’s a lot of photos, there’s a lot of videos, and I think it was a good witness for a lot of other fellow Catholics that they saw me up on the bus.
“I’m waving at everyone and they’re pointing to their ashes, and it was a great way to connect.”
The good vibes Butker felt ended abruptly when the rally at Union Station came to a close. A shooting injured two dozen people and Lisa Lopez-Galvan was killed.
Butker described what he heard at Union Station, and said he initially wasn’t sure if the team was being targeted.
“So the day started off as amazing as an Ash Wednesday start to the 40-day long Lenten season could be. We’re enjoying the bus ride going on. We go on the stage, we get acknowledged,” Butker said.
“I’m leaving the stage and you hear just a bunch of gunshots going on. You don’t know what it is. You don’t know if there’s a terrorist attack, if they’re trying to shoot players, what’s going on, if there’s a dispute.”
Butker said he was taken aback when he learned of the death of Lopez-Galvan, who was wearing his No. 7 jersey that day.
“Talking to the family, they said how much she appreciated me standing up, being countercultural standing up for the Catholic faith,” Butker said. “And the fact that she was the one that unfortunately got killed by this, you know, barbaric violence, is so sad. There’s no reason that should have happened at all. Unfortunately, it did happen at the parade.”
Butker continued: “It’s so sad to think about the way that she had to leave us. It should have been a joyful celebration celebrating the Chiefs, celebrating all the great players on our team, you know, looking to start the 40 days of Lent, and unfortunately, she was in the middle of some violence that could have been handled many other places than a parade.”
Lopez-Galvan’s family reached out to Butker for help acquiring another white No. 7 jersey like the one she was wearing that terrible day.
Butker made sure the jersey got to the family, and Lopez-Galvan was buried in it. Butker said that was humbling.
“I never set out to be an NFL kicker. I never set out to have this platform,” Butker said. “I never thought I’d be having the success in the NFL but I am. I never wanted to be this public person that people look to to see what their ideas are, what their stances are on different subjects. But because of that, it has given me a great following of people like this amazing woman.
“It’s the faith, it was the most important thing in her life. It’s the most important thing in my life. And to be able to receive that encouragement, that love even though I never met her, I heard that from her family, how much she was encouraged by me and loved all my work. That’s just very encouraging for me to continue on the path that I’m on and to be never unwavering in my beliefs.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2024 at 11:40 AM.
