PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Retired Philadelphia Eagle Jason Kelce on Monday addressed his altercation in State College over the weekend with a heckler who called his brother Travis, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, a homophobic slur.
During ESPN’s "Monday Night Countdown" pregame show preceding a game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs, for which Travis plays tight end, Kelce said he regretted his actions.
"Listen, I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it. In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate, and I just don’t think that that’s a productive thing. I really don’t," Kelce said. "In that moment I fell down to a level that I shouldn’t have."
On Saturday, the former Eagles star was in State College, walking through a crowd on his way to Penn State's big game against Ohio State, when a man walking behind him said, "Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a f***** for dating Taylor Swift?"
Kelce turned around and confronted the man, grabbing his phone and smashing it on the ground.
"Who’s the f***** now?" Kelce said before walking away.
The interaction, captured on video, has gone viral on social media.
"I think, the bottom line is, I try to live my life by the Golden Rule. It’s what I’ve always been taught. I try to treat people with common decency and respect, and I’m going to keep doing that moving forward even though I fell short this week."
Kelce is a broadcaster with ESPN and was making a guest appearance on Saturday on the network's "College Game Day" show.
Travis Kelce plays tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. The two brothers host the “New Heights” podcast together, and they played against each other in the Chiefs' win against the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII in February 2023. Travis and Swift went public with their relationship in September 2023.