Jason Kelce has acknowledged he may have gone too far with one of his jokes.
On Monday (December 9), the retired Philadelphia Eagles center referred to two cities in Texas as the “butthole and armpit” of the state during an appearance on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown.
The hosts were discussing the upcoming game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Cincinnati Bengals when Kelce made the comment.
As the camera showed various angles of the AT&T Stadium, a voice-over of Scott Van Pelt can be heard saying, “This is the state of Texas, Arlington, Dallas…” Kelce then interjected, “Also the butthole and armpit of America.”
His co-hosts quickly chimed in shouting, “Woah! Woah!” while Kelce replied, “It was a joke!”
“I was joking … see now I …” he attempted to explain before freezing and looking at the people surrounding him. “Guys, it was just a joke because of what Mina said.”
Disney Plus was airing a Simpsons-themed version of the game featuring animated versions of Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky, and Drew Carter. The game was being broadcast from the series’s fictional town of Springfield, which Kimes called “The Armpit of America’s Butt-Crack,” a direct reference from the show.
“We’re having fun here. I love Dallas,” Kelce added. “We got the cowboy hats.”
This isn’t the first time one of Kelce’s actions have landed him in hot water. In November, he got into a heated argument with a fan at Penn State University’s Beaver Stadium for ESPN’s College GameDay broadcast as they took on Ohio State University. A viral video on X showed a man yelling: “Hey, Kelce. How does it feel your brother’s a f***** dating Taylor Swift?” Kelce angrily grabbed the fan’s phone and smashed it to the ground, saying: “Who’s the f***** now?”
After the incident, Kelce appeared on Monday Night Countdown to publicly address what happened. “I think everybody’s seen on social media everything that took place this week,” he 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 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.”
“The bottom line is, I try to live my life by the golden rule, that’s what I’ve always been taught,” he said. “I try to treat people with common decency and respect, and I’m going to keep doing that moving forward.”
He also spoke about the incident during an episode of his New Heights podcast that he hosts with his younger brother, Travis Kelce.
The elder Kelce said his biggest regret from the situation was repeating the homophobic slur that the fan had used. “It’s dehumanizing and it got under my skin and it elicited a reaction. In the heat of the moment, I thought, ‘Hey, what can I say back to him? I’m gonna throw this s*** right back into his face. F*** him,’” Jason said.
