Former Philadelphia Eagles center and current ESPN analyst Jason Kelce apologized on the network on Monday night after he got into an incident with a fan over the weekend.
Kelce was in State College, Pennsylvania, on Saturday for Ohio State’s win over Penn State. Before that game, though, Kelce was seen on video ripping a fan’s phone out of his hands and smashing it to the ground. The altercation came after the fan used a homophobic slur directed at Kelce’s brother, Travis, and his relationship with pop star Taylor Swift.
The fan chased after Kelce, who was in town to appear on ESPN’s “College GameDay,” and screamed out, “Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a f***** for dating Taylor Swift?”
Kelce, who used the same slur back to the fan later, slammed the fans phone, confronted him and then walked away.
Warning: The following videos contain language that is NSFW
Kelce, ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs’ game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, opened ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” pregame broadcast with an apology.
"I'm not happy with anything that took place. I'm not proud of it," Kelce said. "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 that it leads to discourse and it's the right way to go about things. In that moment, I fell down to a level that I shouldn't have.
"I think the bottom line is, I try to live my life by the golden rule. That's what I've always been taught. I try to treat people with common decency and respect, and I'm going to keep doing that going forward even though I fell short this week. I'm going to do that moving forward."
Kelce spent 13 seasons playing with the Eagles, though his popularity has soared in recent years due in part to his brother, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and his relationship with Swift. The Kelce brothers’ podcast has exploded in popularity, too, and the two signed a three-year deal for it worth more than $100 million in August.
It’s unclear if more will come from the incident on Saturday, or if Kelce has spoken with the fan in question in the days since.
This post will be updated with more information shortly.