Penn State University Police and Public Safety closed their investigation into the incident involving Jason Kelce slamming a fan’s phone to the ground before the Nittany Lions’ game against Ohio State State at Beaver Stadium last month, a police spokesperson said Tuesday.
“The individual in the video footage circulating on social media has not been identified, and no one has come forward to University Police with a related complaint about damage to personal property,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The incident occurred after taunts and a homophobic slur were said toward Kelce ahead of the game. Videos on social media showed a fan walking behind Kelce saying, “Kelce, how does it feel that your brother is a fa— for dating Taylor Swift?”
After hearing the question, Kelce turned around and appeared to take the phone of the fan who said the slur and throw it on the ground. The fan then demanded Kelce give him the phone back, to which Kelce said, “Who’s the fa— now?”
Kelce is the older brother of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who is dating pop sensation Taylor Swift. Attention on the Kelce brothers has soared since Travis began dating Swift in 2023. Swift has attended many NFL games since, including the Chiefs’ 2024 Super Bowl win over the San Francisco 49ers, bringing a wider audience to the NFL.
Jason, a former Philadelphia Eagles center and ESPN analyst, was at Beaver Stadium on the day of the phone-slamming incident to appear on “College GameDay.” He addressed the altercation the following week on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown,” saying, “I’m not proud of it.”
“In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate, and I don’t think that’s a productive thing,” Kelce said. “I really don’t. I don’t think it leads to discourse and (I don’t think) it’s the right way to go about things. In that moment, I fell down to a level that 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’ve always been taught. I try to treat people with common decency, respect and I’m going to keep doing that moving forward even though I fell short this week.”
Penn State University Police and Public Safety later opened an investigation into the incident after an officer “observed a visitor damaging personal property” at an intersection outside the stadium, according to PSU police’s daily crime log.
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(Photo: Jay Biggerstaff / USA Today)
