Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, and the team have decided to extend his contract by four years. According to team sources who spoke with The Athletic, the new contract will guarantee Butker $17.8 million in salary, making him the highest-paid kicker in the NFL.
“There’s no place I’d rather be than with the Chiefs, excited to finalize a 4 year extension. To the Heights!” Butker wrote on his X account.
There’s no place I’d rather be than with the Chiefs, excited to finalize a 4 year extension. To the Heights! pic.twitter.com/geMUZTaNmZ
— Harrison Butker (@buttkicker7) August 5, 2024
Entering his seventh NFL season, Butker has become as the most reliable kicker in the league over the previous two seasons, particularly during the postseason. During the Chiefs’ four-game postseason run earlier this year, Butker converted all eight of his point-after attempts and all 11 of his field goal attempts, which included a Super Bowl record-setting 57-yard shot.
In 17 regular-season games last year, Butker had a career-best 94.3 percent success rate on his 35 field goal attempts. Perhaps the strangest part of Butker’s resume is that he hasn’t earned All-Pro or Pro Bowl honors. Those awards have most often been given to Justin Tucker, the Baltimore Ravens’ well-respected kicker.
It might be said that Butker, with this contract extension, is the fourth of the Chiefs’ main stars to have contributed to the team’s three title victories over the previous five years. The tight end Travis Kelce, pass rusher Chris Jones, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Butker have all contributed significantly to the team’s most prosperous period.
Butker received a lot of backlash for his divisive remarks during his May commencement speech at Benedictine College, including the assertion that a woman’s most valuable role is “homemaker.”
A few days following Butker’s speech, the NFL issued a statement claiming that Butker’s opinions did not represent the league as a whole and distancing itself from his remarks.
When asked about Butker’s speech at the league meetings in Nashville in May, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league has a “diversity of opinions and thoughts.”
(Photo: Kirby Lee / Getty Images)
