ESPN’s Jason Kelce has been the subject of perhaps the biggest sports media story of the weekend after spiking a fan’s phone onto the ground. That came after that fan used a homophobic slur to describe Kelce’s brother, Travis. And as far as Mike Golic Sr. and Mike Golic Jr. see it, the fan deserved everything he got in the situation.
In the aftermath of the incident, the majority of the comments on the matter have been overwhelmingly supportive of what Kelce did based on the comment towards his brother.
On Monday’s edition of Gojo and Golic, the hosts largely echoed these same sentiments. But they took things a step further in condemning every fan who feels they can say whatever they want to players or media personalities on or off the field without consequences.
“This sort of underscores the larger societal mentality where people just continue to think they can say anything they want inside the arena with no consequences,” said Golic Jr. “Like this is Twitter and they think it’s sweet out here. And quickly find out in a way that could have gone markedly worse for the person involved on the receiving end of this from Jason Kelce that that’s not gonna fly here.”
Whether it be visiting tailgates ahead of Monday Night Countdown or appearing on College Gameday as he did on Saturday, Kelce has been a man of the people in his ESPN analyst venture. But when you are so accessible to the public like Kelce has been, you are bound to run into the trolls like this from time to time.
Golic Jr. went on to add that while it is great that Kelce has been so accessible to the general public, he may want to keep himself out of these situations in the future.
“This is also a reminder to Jason that he is probably gonna have to find ways to get himself out of these situations in the future. He’s been an awesome, accessible star while him & Travis have watched their profile grow. But people are just not responsible enough for all that access to a guy that nice.”
Golic Sr. then chimed in, saying he likely would have responded similarly to Kelce had he been put in the same situation.
“Listen, Jason has always been on the football field when the fans are yelling at him,” said Golic Sr. “Not with a fan right next to him saying what he said. Again, about a family member. So I can not sit here and say Jason shouldn’t have done that. I probably would have done that as well.
“You’re right, people are just too comfortable with their words to somebody. This guy forgot he wasn’t in his mom’s basement typing his Twitter muscles. He realized he was face to face with somebody and actually had to answer the bell for it. Maybe we need a little more of that so people aren’t so comfortable throwing around their crap just to try and get a reaction. You got a reaction. How did you like the reaction?
“Now, at the end of the day, Jason is gonna have to pay for this. What comes of it? I don’t know, but I certainly won’t sit here and criticize Jason Kelce, as most were on his side. Some obviously saying he has got to handle that better.
“Well, you know what, until you are in that situation, it’s easy to say you should have handled it better. He probably understands he should have handled it better. But I don’t know if there is anybody out there who in that moment wouldn’t say I would have handled it the same way to some jerk that’s just trying to get a reaction. You know what, you found out…”
The Jason Kelce situation underscored how some fans think they can say ANYTHING they want.
“He’s been an awesome, accessible star while him & Travis have watched their profile grow but people are just not responsible enough for all that access to a guy that nice” @mikegolicjr… pic.twitter.com/FQ8lhMuyjg
— DraftKings Network (@DKNetwork) November 4, 2024
Golic Jr. went on to say that this was the “ultimate F-around and fine out moment”, which really sums up the situation perfectly given the context.
Moving forward, it will be interesting to see whether ESPN puts some restrictions on the face-to-face access Kelce will have with fans.
Following the incident, Kelce did indeed offer a public apology on Monday Night Countdown. There, he admitted that he “fell down to a level he shouldn’t have” and could have handled the situation better.
