SI

ESPN Turned Falcons-Eagles Into Never-Ending ‘Jason Kelce Show’

ESPN’s use of the former Philadelphia center during ‘Monday Night Football’ was over-the-top and unnecessary.

Jimmy Traina

Viewers got a HEAVY dose of Jason Kelce on Monday night.
Viewers got a HEAVY dose of Jason Kelce on Monday night. / Courier-Post photo by Jim Walsh / USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK
In this story:

1. Can we just watch the game, please?

Let me be clear about something right off the bat: This is not about Jason Kelce, Joe Buck or Troy Aikman. This is about whoever made the decisions for last night’s Falcons-Eagles game on ESPN.

Let me repeat this because Kelce is one of those people who if you ever say anything negative about him, the mob will come after you in a big way: This is not about Kelce, Buck or Aikman.

The network was clearly on a mission to give viewers as much Kelce as humanly possible Monday. The future Hall of Famer just retired, and he was already back in Philadelphia for Monday Night Football, so ESPN figured this was the perfect time to put the spotlight on its newest Monday Night Countdown hire.

Now, I don’t really care what ESPN or any network does in their pregame show because I don’t have to watch those. So, if ESPN wants to give you three hours of Kelce, good for them. Knock yourselves out.

But when it comes to the game telecast, it would be nice if someone in charge thought of the viewers.

Like I said already, can we just watch the game, please?

For most of the second half last night, instead of the Falcons-Eagles game we got an episode of the New Heights podcast with Buck and Aikman filling in for Travis Kelce.

You know the line in “Don’t Stop Believin’”? Oh, the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on. That was Kelce’s appearance in the booth with Buck and Aikman.

I can’t imagine what a Falcons fan must have thought of that second half when their team was completely ignored before pulling off a stunning comeback.

If you read this column regularly or listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast, you know that my No. 1 rule for all broadcasters is don’t annoy me. I was highly annoyed last night.

And it wasn’t just me. X, (formerly Twitter) lit up with viewers complaining about the ESPN broadcast. But as I said in Monday’s Traina Thoughts when I wrote about Tony Romo, it’s not always best to judge something by Twitter reaction.

So, here’s how I know things were bad for ESPN. I got texts from six different people in and out of the business last night complaining about the Jason Kelce Show.

From someone in the sports media business: “F--- the Eagles and f--- ESPN. F------ home team broadcast? I’ve never seen anything like this.”

From a former NFL player-turned-media member: “I am a huge Jason Kelce fan. His Amazon documentary is amazing. I’m Kelce’d out. Tonight was outrageous.”

From someone in sports TV: “Dude, Jason Kelce. How the hell is ESPN letting this go on for so long? I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to put on the ManningCast.”

Kyle Brandt on today’s Good Morning Football: “The E in ESPN stood for ‘Eagles’ last night.”

Here’s my colleague and SI NFL senior editor, Mitch Goldich, WHO IS AN EAGLES FAN:

Let me address some of the specific points here.

It’s not outlandish that ESPN would have Kelce join Buck and Aikman for a little bit, even though it was totally and completely unnecessary. You have the former Eagle angle and he’s a new ESPN hire, so it wants to promote its new star. Kelce was only supposed to appear for the third quarter, but even an entire quarter for a guest star during a game is WAY too much.

Here's the other thing ESPN should realize. It has the best booth in football with Buck and Aikman. Just let them cook. We don’t need guest stars and gimmicks during the game.

But here’s the reality: If you’re a legitimate NFL fan or a die-hard NFL fan, networks don’t care about you because they know you are going to watch the game no matter what. They could put Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in the booth and we’ll watch. They can start the game at 3 a.m. and we’ll watch. They can make you pay for games on streaming services and we’ll watch.

Networks want the casual fan. They will always cater to the fringe fan over the die-hard fan.

And ESPN will deny this vehemently, but nobody will ever be able to convince me that part of why they turned their entire coverage of Falcons-Eagles into the Jason Kelce Show was because of Taylor Swift.

Last week, during his debut on Monday Night Countdown, Kelce said his shirt was “too tight for his t---s.” The clip went viral. Then on the New Heights podcast, Travis said that he watched that moment with Swift and they got a big kick out of it.

Again, everyone from ESPN will deny this to no end, but if you don’t think the thought of having Swift watch her boyfriend’s brother on Monday night and the possibility of said boyfriend discussing it on his enormously popular podcast was a factor for those at ESPN, then you don’t know this business.

The crazy thing is that it really did feel like karma when the Falcons ended up pulling off the miracle comeback.

If anyone at any network that airs the NFL is reading this, I just want to end with a plea one last time: Can we just watch the game, please?

2. Peyton Manning’s reaction to the Falcons game-winning drive was outstanding.

3. Thank you, Scott Van Pelt and Stanford Steve, for giving us a nine-plus minute edition of “Bad Beats” this week. You must say til the end for a rare MLB bad beat.

4. The Cowboys get all the attention, but the Chiefs are the TV darlings.

Sunday’s Bengals-Chiefs game drew 27.8 million viewers for CBS. It was the network’s most-watched September game since 1998.

5. If you’re an NFL bettor, you need to remember that underdogs are your friend.

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with ESPN’s Kevin Clark.

Clark talks about his transition into TV now that he’s at ESPN, his interviewing philosophy for his Omaha Productions show, This is Football, and whether we will ever see someone who isn’t a former player as an NFL or college football game analyst.

Clark also discusses Tom Brady’s debut game as Fox’s lead NFL analyst, why Bill Belichick has already been a hit as a media figure, why he thinks we won’t see less of Hard Knocks, getting critiqued by his dad, his love of Pearl Jam and more.

Following Clark, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for my weekly “Traina Thoughts“ segment. In this week’s segment, we discuss Week 1 in the NFL, cringe Cris Collinsworth, the new Sopranos documentary currently airing on Max, the upcoming Vince McMahon documentary on Netflix, a Facebook kerfuffle and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 63rd birthday to legendary wrestling manager, Jim Cornette. I’ve said this many times before. His very NSFW breakdown of the notorious Montreal Screwjob might be the single greatest video on YouTube.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

Published
Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

Home/NFL