Jason Kelce on phone-spike incident: ‘I chose to greet hate with hate’

Jason Kelce has expressed regret for choosing to “greet hate with hate” after spiking a fan’s cellphone outside Beaver Stadium before the Ohio State-Penn State game Saturday in University Park, Pa.

Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles center who is now a member of ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” crew, was on campus to take part in a “College GameDay” event for the network. In video footage circulating on social media of Kelce greeting fans outside the stadium, a man can be heard shouting an anti-gay slur in reference to Kelce’s brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, for “dating Taylor Swift.”

Jason Kelce then turns around and grabs a phone out of someone’s hand — presumably that of the heckler — and smashes it to the ground. Further video shows Kelce in a heated exchange with the man, using the same slur back at him multiple times.

The Penn State University Police and Public Safety Department is investigating the incident.

Kelce addressed the matter at the start of Monday night’s broadcast, before his brother Travis’ Chiefs team hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“I think everybody has seen on social media everything that took place this week,” Kelce said. “Listen, I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it. 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.

“So 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 gonna to keep doing that moving forward even though I fell short this week.”

ESPN declined to comment for this article.

Jason Kelce is a seven-time Pro Bowl center who played all 13 of his NFL seasons with the Eagles before retiring this past offseason. The outgoing, shaggy-bearded Philadelphia icon has become well known nationally in recent years, appearing in countless TV commercials and hosting the “New Heights” podcast with his brother.

Travis Kelce is a nine-time Pro Bowler who has been dating pop music superstar Swift for more than a year.

The brothers addressed the incident at the beginning of their most recent podcast episode, which went live Wednesday morning. Jason Kelce said he wishes he hadn’t even acknowledged the heckler.

“Me reacting gave him the time of day and it also gave the situation notoriety,” Kelce said. “That’s what I regret. It didn’t deserve attention, it’s really stupid, and if I just keep walking, it’s a nothingburger. Nobody sees it. Now, it’s out there and it just perpetuates more hate.”

He also expressed remorse for repeating the slur back to the man.

“The thing that I regret the most is saying that word to be honest with you,” Kelce said. “The word he used it’s just … dehumanizing and it got under my skin. It elicited a reaction. In the heat of the moment, I thought, ‘Hey, what can I say back to him? I’m going to throw that s— right back in his face.’”

He added: “I know now that I shouldn’t have done that because now there’s a video out there with me saying that word, him saying that word and it’s not good for anybody. I think that what I do regret is that now 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.”

Travis Kelce offered some supportive words for his brother.

“You reacted in a way that was defending your family,” he said. “And you might have used some words that you regret using. And that’s a situation that where you just kinda have to learn from and own. And I think you owning it and you speaking about it shows how sincere you are to a lot of people in this world. And it shows that … you don’t choose hate. That’s just not who you are.”