Jason Kelce was on campus at Penn State over the weekend for College GameDay and got into an altercation with a fan there who called his brother Travis a homophobic slur. Clearly Kelce regretted the incident, as he led off Monday Night Countdown with an apology over what happened.
In Kansas City for an anticipated matchup between the Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Kelce kicked off the show by showing remorse for “greet(ing) hate with hate” after he threw a fan’s phone to the ground and used the “F-slur” back at the fan.
“I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it,” Kelce said.
“And in a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate, and I just don’t think that’s a productive thing. I really don’t. I don’t think it leads to discourse, and [don’t think] it’s the right way to go about things. In that moment, I fell down to a level that I shouldn’t have. So I think 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, even though I fell short this week. I’m going to do that moving forward and continue to do that.”
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 initial jeer at Kelce came from what appeared to be a college-age fan walking past Jason Kelce on campus, who insinuated that Travis was gay for dating pop star Taylor Swift.
Despite the fan likely thinking it was typical trash talk toward the Ohio-born Kelce before a hotly anticipated game between Penn State and Ohio State, clearly it crossed a line.
Reactions to the incident were mixed. Kelce stood up for this brother, but his apology shows that he hopes to handle confrontations like that more patiently in the future.
[Monday Night Countdown on ESPN]
