Eagles’ Jason Kelce and Chiefs’ Travis Kelce set to make history in Super Bowl 2023 | How the brothers reacted
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PHILADELPHIA – Eagles center Jason Kelce had a special sweater picked out for Sunday night after his team beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship game to advance to the Super Bowl.
And he picked it with his younger brother, Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce in mind.
“Yup, I have a Kansas City sweatshirt that I will wear for the next three hours,” Jason Kelce said in a corner of the Eagles’ celebratory locker room, as his brother and the Chiefs were playing the Bengals early in the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. “And that’s it for the rest of the year. Win or lose, I am done being a Chiefs fan in three hours. I am looking forward to see who wins that one. They are two really good teams. Not trying to get my hopes up, but we’ll see who we are playing.”
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Well, three hours later Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker drilled a 45-yard field goal to deliver the Chiefs a win and make a lifelong dream a reality: in less than two weeks, Travis and Jason Kelce will become the first brothers to ever play against each other in the same Super Bowl.
Jason Kelce tweeted out his reaction in the aftermath and he was true to his word.
“Officially done being a Chiefs fan this season!!” he wrote.
Hours earlier Kelce showed his sense of humor in the locker room, when asked if he could even imagine what it will be like to have an experience that no family has ever had before.
“Yes, for the people that are on board with the NFL being scripted, it is pretty good evidence,” Kelce said. “It has been a fun year Travis and I on multiple levels.”
The brothers started a podcast together this season – this might give them a bump in subscribers – and it’s not just the chance to play his brother that is going to be cool for Jason Kelce. The 35-year-old veteran has been around long enough that Chiefs coach Andy Reid was still in Philadelphia for his first two seasons in the NFL: 2011 and 12.
“It would be really special playing against [Travis] and Andy Reid,” Jason Kelce said. “And a lot of other familiar faces over there with the Chiefs.”
Travis Kelce didn’t have to wonder what it might feel like. After the Chiefs win, it was a reality. And the younger Kelce took a moment reflect on the accomplishment when asked by reporters in Kansas City.
“Haven’t talked to him yet,” Kelce said of his older brother, “but a cool scenario to be in. My mom can’t lose. I’ll just leave it at that. It’s going to be an amazing feeling playing against him.”
Travis Kelce spent a lot of time after Sunday’s win trash talking Cincinnati – especially the mayor. But don’t expect that in the next two weeks as the Chiefs get ready to face the Eagles.
“You won’t see me talking too much trash because of how much respect and how much I love my brother,” Kelce said. “But it’s definitely going to be an emotional game. That’s for sure.”
Emotional, and potentially awkward, especially for their mom, Donna Kelce, who will likely be sporting the jersey she’s worn that is half Eagles half Chiefs. So what will that be like for her?
In an interview with NFL Network last week, she said that the brothers have been “thinking about this since they were 10 years old” growing up outside of Cleveland. But this wasn’t quite how they envisioned it.
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“The scenario was they would be playing for the same team, and it would be [the] Browns, but that didn’t work out,” Donna Kelce said. “But anyway … they won’t be on the field at the same time, but they will be playing, hopefully, if it works out, in the Super Bowl. That would be awesome.”
But there are some mixed emotions for the Kelces.
“It’s like, elation,” she said. “But also we’ll have to worry about, someone’s going to come out a loser, and that’s going to be rough. But there won’t be any fisticuffs on the field.”
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Andy Vasquez may be reached at avasquez@njadvancemedia.com.
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