Former Philadelphia Eagles center and current ESPN panelist Jason Kelce is apologizing for smashing a cell phone on the ground after its owner directed an anti-gay slur at his brother, Travis.
“Listen, I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it,” Jason Kelce said on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown.
“And in a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate. And I just don’t think that that’s a productive thing. I really don’t.”
The incident occurred Saturday at Penn State, following Ohio State’s victory over the Nittany Lions outside Beaver Stadium.
In a video of the incident, Jason Kelce is seen walking with a crowd of fans exiting the game when a male heckler behind him yells, “Hey Kelce! How does it feel your brother is a f*ggot for dating Taylor Swift?”
As Breitbart’s Lara Gwinn reported on Saturday, “Kelce appears to ignore the insult for a moment but then turns sharply and makes his way through the crowd to the individual, who is wearing a black hoodie and carrying a phone. Kelce appears to grab the phone and hold it up in the air, and a sound like the smashing of a phone on pavement can be heard.”
Kelce says he lives by the “golden rule,” which compels him to treat others how he would like to be treated, and his actions on Saturday “fell short.”
“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,” Kelce said.
Kelce is in his first year with ESPN. During his 13-year career with Philadelphia, he made seven trips to the Pro Bowl and accumulated six first-team All-Pro selections.
