Jason Kelce breaks silence after smashing Penn State fan's phone: 'I chose to greet hate with hate'
Before ESPN’s "Monday Night Countdown" went on with their usually matchup break down of the game ahead, the floor was Jason Kelce’s to address him smashing a Penn State fan’s phone on Saturday.
Video quickly went viral of Kelce reacting to the fan using a homophobic slur to attack his brother, Travis Kelce, for his relationship with Taylor Swift.
"Hey Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a f----- dating Taylor Swift," the fan was heard saying on video.
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Kelce, then, turned around to confront the fan and smashed his phone, which was up seemingly recording the incident.
"Monday Night Countdown" host Scott Van Pelt started the show by setting up Kelce’s apology on Monday night at Arrowhead Stadium ahead of the Chiefs-Buccaneers game.
"Listen, I think everybody’s seen on social media everything that took place this week," Kelce began. "Listen, I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it, 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 it’s the right way to go about things. That moment I fell down to a moment I shouldn’t have.
"So, I think the 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, and I’m going to keep doing that moving forward, even though I fell short this week. I’m going to do that moving forward and continue to do that."
WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE
Kelce was in University Park, Pennsylvania, to make an appearance on ESPN’s "College GameDay" ahead of the Nittany Lions’ game against their Big Ten-rival Ohio State Buckeyes.
There were several people around flashing their phones, trying to interact with Kelce, though they were much nicer than the one fan who decided to hurl the homophobic slur toward him.
Despite Kelce’s actions, many on social media stood up for him. They, instead, found a problem with what the Penn State fan said rather than the phone being smashed.
"People are gonna comment about Jason Kelce but the point is there’s no accountability for anything anyone says anymore," former Team USA soccer player Taylor Twellman said on X. "The old days with no phones and social media what do you think would have really happened?! People are losers for this crap."
Kelce mentioned on "Monday Night Countdown" that this wasn’t necessarily the platform for him to go into more detail, so that could come on his "New Heights" podcast with Travis, which is usually scheduled to release each week.
Jason Kelce has been emotional in the past when defending his brother, which includes those who criticized the Chiefs tight end for his slow start to the season.
An emotional Jason Kelce was seen talking to his brother about it on the podcast.
"It’s going to go your way, especially if you freaking keep being the guy you’ve always been, you know what I mean," Jason Kelce said. "There ain’t nobody that I’ve ever played sports with and nobody that anybody’s ever been on a team with that has loved being out there with Trav more, and I know it’s frustrating for me to watch and have to listen to.
"But I can’t wait — and we don’t have to put that in there — but I just can’t wait. I f---ing can’t wait for it to turn."
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
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