Jason Kelce’s awkward introduction to ESPN’s Monday Night Football audience was cheered by two key viewers: his brother Travis and his girlfriend Taylor Swift.
On this week’s episode of their podcast, New Heights, the Kelce brothers discussed their older brother’s debut on Monday Night Countdown, a debut that began with the revelation that Jason hadn’t brought any proper clothing to Santa Clara for the Jets-49ers game.
“You went to the Bay Area for your first Monday Night Countdown appearance and forgot to pack a shirt for Jason,” Travis said. “Luckily there was a Lululemon nearby and he was able to explain himself within the first 30 seconds of his ESPN debut.”
Jason then flipped through his mental Rolodex: “What did I say? I said something about tits.”
Luckily, Travis remembered the “awesome quote,” which left him and Swift “absolutely laughing.”
ESPN analyst Jason Kelce watches before the New York Jets play the San Francisco 49ers
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attend the US Open Men’s Final in Flushing, Queens
“It fits my stomach now, I’ve lost a little weight, but my tits still hurt,” Kelce told host Scott Van Pelt of his new, ill-fitting shirt.
It goes without saying that Travis approved.
“It was the perfect way to let everyone experience what they were going to experience over the next 18 weeks,” he told Jason at New Heights.
The word wasn’t bleeped out on ESPN’s broadcast, even though it didn’t have to be. It’s not one of the famous “seven dirty words” and certainly has other meanings and applications, ranging from ornithology to a mathematical theorem about the structure of finitely generated linear groups.
“T**s is a funny word because I think it’s allowed,” Jason said. “It’s not against the rules, but it’s definitely something you wouldn’t normally say on air. It’s one of those words that doesn’t belong on air.”
Jason again consulted his mental Rolodex to come up with a similar term, before coming up with “grundle.”
“It’s a weird word to come out of your ass,” he said.
Travis went on to say that “t**s was the most perfect word you could have used for that situation.”
He then made the same comment Jason made about his shirt on ESPN: “Those buttons were held on with a thread.”
“Tight on top,” Jason agreed.
“It looked like a stretchy shirt, but it looked like maybe you should have gone up a size,” Travis countered.
The problem, Jason explains, is that while he’s lost some fat since retiring from the NFL, the former Eagles center still has a thick chest.
“I was having some abdominal pain, so it would have been difficult to go to a 3X,” Jason said.
Jason initially felt insecure during his first episode on MNF, but ultimately feels the broadcast was a success.
“It’s like anything you do the first time,” he said. “I didn’t feel prepared, I was really nervous, I didn’t know what to expect. Then you realize you were prepared, that ESPN did a great job setting everything up.”
Travis agreed, saying that Jason and the ESPN crew “fitted so well together.”