Travis & Jason Kelce’s ‘New Heights’ podcast: ‘We were filthy animals’

…a surprise to nobody.

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

With Travis taking the week off from recording for the Super Bowl, Jason took the opportunity to record an interview with former teammates and close friends Chris Long and Beau Allen. Travis joined Jason for a few minutes at the top of the show to reminisce about their college years when the two brothers were roommates.

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

1. Real-life Animal House

If the walls could talk at 127 W. Nixon Street in Cincinnati, Ohio, they would tell you some wild stories that might remind you of all of the dumb stuff you did in your 20s.

Travis and Jason shared the house with several friends and college teammates. It was their first bachelor pad, and it was a place that, to this day, Travis remembers fondly.

“It was filthy, but so much f—king fun,” said Travis.

In January, The Athletic tracked down Travis and Jason’s old friends to ask them about their time living with the Kelce brothers. Discussing the article, Travis said their friends reached out to him before agreeing to do the story to ask permission before squealing to the media.

“I got asked by a couple of guys if it was cool,” said Travis. “I was like, ‘Dude, it’s always cool.'”

He even went as far as to encourage his pals not to filter themselves and to spill all of the tea.

“Don’t hold back; tell all of the good stories,” Travis recalled telling one friend before diving into a confession of his own. “Sure enough, they mentioned all of the good ones, like Zach’s (former Cincinnati quarterback Zach Collaros) mom walking in on me firing up in the garage before one of the games — absolutely hilarious.”

The story in question is outlined in the article, along with numerous other antidotes.

Collaros: My mom visited one time. This was when Travis was suspended. She doesn’t like going to the games so she just stayed behind and cleaned the house, which is a story in and of itself. She smells something and walks downstairs in the basement and it’s Trav — smoking a joint. She goes: “Travis, aren’t you suspended for this?!?” He goes: “Hey Momma Collaros, it’s all right. When are we going to the game?” And they walked to the game together.

DeTemple: One time we went out and got some food and came back and the house smelled like weed. We’re all kind of looking around like, “Who’s smoking in here?”

Collaros: Travis was coming up from the basement and he just kind of looked down the hallway like, “Oh shit,” and then ran.

DeTemple: They had that industrial trash can in there.

Collaros: Jason took the top of the metal garbage can and he just threw it at Travis, like he was Oscar the Grouch.

Evan Davis: Travis went in and locked himself in their bedroom and then in their bathroom, so part of the hallway wall was on the other side of the bathroom. So Jason punched through it, missed the studs and went straight through both pieces of drywall into the bathroom.

Parmenter: It was a gaping hole. You could fit an average-sized person through it.

Collaros: I was just like, “Jesus Christ, dude! Did you just break your hand?” He’s like, “Nah, I’m good,” and then sits down and starts eating a Chipotle burrito.

Travis has been very open about the mistakes he made in college. Unlike some stars, he isn’t trying to whitewash his past.

“That’s how I was living back then.”

He also readily acknowledges his older brother’s role in his life. Jason’s tough love and willingness to vouch for him helped Travis get his football career back on track.

2. Living room landfill

Like a lot of bachelor pads, the house the Kelce brothers shared was a shade beyond dirty — to the point they had to put an outdoor garbage can in the center of the living room to hold all of the trash so it didn’t end up on the floor.

Greg Davis (homeowner): Those guys were absolute pigs. They had a giant outdoor garbage can sitting in the middle of the common living area, and it was stacked 2 feet out of the top of the can with pizza boxes.

But Travis says it wasn’t just pizza boxes that filled the receptacle.

“Dip cans, pizza, beer, leftovers,” he said. “It was exactly what we needed because we were filthy animals.”

3. The whiskey waterbottle

Another story from their playing days at the University of Cincinnati centers around Jason being upset because they had to practice on St Patrick’s Day. His solution to this injustice was to smuggle a warm water bottle full of Jamison Irish Whiskey into practice and pass it around to his teammates during practice.

When practice was over and fueled by liquid courage, Jason proceeded to make a speech to his teammates about how his forefathers came to this country. The remaining details were understandably a little blurry in the brothers’ retelling of the tale on the podcast.

But one thing was for sure: it was a heck of a good time. Looking back on those days fondly, Travis laughs.

“We were pretty f—king s—tfaced the entire time.”