Jason Kelce Defends Brother Travis Kelce Amid Criticism of NFL Season

Jason Kelce has his brother’s back.

Amid criticisms surrounding Travis Kelce’s early season performance as a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, the former Philadelphia Eagles center praised his younger brother.

“It’s gonna go your way, especially if you freaking keep being the guy you’ve always been,” the ESPN correspondent told Travis on the Sept. 25 episode of their New Heights podcast. “There ain’t nobody that I’ve ever played sports with and nobody that anybody’s ever been on a team with that’s loved being out there with Trav more. It’s frustrating for me to have to watch and listen to, but I can’t wait for it to turn.”

Taylor Swift’s boyfriend acknowledged his shortcomings on the field, saying of his performance in last week’s game against the Atlanta Falcons, “We’re not playing our best football. Everybody can clean up. I think everybody saw my drop in the third quarter, that crucial down, just trying to do too much before I put the ball away. That’s probably the biggest thing for me, making the play in bigtime moments like that.”

The Grotesquerie star went on to share his plans for the remainder of the season.

“Moving forward, everyone’s just tweaking their game in the right direction,” he explained. “We know what we have to do to get better this week. We’re going out west to play the [Los Angeles] Chargers, and I’m excited about that.”

Despite his positive attitude, Travis did admit, “Man, I wished I played as good as I felt.”

Jason isn’t the only athlete to speak out on Travis’ behalf. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes also defended his teammate during a press conference after the Sept. 22 game.

“Yeah, it’s crazy because the team’s still—the respect factor they have for Travis is just unreal,” Patrick told reporters. “It’s well-deserved, but we’re calling a lot of plays for Travis, and it’s like two or three people are going to him.”

“He understands,” he continued. “I think that’s the great thing about him. He wants to make an impact on the game, but he wants to win at the end of the day. I’m going to try to keep doing my best to keep feeding him the ball whenever he’s there, whenever he’s open.”