An NFL star who courted controversy by urging female graduates to become “homemakers” has been defended.

Speaking on GBN America was leading attorney Ian Samuel, who criticised the Kansas City Chiefs kicker, but also defended his right to free speech.

In his 20-minute address at Benedictine College, Kansas, Butker also criticised abortion and LGBT Pride marches.

Samuel told Mark Dolan that he is largely supportive of Butker’s right to make the remarks he did, but also branded them “troubling”.

They have been received poorly by millions of women who have jobs”, he said.

“They have also been received badly from some Catholics, I don’t know who the audience for this speech was. There was this narrow minded pool of fanatically right-wing adult Catholic convert in the US who likes to hear this sort of thing, but thank God there aren’t many of them.”

LATEST US NEWS

Scottie Scheffler: World number one golfer detained by police after 'misunderstanding'EU told to create 'its own military alliance' as Trump tipped to EXIT Nato if electedReligious freedom ‘profoundly under threat’ at US colleges: ‘Military-style crackdowns!’

Asked whether women feel “cheated” when they reach 40-years-old and don’t have a husband and children, Samuel said the same logic can be applied to both genders.

“I think they should feel cheated”, he said.

“There is some truth in these misguided remarks. There is something alienating by being turned into a cog in someone else’s machine.

“You then don’t get to enjoy the real joys in life. Sometimes that is their children or even their spouse, so I do think there is something true about that.

“The reason those people are in that position is because they are a product of their economic and material systems. We have to ask the question, why are they being pushed into this position?”

Butker opted to wade into politics in his controversial commencement speech, and Samuel said this can often be the case.

“The tradition of commencement speeches has been to dip into politics and controversial things”, he said.

“What you can say about Butker is that he may not have got a good reception, but he did say what he wanted to.

“There is a class of people who are not allowed to be commencement speakers, and they are people who hold a very specific set of views, critical of Israel and zionism.

“You are allowed to be political if you are the right kind of political.”

Butker said in his speech that his wife’s life “truly started” when “she began living her vocation as a wife and mother”.

Many social media users have criticised the NFL star and nearly 160,000 people have signed a petition demanding his sacking.

Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes told The Pat McAfee Show, a radio programme, that he “lets him [Butker] do his thing”.