Former Philadelphia Eagles center and current Monday Night Countdown analyst for ESPN, Jason Kelce, lost his temper with an obnoxious heckler and went full Beast Mode.
Just as we saw fans grabbing a player in Mookie Betts recently, taking action against a fan – no matter how terrible their words might be – is simply not acceptable.
Kelce was attending College GameDay at Penn State’s University Park campus when one Nittany Lion fan made a reprehensible comment about his brother Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a (expletive) for dating Taylor Swift?” the heckler said.
The expletive in question was a homophobic slur that I don’t care to repeat here.
Jason Kelce Smashes Fans Phone
Rather hilariously, Kelce immediately turned around, grabbed the dude’s phone, and Gronk-Spiked it into the Shadow Realm.
The problem here is that Jason Kelce smashed the guy’s phone and then repeated the slur at least three times.
“Who’s the (expletive) now?” he can be heard shouting.
Yeah, great. The fan is an idiot for using the slur, but then you opt not to take the higher road and use the word in return? Meaning you’re both of the same mindset that it’s a derogatory phrase.
Yikes, what a mess.
Jason Kelce is the fucking man!
— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) November 2, 2024
Takes a dudes phone and smashes it on the ground after he calls his brother a homophobic slur pic.twitter.com/iDFsBeZ85T
Several football fans saw the video of the incident and thought Jason Kelce was justified for smashing the heckler’s phone. And if he were just walking down the street on his own, I’d agree.
But he’s there representing the network for College Gameday. If words bother you, notify security that a fan is being unruly or have someone in your circle of friends take care of business.
It’s not a good look. And you can bet your butt that college kids seeing him at a game in the future are going to heckle him with the same exact phrase going forward.
The whole thing is a messy situation. Messier than Kelce’s beard after a seafood special.
RELATED: Jason Kelce Nukes Analytics Geeks: ‘Stats Are Numbers, Numbers Are Nerds, Nerds Are Losers’
Needs Security To Deal With It
Philadelphia radio host Jon Marks took to X to remark that Jason Kelce was in the wrong for smashing the guy’s phone.
“[Jason] has to realize that his profile is bigger than it ever was as a player,” Marks wrote on X Saturday, adding a video of the encounter.
“He’s making big $$$ across multiple platforms and his brother might marry the biggest pop star ever. He can’t be spiking people’s phones,” he added. “He needs security to deal with this […].”
Again – because I know there’s going to be some pushback to this – if Kelce is minding his business out in public, I’m all for the phone smashing. Go ahead and stomp on it a few times for good measure.
But you can’t do this serving in the capacity of an ESPN personality.
Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports has indicated the network is not commenting on the incident.
“FYI, ESPN not commenting on Jason Kelce incident,” McCarthy wrote on X. “The Eagles center turned ‘Monday Night Countdown’ analyst smashed a punk’s phone for making offense remarks about his brother Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift.”
The network is in a very tough spot now. I’m sure they want to defend their analyst from homophobic taunts, but if they do, are they defending his use of the same phrase in return?
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