Jason Kelce has taken to social media to offer an explanation over why he wore a Denver Broncos jersey on TV… despite hailing from the city of their Monday Night Football opponents.
Kelce was a childhood Cleveland Browns fan but shocked viewers on ESPN when he wore a Broncos jersey for the pregame tailgate in Denver this week.
He was flooded with messages asking for an explanation, and he duly obliged, sharing a long explanation about his decision to pull on the rival jersey.
‘Every tailgate I go into Monday Night Football, I wear a jersey honoring a former great of the home team,’ he revealed, going on to give some examples.
‘For the Jets I wore Abdul Salaam’s jersey to honor him after his passing as one of the great members of the Sack Exchange. For the Steelers game, I wore my friend and desk mate Ryan Clark’s jersey. For the Chiefs I wanted to honor Abner Haynes and his contributions to the game in many ways.
‘Tonight I wore Tom Nalen’s jersey as one of the legendary centers of the game and a guy I looked up to and watched when learning the position as an undersized center.
‘I like honoring great players of this league while venturing into the tailgates of teams fans, but I told everyone in the tailgate I was rooting for the Browns, and when we were making our picks for who was going to win the game, I said “I can’t bring myself to pick against my hometown team” and picked the Browns solely because of that.’
The decision went down very well with fans on social media, and his fellow TV analyst Andrew Whitworth wrote: ‘Love that you do that. That’s freaking awesome!’
Another fan wrote: ‘Makes complete sense, nice job Jason,’ while one shared his frustration that Kelce felt the need to post: ‘Love you Jason. Please don’t ever change. Forever having to unnecessarily explain yourself.’
On the other hand, you can’t please all of the people all of the time, and one fan took exception to Kelce’s decision, responding: ‘You should only wear one jersey. It’s green and has 62 on it. At least we have Kylie…’
Kelce was on the panel for the Monday Night Football game, which ended in a victory for the host Broncos, who ran out 41-32 victors over the Browns.
It was another impressive night for rookie quarterback Bo Nix, who threw for 294 yards and a touchdown.
On the other side, it was even wilder for Jameis Winston, who put up 497 yards of offense and threw for four touchdowns, but was also picked off three times.
