While Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce are both high-level football players, they have very different athletic skill sets.
“You know Jason, he’s a bit of a Neanderthal and I’m more of … one of those high-class, prima donna athletes everyone talks about,” Travis, 34, quipped during a Sports Beach panel at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Thursday, June 20. “So, we’re two completely different guys from the perspective of if you watch us out on the field.”
Jason, 36, was drafted to the Philadelphia Eagles as a center in 2011, two years before Travis signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as a tight end. The two brothers became the first siblings to face off in the Super Bowl in February 2023 with Travis’ Chiefs ultimately coming out victorious. Jason announced his NFL retirement one year later after Travis and the KC team won another Super Bowl trophy. (The Eagles, however, did not play in Super Bowl LVIII.)
While Travis acknowledged on Thursday that he and his brother are very different “on the field,” they are more alike when football games are over.
“In reality, if we’re sitting down at the table in front of you, you’re gonna see that we’re brothers and you’re gonna see why [we are alike].”
Travis and Jason made an appearance at Stagwell’s Sports Beach in France to discuss their NFL careers and “New Heights” podcast.
“You know, the demographic of the show has shifted,” Jason teased on Thursday, referring to Travis’ girlfriend Taylor Swift’s legion of dedicated fans listening to the weekly podcast. “We have to be careful to really stay loyal to the people who have tuned in from Day 1. We know a lot of [the people] who tuned in are die-hard football fans and they want that content, but even before the demographic shift, we’ve been kind of a lifestyle because we’ve been talking about our lives but now it’s really expanded.”
The Kelce brothers’ popularity reached a new level when Travis started dating Swift, 34, in summer 2023, a result of the “New Heights” podcast itself. Last July, Travis lamented during an episode that he was unable to meet Swift — and trade DIY friendship bracelets — when he went to her Eras Tour concert in Kansas City.
After Swift was alerted to Travis’ comments, she listened to the show herself and reached out directly.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift previously said during her 2023 TIME Person of the Year profile. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for because we got to get to know each other.”
Swift and Travis took their romance public in September 2023 when the pop star went to her first of 13 NFL games. Travis has since returned the favor, supporting Swift at multiple international Eras Tour concerts.
