Travis and Jason Kelce’s ‘New Heights’ Episode 25: the ‘Kelce Bowl’

For the first time in NFL history — two brothers will face off against each other for the league’s championship.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and his older brother — Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce — have a podcast called “New Heights.” The title is an homage to the Cleveland Heights, Ohio neighborhood in which they grew up. New episodes drop each Wednesday.

On February 1, the Kelce brothers dropped Episode 25 — where they talk about the Super Bowl, AFC Championship trash talk and why Travis is done with trying to lateral the ball.

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce | Jukes Original Presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment | You can also listen to the show on Spotify.

1. Travis addresses his postgame trash talk

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It was only a matter of time in this episode before the two brothers addressed the Titanic-sized elephant in the room, that was Travis’ viral post-game award ceremony comments, where he shouted out the Mayor of Cinncinatti Aftab Pureval.

“Know your role and shut your mouth!”

It was a performance that caught the ear of the great Rocky Maivia (aka Dwayne “The Rock Johnson), who showed some love for the authenticity with which Travis said the word, “your.”

It was classic Kelce that ranks up there with the likes of his Super Bowl LIV championship parade speech — which, in my humble opinion, still holds the title belt as the best championship trash talk and flex of all time.

One might say that Travis may have gone a little far with the tongue-lashing he gave the Mayor. For the record, I’m not one of those people, but if you are, you’re entitled to your own opinion. As Jason pointed out during the show, Pureval is just a politician who was playing to his base: “He’s a mayor, he’s just trying to get his city fired up!“

“Exactly!” replied Travis. “That’s why he should know [his] role and shut [his] mouth.”

Travis goes on to outline the specific offense that Mayor Pureval made that drew the bulk of his ire in the days leading up to the AFC Championship game (it was this viral video, where he claims that Joe Burrow is Patrick Mahomes’ biological father, that set Travis off).

“The paternity test talk,” explained Kelce. “Dude, shut the f—k up! I ain’t trying to hear any of that s—t.“

It’s this sort of all-in, ask-questions-later mentality that has made Travis the player and the people’s champion that he is today.

The best part of the exchange might be when Jason jumps in and interrupts Travis’ rant, to ask him if he knows what a mayor does.

“Do you even know what a Mayor’s role is?”

This clearly catches Travis off guard and makes him laugh.

“No.”

Jason teases Travis, replying jokingly, “Can you name three responsibilities of a mayor?”

Always the scholar, Travis replies, “To get votes,” drawing a blank after that.

2. No more laterals

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Heading into the game, the Chiefs’ coaching staff harped on the point that to beat the Cincinnati Bengals, the Chiefs would have to play mistake-free football to win the game.

Travis had a costly fumble in the fourth quarter of the Week 13 matchup between these two teams — a fumble that saw the Bengals ultimately walk away with a three-point victory.

With 2:17 left in the first quarter and the Chiefs clinging to a narrow three-point lead, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes dropped back to pass and fired a 15-yard dart across the middle of the field to Kelce. As soon as he caught the ball, Travis immediately attempted to lateral the ball to running back Jerick McKinnon who was streaking up the boundary. Kelce claims in the podcast that the wind caught it and he should have thrown it harder, but Jason questioned the wisdom of attempting the lateral at all.

“What were you thinking in the game with the lateraling? You’ve lateralled the ball before. Every once in a while though it seems like you’re just looking to get a lateral.”

“What does Andy say after you get to the sidelines?” asked Jason.

“I can’t disclose that information,” replied Travis. “Can’t tell you man — just know that when I had that talk with him, I didn’t do it again.”

That’s good because the last thing the Chiefs need in the Super Bowl is a turnover via lateral.

3. The “Kelce Bowl”

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Welcome to the Kelce Bowl — it’s a storyline that is almost already played out, and we haven’t even made it to the Pro Bowl yet. But it doesn’t matter. These two — while brothers who love each other deeper — are also fierce competitors who hate the idea of losing to anyone, even to their own blood.

As Jason pointed out, the Eagles have yet to beat the Chiefs since Andy Reid took over as head coach.

“It has not fared too well in the Eagles’ favor every time they’ve played Travis Kelce and the Chiefs with Andy Reid at the helm,” said Jason. “We’ve lost every matchup so far. So it’s not a rivalry yet.”

Jason went on to say that he is no longer a Chiefs fan until after the Super Bowl.

“I said this week, I’m no longer a Chiefs fan, Trav. Sorry to break it to you. I officially took my ‘Tru Kolors’ Chiefs sweatshirt off immediately after the [Harrison] Butker kick. My fandom is closed for the next two weeks. No barbeque, no nothing. “

The brothers did want to make sure to point out that regardless of what the game is called, it’s not actually the “Kelce Bowl.” There are two full rosters of players and coaches who have sacrificed everything they have to get to this moment as well.

Regardless of the game’s moniker, fans of Arrowhead Pride all know who’s coming out on top a week from Sunday — the Chiefs end up on top, putting up another banner at Arrowhead.