It Turns Out We Haven't Been Mispronouncing Jason Kelce's Last Name
I appreciate the 94WIP Midday Show this Thursday morning.
Horrible sports day. Maybe the worst of the year, but those guys just threw me a bone.
A clip of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce emerged on Twitter yesterday. In it, he made a jarring revelation:
Please tell me you are kidding @tkelce is my whole life a lie??? pic.twitter.com/FDeOEnuMm6
— Braiden Turner (@bturner23) July 14, 2021
Naturally, the comments caused quite a stir among his Chiefs teammates.
Travis Kelce’s teammates didn’t even know how to pronounce his name 💀 😂 pic.twitter.com/mW3EKQURrQ
— PFF (@PFF) July 14, 2021
Of course, Travis Kelce is the brother of Jason Kelce, one of the most beloved Eagles players of all-time, which means…we’ve also been mispronouncing his last name this entire time?
The Eagles center joined James Seltzer and Jon Ritchie earlier today, and, as it turns out, we’re good. We had it right all along.
Sorta.
I transcribed Kelce’s explanation:
I’ll give the story behind why my brother said that. My brother and I have gone by Kelce (Kel-see) our entire lives, and I still remember my dad answering the phone as Ed Kelce, all growing up, when he was on work calls and everything. So, our side the family has always gone by Kelce, and we have a really small family, we don’t have any first cousins. My grandfather on that side was dead before I was born, so, somehow, we got so disconnected with that side. And my dad at some point when he was working in the steel mills in Cleveland, Ohio, got tired of correcting everybody calling him Kelce. Apparently, the standard pronunciation is “Kels.” That’s what the rest of the family goes by. So, my dad, out of pure laziness, completely changed his last name. And now, you know, I think we’re both at the point where we’re riding with Ed Kelce. He, for some reason, decided to change it and that’s what we’ve gone by our whole lives. So, we’re kind of separate from the rest of the family in that regard, which we’ve gotten plenty of messages and texts since becoming NFL players, extended family members all over the world, told us “you’re pronouncing the name wrong!” So, yeah, that’s the story.
Here’s the extended audio of Kelce’s appearance on Joe DeCamara & Jon Ritchie over at SportsRadio 94WIP: