Jason Kelce on Eagles Philly Special, Eagles Legacy & More | Exciting Mics Ep. 10

Summary

Episode Title: Jason Kelsey on Eagles Philly Special, Eagles Legacy & More | Exciting Mics Ep. 10
Hosts: Reed Blankenship, Cooper DeJean
Guest: Jason Kelsey, Eagles Legend and NFL Player
Release Date: August 7, 2025

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1. Introduction and Welcome [00:14 - 03:07]

The episode kicks off with hosts Reed Blankenship and Cooper DeJean introducing their esteemed guest, Jason Kelsey. They warmly welcome him to the show, setting an enthusiastic tone for the discussion ahead.

2. Preseason Excitement and First Game [03:07 - 02:55]

Reed and Cooper delve into the excitement surrounding the upcoming preseason game against the Bengals. They share their anticipation about the on-field action and the unique opportunity to play another team, highlighting the competitive spirit that fuels their enthusiasm.

3. The 2018 Super Bowl Run and the Philly Special [04:23 - 11:58]

Jason Kelsey provides an in-depth analysis of the Eagles' remarkable 2018 season. He discusses the team's chemistry, the nine-game winning streak, and the pivotal moments that defined their Super Bowl run. A significant portion of this segment is dedicated to the iconic "Philly Special" play.

Notable Quotes:

• "Nick Foles had been gone before and come back, and there was all these themes of guys that were on second chances... It really embodied that team." (05:40)
• "Nick says, you know, I want to run Philly Special. My Philly Special." (10:16)

Jason recounts the spontaneity of the Philly Special, explaining how it wasn't part of the regular playbook but a bold, game-changing move initiated by Nick Foles. He emphasizes the trust and teamwork that made such a risky play successful.

4. Celebrating the Super Bowl Victory [11:58 - 17:20]

The conversation shifts to the emotional aftermath of the Super Bowl victory. Jason shares memories of the locker room celebrations, the parade, and the profound impact the win had on both the team and the city of Philadelphia.

Notable Quotes:

• "It was a very glorious day of celebration that I don't know, you can replicate." (16:22)
• "The parade is the first time where it really magnifies how much it meant to so many people." (15:10)

He reflects on the significance of winning Philadelphia's first Super Bowl, highlighting the city's blue-collar ethos and how it resonates with the team's underdog narrative.

5. Transitioning to Media and Podcasting [17:20 - 50:45]

Jason delves into the world of podcasting, discussing the inception of the "Exciting Mics" podcast. He elaborates on the motivations behind athletes engaging directly with media, the benefits of authentic fan connections, and the challenges of maintaining focus on the game while managing a media presence.

Notable Quotes:

• "Having the ability to say exactly what you want and message it the way you want it to the fan." (50:26)
• "It's a great platform to be able to talk and connect with fans." (50:28)

He underscores the importance of authenticity and transparency, contrasting it with traditional media interactions where messages can be filtered or misconstrued.

6. Personal Life and Athletic Background [50:46 - 44:35]

The discussion shifts to Jason's personal life, including his competitive relationship with his brother, Travis Kelsey. He shares stories from their childhood, emphasizing the athletic environment they were raised in and the sports they excelled in together.

Notable Quotes:

• "We were competitive as hell. We played every sport possible." (25:39)
• "Trav has always been more smooth, like, you don't think he's going that fast, but he is." (26:46)

Jason also touches upon his upbringing in a small family, their involvement in various sports, and the foundation it set for his future career.

7. College Football Journey and Draft Experience [44:35 - 51:40]

Jason narrates his journey through college football at Cincinnati, detailing his transition from linebacker to offensive line. He discusses the challenges he faced, including battling appendicitis right before the combine, and how these experiences shaped his resilience and adaptability.

Notable Quotes:

• "I'm a 47 linebacker who could stuff the run really well, but I was a liability in the pass game." (36:08)
• "The combine was rough, but I salvaged that." (38:08)

He provides insights into his rapid weight gain to meet the center position requirements and the strategic moves he made to secure his place in the NFL.

8. Legacy and Future Endeavors [53:00 - 67:08]

In reflecting on his legacy, Jason expresses humility, attributing much of his success to teamwork and the supportive environment within the Eagles. He shares his aspirations beyond football, including media engagements and mentoring young athletes.

Notable Quotes:

• "As long as you are a good person and kind of do things the right way, the legacy thing takes care of itself." (60:12)
• "I want my kids to know that I love them and treat people with respect and kindness." (61:10)

Jason emphasizes the importance of character and integrity, aspiring to leave a positive impact both on and off the field.

9. 'Exciting Bites' Segment [63:04 - 65:25]

The hosts introduce the "Exciting Bites" segment, featuring a popular item from Bean to Bean Cafe— the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese sandwich. They taste and rate the dish, highlighting its flavors and recommending it to their listeners.

Notable Quotes:

• "I'm going 8.8. It's a big time hit for me." (64:25)
• "That sauce, bro, that's boss." (64:58)

10. Fan Rapid-Fire Q&A [65:25 - 67:08]

In a lively rapid-fire segment, hosts answer fan questions about jersey number choices, memorable moments, and personal anecdotes. This interactive section fosters a closer connection between the hosts and their audience.

Notable Quotes:

• "We’re 33 just because I wore three. And three's already taken by Nolan, so added another." (65:58)

11. Conclusion [67:08 - End]

The episode concludes with heartfelt thanks to Jason Kelsey for his participation. The hosts encourage listeners to follow Jason on social media and check out his podcast, "Heights." They wrap up with a final shout-out to the Philadelphia Eagles, expressing gratitude for the support from fans.

