Jason Kelce, Joel Embiid Deserve a Break for Their Saturday Altercations

It wasn’t exactly a banner day for Philadelphia athletes on Saturday.

After appearing on ESPN’s College GameDay, former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Jason Kelce was caught on cell phone video taking a Penn State fan’s phone and throwing it after the fan called Kelce’s brother, Travis, a homophobic slur for dating Taylor Swift.

Later, after the Philadelphia 76ers fell to 1-4 on their home court at the hands of the Memphis Grizzles, center Joel Embiid shoved Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Marcus Hayes in a locker room altercation. The issue stemmed from Hayes editorializing the death of Embiid’s brother and the birth of his son.

The NBA is reportedly investigating the altercation. As the argument heated, Hayes apologized to Embiid and has updated the column.

While both men had their moments in the viral spotlight, both deserve a break this time. Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. After all, both of these men were just defending their brothers. Isn’t that what Philly is all about?

Saturday was a packed day of sports. We had an entire slate of college football games, NHL and NBA. Inside the white lines, Saturday offered us massive upsets as Louisville took down Clemson football. We had buzzer beaters as Donovan Mitchell’s Cleveland Cavaliers improved to 7-0. But the real story on Saturday that came out of the world of sports was about protecting your brother no matter what. 

That’s why Kelce and Embiid should both get a pass.

Kelce’s moment was caught on video, which always appears worse when we’re talking about potential ramifications from this, especially in the court of public opinion. But hopefully that kid who instigated him learned a valuable lesson on Saturday.

Mess around and find out. The saying goes something like that, anyway.

Just a few mere hours later, Hayes learned that same exact lesson in Philadelphia’s locker room. It’s probably not a great idea to talk about a man’s son and late brother in an article unrelated to their family. There was no good reason to weaponize Embiid’s family against him to prove an opinion about basketball.

It’s fair to say that the kid on Penn State’s campus who was following Kelce and promptly had his phone smashed to smithereens probably had it coming. After reading Hayes’ column, it’s definitely fair to say that he had it coming, too.

Physical altercations are rarely a recommended path forward. But today’s lesson is about not poking the bear. Especially when those bears are big, strong professional athletes. Leave people’s families alone. It’s really not that hard.