Jason Kelce is more popular on a national scale now than he ever was as an All-Pro center with the Philadelphia Eagles — although, his Super Bowl parade performance cemented his status as a Philly legend. Kelce is on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown now and has a wildly popular podcast with his brother Travis, as the brothers have seen their stardom leap from the sports world to pop culture in general, due in no small part to Travis’ relationship with Taylor Swift that has brought her legions of fans to them.
While there are the obvious benefits of that popularity in the form of massive media deals, there are also the trappings of fame that come with the territory of being immediately recognizable to most any person. On Saturday, Jason was reminded of that when he was in State College for Ohio State-Penn State and had a heckler call Travis a gay slur for dating Swift while holding his phone out recording. That jackass was seeking a reaction and got one in the form of Jason grabbing his phone and spiking it on the ground, with videos from other nearby going viral immediately.
On Monday night, Kelce addressed the incident at the top of Monday Night Countdown and issued an apology, noting that’s not how he wants to act and that he doesn’t want to “greet hate with hate.”
Jason Kelce opens "Monday Night Countdown" with an apology.
"I chose to greet hate with hate, and I just don't think that's a productive thing." pic.twitter.com/9rScqAKpVD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 4, 2024
The truth is, the majority of people saw him spike the phone and felt that was an extremely reasonable response, as we need to remind people that there are real consequences to saying vile things — something the internet has made far too easy to do with no repercussions. Still, Kelce felt bad enough about it to issue an apology on national television and seemed very genuinely upset by his own actions, even if the majority of people saw them as defensible.
