Penn State police investigating Jason Kelce phone-smashing incident

Sports


Penn State University Police and Public Safety are investigating an incident in which Jason Kelce slammed a fan’s phone onto the ground Saturday after taunts and a homophobic slur were said toward him, a PSU police spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

The process for reviewing the incident is ongoing, the spokesperson said. A report for the incident in PSU police’s daily crime log lists criminal mischief and disorderly conduct as the offenses.

According to the report, an officer “observed a visitor damaging personal property” at an intersection outside Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The exchange, which occurred before the Nittany Lions’ matchup against Ohio State, was caught on video.

A fan walking behind Kelce can be heard on the video using a homophobic slur regarding the relationship between pop star Taylor Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Jason’s brother: “Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a fa—- for dating Taylor Swift?”

Jason, upon hearing the question, turned around and appeared to take the phone of the fan who said the slur and throw it on the ground. The fan demanded Jason give him the phone back, to which Jason responded: “Who’s the fa—- now?”

Kelce, a former Philadelphia Eagles center, addressed the altercation on ESPN’s broadcast of “Monday Night Countdown,” saying he was “not happy with anything that took place.”

“I’m not proud of it,” Kelce said during the show’s opening segment before Monday night’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.

“In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate, and I don’t think that’s a productive thing,” Kelce said. “I really don’t. I don’t think it leads to discourse and (I don’t think) it’s the right way to go about things. In that moment, I fell down to a level that I shouldn’t have.

“The bottom line is, I want to live my life — I try to live my life — by the ‘golden rule.’ That’s what I’ve always been taught. I try to treat people with common decency, respect and I’m going to keep doing that moving forward even though I fell short this week.”

Kelce redirected the conversation to coverage of the Monday night game, saying he “didn’t think this was the platform, necessarily, to go into more detail.”

Required reading

(Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *