Travis and Jason Kelce addressed the latter’s viral confrontation last weekend that included shouts of gay slurs from both sides at the top of their latest “New Heights” podcast episode.
The first thing the brothers discussed in this week’s installment was Jason’s run-in with a heckler before last Saturday’s Penn State/Ohio State football game. A college student ran up to the former NFL player while recording on his phone and shouted, “Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a f—-t for dating Taylor Swift?”
Jason then turned and smashed the phone before repeating the slur in the kid’s face. On the podcast, Travis acknowledged his brother for “owning” the situation, which he said speaks to how “sincere” he was about the incident.
“You had some f–king clown come up to you and talk about your family and you reacted in a way that was defending your family and you might have used some words that you regret using,” Travis said. “That’s a situation that you’ve just got to kind of learn from and own. I think you owning it and speaking about it shows how sincere you are to a lot of people in this world.”
He finished, “You don’t choose hate. That’s just not who you are.”
Jason then responded to the weekend’s confrontation himself.
“The thing I regret the most is saying that word to be honest with you,” he shared. “The word he used is just f–king ridiculous and it takes it to another level. It’s just off the wall and f–king over the line. It’s dehumanizing, it got under my skin, and elicited a reaction and in the heat of the moment I thought, ‘What can I say back to him? I’m going to throw this s–t right back in his face because f–k him.’ I know now that I shouldn’t have done that.”
The retired Eagles player continued, “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.”
This isn’t the first time Jason talked about his encounter. He addressed the issue Monday night ahead of Monday Night Countdown before the Kansas City Chiefs/Tampa Bay Bucs NFL matchup.
“I am not happy with anything that took place,” Jason said. “I’m not proud of it. In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate. I just don’t think that is 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 that I shouldn’t have. The bottom line is, I want to live my life, I try to live my life by the golden rule.”
Watch the “New Heights” moment, above.
