The Legendary Kelce brothers weren’t always the NFL’s most entertaining sibling duo or the podcast kings rubbing elbows with Taylor Swift. Once upon a time, Jason and Travis Kelce were just two brothers at the University of Cincinnati — one built like a Viking warlord, the other an unraveled scoring machine — grinding their way from unranked recruits to Bearcat legends. But the real tea? Their old teammates have receipts on exactly who these two were before the Super Bowl rings, parades, and viral podcast clips.
Back in 2006, Jason Kelce rolled onto campus as a linebacker walk-on — undersized, overlooked, and overprepared to prove everyone wrong. Within a year, the coaches had him beefed up and snapping footballs as a center, where he went full throttle for four seasons. By 2009 and 2010, Jason was anchoring an O-line that gave up the fewest sacks in the Big East. And as his resume grew, so did his legend — according to former Bearcats cornerback Reuben Johnson, Jason was “tight shirt, stomach out, bunch of body hair, drooling, sliming at the mouth, very intense.” Translation: Th man looked like he’d just come from pillaging a coastal village.
Two years later, baby bro Travis showed up. And where Jason was the quiet killer type, Travis was pure chaos wrapped in talent. The guy could torch linebackers one minute and host a locker room comedy set the next. He wasn’t just there to catch passes; he was there to run the vibes. Former Cincinnati QB Zach Collaros still laughs about one particular Thanksgiving: “We just went and got two rotisserie chickens and drank a 40 of Miller Lite while playing NBA 2K.” That’s Travis in nutshell— skipping turkey dinners for greasy chicken, cheap beer, and smack talk over a controller.
Jason and Travis Kelce grew up together in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, less than two years apart in age.
But the seeds of their already legendary NFL careers were planted at the University of Cincinnati.@newheightshow pic.twitter.com/apAgSb8lNB
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) August 13, 2025
Of course, the road wasn’t all smooth. Travis got popped for a positive marijuana test in 2010, missing the entire season. Jason, already a team leader, wasn’t thrilled but went to bat for his brother — confronting coaches, keeping him focused, and shoving him back on the right track. Travis later admitted it was the turning point of his career. The Kelce household still jokes about whose fault it was, like some twisted sibling myth.
When the two overlapped in 2009, the Bearcats went 12-1 and punched a ticket to the Sugar Bowl. That year still glows in their memory — not just for the wins, but because it was one of the rare seasons, they got to share a field in college. Jason left with All-Big East honors and a reputation for being one of the smartest linemen to ever wear red and black. Travis wrapped his career in 2012 with 722 receiving yards and 8 TDs, plus a first-team All-Big East nod that put NFL scouts on notice.
Fast forward to the league: Jason gets drafted by the Eagles in the 6th round of 2011, turns into a 7-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl LII champ, and the guy who delivered that legendary mummer suit parade speech. Travis goes in the 3rd round to the Chiefs in 2013 and basically rewrites the tight end handbook — 8 Pro Bowls, 3 Lombardis, bagged Taylor Swift, and a Hall of Fame resume in progress. Together, they’ve become football’s favorite brothers — equal parts grit, glitter, and goof.
But on August 13, the internet flat-out broke in half.
Taylor Swift breaks the Internet via new heights podcast
Taylor Swift — made her debut on New Heights, the Kelce brothers’ podcast. Before the episode even dropped, teaser clips were racking up views like Travis racks up YAC yards. One showed her pulling a blurred-out album from a briefcase stamped with “TS.” Cue the Swifties going full CSI.
The episode opens with Jason — retired Eagle, full hype-man mode — rattling off her insane list of accomplishments: “the only artist to win Album of the Year four times,” and that was just his warmup. Swift sits next to Travis( literal couple goals), laughing and taking it all in, before looking dead into the camera: “If there’s one thing male sports fans want in their spaces, it’s more of me.” That’s peak deadpan Swift.
Swift’s NFL crossover isn’t exactly new. Ever since she started dating Travis in 2023, her Chiefs game appearances became an entire subplot to the season. Broadcasts cut to her in the stands more than a dozen times a game, social media melted down over her suite parties, and the league shamelessly promoted her cameos. She’s been cheered, booed (yes, even at the Super Bowl), and memed into oblivion. But on New Heights, Jason tells her straight: “You’ve been our most requested guest.”
Then came the nuke: she announced her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. The cover? Swift, dripping in diamonds, half-submerged in turquoise water, staring down the lens like she owns the ocean. Pre-orders crashed her site the second it went live. Within seconds of the podcast starting, nearly a million were watching on YouTube. By the half-hour mark, NFL insider Adam Schefter reported 1.2 million viewers — live. Crazy pull for podcast.
The whole thing felt like a perfect storm: two NFL stars with a cult-favorite podcast, the world’s biggest pop star dropping a bombshell, and millions watching in real time. It’s the kind of cultural moment where sports and entertainment stop being separate worlds and become one giant, chaotic, memeable event. And somehow, it all started with two brothers in Cincinnati, one berserker and one showman, just doing their thing.
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