Taylor Swift’s fans, known as the Swifties, noticed a special detail on Jason Kelce during a heated moment with a heckler that has since gone viral.
The former Philadelphia Eagles player is the brother of Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce who still plays in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs.
On Saturday, November 2, Jason Kelce was filmed grabbing a person’s phone and smashing it to the ground after he allegedly called Travis a homophobic slur at an event at Penn State University.
Swifties noticed he was wearing a friendship bracelet during the altercation. The singer’s fans have long exchanged bespoke bracelets at her concerts, and they usually feature a person’s name or other details, along with other trinkets, such as beads, flowers, smiley faces or hearts. But exchanging friendship bracelets is not only reserved for the Swifties, Travis has even been spotted sporting them in public.
“He did all that with garage beer in his hand and a friendship bracelet on his wrist, this man needs a medal,” wrote the Swift fan account, @thisisvertrying, on X, formerly Twitter, in a post that has been viewed 1.1 million times at the time of writing.
The 37-year-old retired NFL player apologized on the following episode of ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, saying, “I’m not proud of it.” He reflected on the incident by saying, “Within a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate and I don’t think that’s a productive thing. I don’t think it leads to discourse.”
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The incident happened outside Penn State University’s Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay.
The heckler was seen filming Kelce and made a comment about his brother Travis, and his relationship with Swift.
“How does it feel that your brother is a f****** f****** for dating Taylor Swift?” the person asked, and Kelce turned around to grab his cell phone and smash it to the ground.
Swifties, Chiefs and Eagles fans seemed to unite on the opinion that Kelce had done nothing wrong and was just standing up for his brother, which was reflected in many of the replies to @thisisvertrying’s video.
“Handling that situation with a garage beer in one hand and a friendship bracelet on his wrist shows his down-to-earth nature. This man is truly a unique blend of strength and kindness,” wrote @anmol_5222.
“You don’t f*** with that brotherly love! or Jason Kelce for that matter… as if we needed another reason to love this man,” commented @MelindaNeu19546.
But others disagreed and slammed Kelce’s reaction.
“Sorry but this will only encourage people to do or say even worse because they are such attention seekers,” wrote @onlykedy.
And @AndyVrenditions added, “Why on earth are you praising this behavior? It’s despicable.”