The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) released its\u00a0list<\/a>\u00a0of the top 50 players with the highest sales of official NFL-licensed merchandise between March 1 and May 31 on Tuesday, Sept. 17, and Butker made his first official appearance in the rankings.<\/p>\n Butker, 29, came in at number 11 on the list, with Kelce, 34, following close behind at number 12. The Chiefs star became only the second kicker to make the list, after Evan McPherson in 2022.<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter\u00a0<\/a>to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Chiefs quarterback and Super Bowl MVP\u00a0Patrick Mahomes<\/a>\u00a0landed the No. 2 spot on the list, behind just C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans who took the top spot.<\/p>\n Butker is one of the top kickers in the league, but he made news for a different reason in May after giving the commencement speech this spring at Benedictine College.<\/p>\n The NFL player’s 20-minute address included attacks on working women, the LBGTQ+ community and families who utilize surrogacy and in vitro fertilization (IVF).<\/p>\n In a statement addressing his words, the NFL\u2019s Chief Diversity Officer Jonathan Beane told PEOPLE at the time, “Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Kansas City commissioner Justice Horn went further, slamming Butker in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Harrison Butker doesn\u2019t represent Kansas City nor has he ever,” he\u00a0wrote<\/a>. “Kansas City has always been a place that welcomes, affirms, and embraces our LGBTQ+ community members.”<\/p>\n Kelce and Mahomes both addressed Butker\u2019s comments. ‘<\/p>\n Kelce said, “I can\u2019t say I agree with the majority of it or just about any of it outside of just him loving his family and his kids. And I don\u2019t think that I should judge him by his views, especially his religious views, of how to go about life, that\u2019s just not who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahomes, meanwhile, said, \u201cI judge him by the character he shows every day and that\u2019s a good person,” adding, “We\u2019re not always going to agree. He said certain things I don\u2019t agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n Butker is now the NFL\u2019s highest-paid kicker.<\/p>\n On Monday, Aug. 5, he agreed to a four-year, $25.6 million contract extension with the Chiefs which includes $17.8 million in guaranteed money,\u00a0NFL.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Athletic<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amid his highly controversial comments at a commencement speech earlier this year, sales of\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0player\u00a0Harrison Butker‘s NFL merchandise went up, even besting team star\u00a0Travis Kelce. The NFL … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7814,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7812\/revisions\/7814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Harrison](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/zLfkFzsGqeChJUHgcN7LJyP-cq4=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)\/harrison-butker-1-091924-faaa45de0b6e4e1e8625fbdea23a26bd.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>![\"Travis](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/pkhMJy08ibA79oI0yjJmZ6weaYw=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(529x0:531x2):format(webp)\/Travis-Kelce-1-091924-9a7e1f642ab7477dbf8ed74650c19768.jpg\")
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