Brother vs Brother: Kelces prepares for the Super Bowl

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — Donna Kelsey will have to pull off that now-familiar custom jersey—the one with the narrow hem of Travis Kelsey of the Kansas City Chiefs, stitched with the back of Jason Kelsey of the Philadelphia Eagles—again this season.

At least this time, she’ll be able to see her boys in person.

For the first time in Super Bowl history, a pair of siblings will play each other on the NFL’s greatest stage. He helped Kelechi return to their third championship game in four seasons Sunday night when they beat the Bengals to the AFC title, while Jason won the Eagles back for the second time in six years as they won the NFC title over the 49ers.

“A great script to share, you know?” said Travis Kelsey. “Mom can’t lose.”

Or maybe you can’t win.

In fact, there have been plenty of famous NFL siblings over the years, many of whom have had some memorable encounters: Peyton, Eli Manning, Tiki, and Ronde Barber. But they never made it to the same Super Bowl, or had to put their dear old mother in such a bind that one would lift the Lombardi Trophy at the expense of the other.

“It will be a great feeling to play against him,” added Travis, whose team has outperformed the big brother Eagles in the last three games. “I respect everyone out there at the Eagles. You won’t see me talk a lot of trash because of how much I love my brother. But it will definitely be an emotional game.”

Always briefly a Chiefs fan on Sunday night, Jason Kelsey wore a Kansas City sweatshirt for nearly 3 hours between the end of the Eagles’ 31-7 rout of San Francisco and the end of his little brother’s 23-20 run. win over Cincinnati.

“That’s it for the rest of the year,” Jason said with a smile. “I’m done being a Chiefs fan.”

That will be left to my mom and dad.

While her husband, Ed, has kept it private over the years, Donna has been a staple as she traverses the country to watch her children. During last year’s wild weekend, I started in Tampa Bay watching the Eagles against the Buccaneers, then hopped a plane to Kansas City just in time to watch the Chiefs play the Steelers at night.

She’s already watched both of her sons win Super Bowls, too: The Eagles beat the Patriots in 2018 in Minneapolis, and the Chiefs rallied to win over the 49ers in Miami two years later.

But she hasn’t seen much of them lately. It was impossible for Donna to see her two children in person the way the divisional playoff games and conference championship games were scheduled.

Anyway, they’ve come a long way from their solid middle-class upbringing in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Jason blazed the trail as the star offensive lineman on a scholarship to Cincinnati, and Travis quickly followed suit. Both caught the eye of NFL scouts during their college careers, and one coach in particular: Andy Reid.

It was the Big Red who, while coaching the Eagles, used a sixth-round pick over Jason during the 2011 draft. Two years later, after Red got off to a fresh start in Kansas City, the Chiefs used a third-rounder to bring Travis into the fold.

“Maybe Big Brother protected Travis from doing some crazy stuff. He probably talked him down a ladder into shredded papers once or twice,” Reid said Monday. “Listen, they’re both very competitive and affectionate at their core, which is the biggest thing. They care, they care about people, and they care about the game.”

They are also very good at it.

Jason has participated in six Pro Bowls and was just voted All-Pro for the fifth time, emerging as one of the best offensive linemen in Eagles history. Travis has been to eight Pro Bowls, just made a fourth team All-Pro and is second in NFL history to Jerry Rice in playoff games, yards and touchdowns.

Football isn’t the only thing they’re good at either.

The brothers have a new podcast called “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelsey,” which is taking listeners on a whirlwind. Ride in real time during the NFL season. The weekly shows are taped every Tuesday and last between 60 and 90 minutes, the two NFL stars comically playing each other as if they were hanging out in my mom’s basement.

Special guests included Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and his counterpart Patrick Mahomes.

“They have a good network there, a good relationship,” Reed said. “I think Travis has grown up a lot. Maybe Jason came through a little more mature — Travis was a little immature. But he really grew into a good person.

“I’ve invested time in both of these things, so I feel like a part of the family,” Reid added.

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