12 hours ago
Jason Kelce Apologizes for Hurling Homophobic Slur Back at Harasser: 'I Met Hate with Hate'
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Jason Kelce – the brother of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift's boyfriend – issued an apology after a video went viral of him answering a harasser's slur with a slur in kind.
As previously reported, Kelce was approached by a man with a phone on Nov. 2 before a football game at Penn State. The man, who seemed to be taking video, reportedly called out, "Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a faggot for dating Taylor Swift?"
Kelce whirled, snatched the phone away, and pegged it onto the pavement. Then he bent down, grabbed the phone up again, and strode away.
Reports say that when the man demanded the return of his phone Kelce responded, "Who's the faggot now?"
Kelce, a former center for the Philadelphia Eagles, is a sports commentator with ESPN and hosts a podcast together with his brother Travis. Addressing the incident right away during his regular appearance as a panelist on ESPN's "Monday Night Countdown" on Nov. 4, Kelce said, "I'm not happy with anything that took place. I'm not proud of it," Deadline reported.
"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," Kelce went on to say. "I don't think it leads to discourse and it's [not] the right way to go about things."
The 13-year NFL veteran continued: "In that moment I fell down to a level I shouldn't have."
Saying he tries "to live my life by the golden rule," Kelce explained to his audience, "I try to treat people with common decency and respect, and I'm gonna keep doing that moving forward even though I fell short this week."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.