PHILADELPHIA — (AP) — Jason Kelce chatted with the Linc — yes, the concrete and steel of the Philadelphia Eagles' home stadium answered him with a pep talk — before the retired All-Pro lineman toured the city in his Eagles helmet car all while dressed in his Super Bowl parade Mummer's costume. He parked the souped-up golf cart and tossed the keys ZZ Top-style ahead of the first day of his new job.
He then dropped a profanity into the start of his monologue.
Roll out The Chug Machine, fly, F-bombs, fly and save a seat for Sir Charles because the latest host crashing late-night television is a bit more raw than the traditional suit-and-tie joke tellers.
Jason Kelce threw a late-night bash — and he brought his wife, his parents, a fan with a Phillie Phanatic tattoo inked on his navel, a Philly band and an uncensored (at least on stage) take on sports for the first of five episodes of “They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce” on ESPN.
Here's Kelce!
“I used to love watching late-night TV growing up,” Kelce said.
Kelce quickly proved there’s space for another JK in late night — Kelce disappeared into a portal where he walked out into (a pantsless) Jimmy Kimmel’s office to ask for hosting advice — and moderated a loose panel of sports topics with guests Charles Barkley, rapper and actor Lil Dicky, and NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger.
And Kelce said he received real guidance from Kimmel on the art of hosting.
“He sat me down and really explained some things that he thought would accelerate this process for me,” Kelce said.
Kelce bantered with the guests during commercial breaks and took questions from a few of about 300 fans in the audience. When a fan from New Jersey invited Kelce to his wedding, the retired star quipped, “I don’t go into New Jersey.”
Eagles fan and Penn State student Caleb Tinley learned only two days earlier he was randomly selected for a pair of free tickets and was first in line around noon to get a good seat for the taping. He's a fan of the " New Heights " podcast Kelce co-hosts with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and figured the TV show was as close to that experience as he could get.
“Ever since he had that speech at the Super Bowl, he became a Philly legend,” Tinley said.
The 37-year-old Kelce — who retired in March after a 13-year career spent entirely with the Eagles — has watched his profile balloon in retirement. The Super Bowl winner already hosted the podcast but has become a prolific pitchman hawking everything from chicken wings to soup, to laundry detergent to cereal, to hoagies to his own beer company.
Kelce was already omnipresent on television and social media, so what was one more gig to add to his resume?
So “Late Night” was born.
Kelce is in the first year of a multiyear agreement with ESPN and already appears on the network’s “Monday Night Countdown” show. The retired center taking center stage on a late-night staple such as a talk show — no Letterman, though he did wear his Cleveland Heights letterman's jacket — seemed a natural extension into his growing entertainment profile.
The show’s title is a homage to “They Call It Pro Football,” which was NFL Films’ first full-length film in 1967. NFL Films originated in Philadelphia and founders Ed and Steve Sabol are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It also featured the voice of John Facenda, whose tone was imitated on the show by Kelce and his panel as they narrated modern NFL highlights.
“I knew I wanted NFL Films because I felt like we wanted to make a show that celebrated the NFL landscape,” Kelce said. “Not just from current players and current games, but of past games and past players. Past announcers. NFL fans and the subculture of the NFL. We wanted to create a show that really embraced all of that.”
The Philadelphia-based band Snacktime provided the music. Kylie Kelce, fresh off dethroning Joe Rogan as the No. 1 podcast on the Spotify charts, served as the foul-mouthed sidekick from her perch in “Kylie’s Korner.”
Kelce's expletives in the monologue were no momentary brain cramp as he transitioned from locker room talk to cable television. Kelce and his wife peppered their conversations with profanity — this is late night, after all — and tried to make the relationship seem as real in the studio as it is at home, where the couple raise three daughters, with a fourth expected this year.
“We really wanted the language to be real and authentic to me,” Kelce said after the show. “We overdid it a little bit today to kind of prep the audience on what to expect. I think the F-bombs was the one thing where I was told, we might want to be a little bit cautious there but, listen, we want to give you range to be who you are."
The debut one-hour “Late Night” episode was taped Friday in front of a live audience from Philly concert venue Union Transfer. The show aired at 1 a.m. EST on ESPN and will tape the next four Friday nights. The schedule coincides with the last week of the NFL’s regular season and the playoffs.
Comedian Seth Herzog warmed up the crowd and joked the event had a no-phones policy so Kelce wouldn't smash them like he did in a viral moment at Penn State.
The Philly slant couldn’t be missed — they filmed a bit where a female fan spewed bites of a hoagie into the mouth of, well, Jason Kelce from the future, and Barkley played to the crowd when he picked the Eagles to win the Super Bowl — but the real Kelce said he wanted a show that would appeal to fans nationwide.
Smash hit or not, there are no promises from ESPN of anything beyond the limited run.
“We really just wanted to try something fun to do and I think everybody was on board to experiment and see what happens,” Kelce said. “I do think there's room for this, especially within the football season.”
After Kelce participated in a skit with parents Ed and Donna, celebrated with a fastest beer-chugging winner and shared a cold one at the bar with Eagles great Harold Carmichael, he broke down the show the same way he would as an Eagles player in the postgame locker room.
“It’s game day,” Kelce said. “Plenty of errors, just like a game. Plenty of things to clean up. But just so happy with how it went.”
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