There are announcers who stay perfectly neutral, and then there are former players who still feel the game in their chest. On Sept. 28, during ESPN’s Monday Night Football coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles against the Chicago Bears, Jason Kelce let a little of that fandom slip into his analysis. He caught it, and he addressed it on air.
What Kelce said
During the broadcast, Kelce looked at how Philadelphia was trending going into the half.
“I feel pretty good going into the half,” Kelce told Pat McAfee and Scott Van Pelt. “We played really well.”
“Offensively, we had opportunities, we shot ourselves in the foot, but we’ve moved the ball, we ran the ball well, Jalen Hurts is throwing the ball well.”
He continued: “Them getting the ball coming out of the half, I have a feeling they got a lot of momentum.”
McAfee then flagged the phrasing on air: “A lot of ‘we’ talk out of Jason for Philly.”
Kelce replied, “Sorry, sorry. I forget. Sorry, Bears fans.”
Why he slipped
Kelce spent 13 seasons with the Eagles before retiring in 2024, and he was speaking about his former team during a live game.
He is also a dad to daughters Wyatt, 6, Elliotte, 5, Bennett, 3, and Finnley, 18 months, with wife Kylie Kelce.
Still candid about Philly
Kelce’s ties to the Eagles have also shown up when he has criticized the team. After Philadelphia lost to the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 11 and was knocked out of the NFL playoffs, he addressed it on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown broadcast on Jan. 12.
“I know it wasn’t the best performance this year offensively.”
“They had the No. 1, highest-paid offense in the league and were mediocre across the board. That’s unacceptable.”
He added: “They had their chances to win that game yesterday, and the players didn’t make the plays! Alright? That’s all I’m going to leave it at.”
Super Bowl emotions
Kelce has also talked through the mixed emotions that come with being connected to both sides. After the 2025 Super Bowl, he responded to backlash after some fans accused him of cheering on his former team when the Eagles played against his brother Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs.
On New Heights, Kelce described how it felt.
“It sucks, I knew it was going to be weird going into it. It progressively got weirder as the week went on.”
“On one hand, you played your entire life with an organization and team. A lot of people, in that building, coaches, friends, teammates that you’ve gone through adversity with. And it really, makes you very, very close.”
“And then on the other hand you have your brother.”
“I’ve always supported you. I’ve always wanted you to win, and I wanted you to win this game. I thought I made that clear.”
The Eagles won 40-22. Kelce also said the experience was hard to sit through.
“That does not take precedence over rooting for you, that’s why this game sucked,” he said through tears. “It was very, very hard to watch. I tried to correlate that I was rooting for both sides the whole time. And that I was going to happy and sad regardless no matter who won.”
What happened on air
On Sept. 28, the “we” made it into Kelce’s breakdown, McAfee called it out, and Kelce apologized on the broadcast.