Sports

Penn State police are investigating Jason Kelce’s phone hacking incident

Penn State University police and public safety are investigating an incident in which Jason Kelce slammed a fan’s phone to the ground Saturday after taunts and homophobic comments were made toward him, a PSU police spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

The process to review the incident is ongoing, the spokesperson said. A report on the incident in the PSU police daily crime log lists criminal mischief and disorderly conduct as violations.

According to the report, an officer observed “a patron damaging personal property” at an intersection outside Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The exchange, which took place before the Nittany Lions’ game against Ohio State, was captured on video.

A fan walking behind Kelce is heard on the video using a homophobic slur about the relationship between pop star Taylor Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Jason’s brother: “Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a favorite to dating Taylor Swift?”

When Jason heard the question, he turned around and appeared to grab the phone of the fan who uttered the slur and throw it to the ground. The fan demanded that Jason give him the phone back, to which Jason replied, “Who’s the fa… now?”

Kelce, a former Philadelphia Eagles center, spoke about the altercation during ESPN’s broadcast of “Monday Night Countdown,” saying he was “not happy with everything that took place.”

“I’m not proud of it,” Kelce said during the show’s opening segment ahead of Monday night’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.

“In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate, and I don’t think that’s a productive thing,” Kelce said. “No way. I don’t think this will lead to discussion and (I don’t think) it’s the right way to go about things. At that point I dropped to a level I shouldn’t have.

“The bottom line is I want to live my life – I try to live my life – by the ‘golden rule.’ That’s what I was always taught. I try to treat people with common decency and respect and I will continue to do that in the future, even though I fell short this week.”

Kelce referred the conversation to coverage of Monday night’s game and said he “didn’t think that was necessarily the platform to go into more detail.”

Required reading

(Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

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