Jason Kelce Addresses Viral Video of Smashing Heckler’s Phone: “I’m Not Proud of It”
Jason Kelce is speaking out after a video of him throwing a college football fan’s phone when the fan taunted his brother Travis Kelce with a homophobic slur went viral online.
At the top of ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown broadcast, the retired Philadelphia Eagles center addressed the incident in which he was also overheard calling the fan a “f***ot.”
More from The Hollywood Reporter
“Everybody has seen what happened,” Kelce said. “I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it. In a heated moment I chose to to greet hate with hate, and I don’t think that’s a productive thing, I really don’t. I don’t think it leads to discourse and is the right way to go about things.”
“In that moment I fell down to a level I shouldn’t have. The bottom line is I try to live my life by the golden rule. It’s what I’ve always been taught to treat people with common decency and I’m going to try and keep doing that moving forward. Even though I fell short this week.”
On Saturday after appearing on ESPN’s College GameDay for the matchup between Ohio State and Penn State, a fan was filmed approaching Kelce saying, “Hey, Kelce. How does it feel your brother’s a f***ot dating Taylor Swift?” referring to Kelce’s brother and Kansas City Chiefs tight end, who has been dating Swift since last year.
Jason can then be seen grabbing the man’s phone and smashing it on the ground. In other footage shared online, the fan is seen looking for his phone and seemingly said to Jason, “Give me my phone, bro” and shoved him before Kelce told him “Who’s the f***ot now?”
Penn State University Police are reportedly investigating the incident involving Kelce and the unidentified college football fan at the school.
On his New Heights podcast which Kelce hosts with Travis, he further discussed the incident. “I’m not happy about the situation, me reacting gave him the time of day and it also gave the situation notoriety. That’s what I regret. It didn’t deserve attention, it’s really stupid,” he said. Jason went on to note that if he had just kept walking, nobody would’ve seen it and nothing would’ve happened. “Now, it’s out there and it just perpetuates more hate.”
He also expressed that what he regretted the most was using the same homophobic slur in response which he called “over the line.”
“It’s dehumanizing and it got under my skin, it elicited a reaction. In the heat of the moment, I thought ‘Hey, what can I say back to him? I’m going to throw this shit right back in his face. Fuck him,’ ” Kelce said.
“What I do regret, is now there’s a video that is very hateful, that is now online that has been seen by millions of people and I share fault in perpetuating it and having that out there,” Jason said.
Travis commended his brother for owning up to his mistake and defended him for being “sincere” and someone who doesn’t “choose hate.”
“The real situation is you had some fucking clown come up to you and talk about your family and you reacted in a way that was defending your family, and you might’ve used some words that you regret using. That’s a situation you’ve just got to learn from and own. I think you owning it and you speaking about it shows how sincere you are to a lot of people in this world,” Travis told Jason.
“You don’t choose hate, that’s just not who you are,” he added. “I love you brother, I think you said that perfectly.
Nov. 6, 8:38 a.m. Updated with Jason’s comments said on the New Heights podcast.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
Sign up for THR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.