This past Thursday, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce appeared on Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football. Jason’s brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, made mention of the unique experience his brother had on the latest edition of their hit podcast, New Heights.
The schedule lined up where both teams had concurrent bye weeks and were slated to play one another in the upcoming Monday Night Football matchup, but that did not stop the Kelce brothers from discussing their lives and continuing to bring fans content.
Jason Kelce described the broadcast as “an unbelievable experience” and expressed his gratitude towards Prime Video for allowing him to appear on the air. In describing the night, he stated that much of it was partaking in interviews in answering questions, but he took a particular interest in seeing how everything operated behind the scenes.
Kelce described the various different monitors within a broadcast booth – including the telestrator; replay and primary feed displays. Upon his brother saying that the scene sounded like “chaos,” Kelce recounted his journey into the broadcast truck and how he witnessed the telecast come together.”
“It was mind-blowing to see the operation that happens for a game and how seamless and professionally it all is done,” Kelce said. “It was really just cool to watch and see. I can’t imagine the amount of data that is flowing through those trucks in a given game.”
Kelce acknowledged that the matchup between the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers was not the most exciting game, but that his occurrence was exciting and made easy for him by those working on the program. Travis Kelce, who was in Buenos Aires, Argentina watching his rumored girlfriend Taylor Swift perform as part of her world tour, reviewed his brother’s performance and shared that he did a good job.
“The closest thing it felt like was Saturday Night Live,” Jason Kelce articulated, “but on a much different scale because there’s more things that are uncontrollable. But it kind of gave that same vibe of, ‘Holy cow, there are so many people involved in making this thing happen and having it be the product that it is,’ so [it was] really, really cool to witness.”
Since knowledge of his appearance became public, people have been wondering whether Kelce will consider a move to television at the conclusion of his National Football League career. After all, before the start of the season, Kelce mulled retirement before committing to his 13th season in the league, all of which have come with the Philadelphia Eagles. Travis decided to ask his brother what he was thinking as it pertained to pursuing a career in sports media down the road, prompting him to elicit his perceptions on the varying roles.
“I could do the desk pre/post-show [and] have an opinion on the teams and the games and stuff like that,” Jason Kelce surmised. “I think any former player could do that – you just have an opinion on [the teams] – not to [discredit anyone because] those guys are much better at it…. That part isn’t that hard of having an opinion on something.”
Kelce shared that he was fascinated by how things worked in the booth and explained that the job is inherently more difficult. He specifically referenced a side conversation he had with Herbstreit in the midst of the game and marveled at his ability to toggle between the topics in real-time.
“That’s an art form that would take a long time to foster and try and be good at,” Kelce said of working in the booth. “Kirk was – he was sitting there having a conversation with me; he’s just like, ‘Yeah, what do you have going on?’ Not only are you having a side conversation with me in between; then you’re back here; then you’re circling this.”