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Overall Summary:

In Episode 10 of "Exciting Mics," hosts Reed Blankenship and Cooper DeJean engage in a comprehensive and engaging conversation with Eagles legend Jason Kelsey. The discussion navigates through Jason's illustrious career, from his pivotal role in the 2018 Super Bowl victory and the execution of the memorable Philly Special to his personal growth and transition into media through podcasting. Jason shares candid insights into his athletic journey, the importance of teamwork, and his aspirations beyond the football field. The episode seamlessly blends in-depth sports analysis with personal anecdotes, offering listeners an intimate glimpse into the life of one of the NFL's celebrated players. Supplementing the main conversation, the hosts feature the "Exciting Bites" culinary segment and an interactive fan Q&A, enhancing the episode's dynamic and relatable nature. Overall, Episode 10 stands out as a rich, authentic, and multifaceted exploration of sports, personal growth, and media engagement.

Transcript

[Jason Kelsey]

Morning.

[Travis Kelsey]

One sausage McMuffin with egg, please.

[Reed Blankenship]

Okay, your total is.

[Jason Kelsey]

Wait, let's negotiate.

[Travis Kelsey]

How's about you throw in hash browns for a dollar?

[Reed Blankenship]

Well, yes, sir. That price is already a dollar.

[Travis Kelsey]

Take it or leave it.

[Reed Blankenship]

Take it, I guess. Buy one, add one for a dollar on sausage McMuffin with egg, hash browns and more with McValue. Most locations open 5am or earlier. Price and participation may vary. Limited time only. Valid for item of equal or lesser value.

[Jason Kelsey]

Ba da ba ba ba.

[Cooper De Jean]

If we lined up the 2017, 2018 team against our team last year.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Be honest.

[Jason Kelsey]

I saw you guys ask this to Chris.

[Cooper De Jean]

What do you think, Chris? He said that last year's team would.

[Travis Kelsey]

Would win.

[Jason Kelsey]

It took everything we had to beat the Patriots. And you guys beat the team that's been the best team in the NFL for. I mean, Pat Mahomes has been in the conference championship every year of his career. Just finished his seventh season and you guys like, it wasn't even close.

[Travis Kelsey]

No.

[Jason Kelsey]

I don't know how you could realistically think that we would beat you guys, but I'll tell you this, just being a competitor, we beat the fuck out of you.

[Chris Long]

Welcome back to the exciting mics presented by Vanda Pharmaceuticals. I'm Reed Blankenship.

[Cooper De Jean]

And I'm Cooper De Jean. And today we are excited to welcome a very special guest.

[Chris Long]

Stay tuned for that and remember to follow exciting mics on all platforms like comment, share and and subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Let's get started, bro.

[Cooper De Jean]

Let's do it. What's exciting us this week?

[Chris Long]

Preseason starts today.

[Cooper De Jean]

First preseason game tonight. Disclaimer.

[Jason Kelsey]

Disclaimer.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yes.

[Cooper De Jean]

This episode was not filmed the morning of. So you can't get mad at us. We're locked in camp right now.

[Chris Long]

Locked in.

[Travis Kelsey]

Don't worry.

[Cooper De Jean]

But we do have a game tonight.

[Chris Long]

It's crazy.

[Cooper De Jean]

I'm excited. The Bengals, baby.

[Chris Long]

The Bengals, bro.

[Cooper De Jean]

Starting off the season. Well, the preseason, we're about to lit, dude.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

I'm excited.

[Chris Long]

Everybody's gonna be there.

[Cooper De Jean]

A couple weeks into camp, we get to play a game. We get to hit another team.

[Chris Long]

Dude, that's tackle ass, bro.

[Travis Kelsey]

I know.

[Chris Long]

Not to go up against your guys anymore.

[Cooper De Jean]

That's what's exciting to both of us, I think.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

It's always been like that though.

[Travis Kelsey]

Oh yeah.

[Chris Long]

Every year it's like you. It's that two week void of you're going against the same color jersey and then.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

Teammates.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

And now different. We get to go against someone else. So we'll see you guys there.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yep.

[Chris Long]

Be loud.

[Cooper De Jean]

The link. It'll be rock against the Bengals. Preseason. It is time to welcome an Eagles legend to the show. A former finalist for People's magazine Sexiest man Alive.

[Jason Kelsey]

Wow.

[Cooper De Jean]

And also helped the Eagles.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

Win their first super bowl championship.

[Chris Long]

Please give it up for former six round pick, six time all pro future hall of famer Jason Mofo. Kelsey.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. Thanks guys.

[Chris Long]

Yeah, but like, you know Philly now. So like, did you just come in and embrace it?

[Jason Kelsey]

When I got drafted to Philadelphia, I was talking to the coaches and then I'm with my family. My agent calls me and he's like, Jason, you have no idea how much you're going to fit in. You're going to love Philadelphia. I know this is a great city that you're going to love being in. And he was right, 100%. I think Philly, and Philly doesn't like to hear this, but I was from Cleveland. Philly, out of all the east coast cities reminds me a lot of Cleveland, just on a much bigger scale. It's a blue collar town. It was born off of like manufacturing and industry and it's people that worked for a living. I mean, these are, you know, it's got the vibe. All the athletes and things we liked in our sports teams, Philadelphia likes, in their sports teams. They like guys that, you know, they give great effort. They do everything they can for the team. Unselfish guys like, you don't necessarily have to be the biggest superstar player if you do all these other things. In some ways they respect and love you more. And then on top of that, if you're a good player, they're going to crush you regardless. If you don't play well, they're going to crush you.

[Chris Long]

Absolutely.

[Jason Kelsey]

But there's a respect amount of like, they know, they take the time to notice the guys that are doing all those little things.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And you know, those are all the players I love growing up.

[Cooper De Jean]

Let's talk about the 2018 season.

[Jason Kelsey]

Sure.

[Cooper De Jean]

How. What do you think made made that group so, so special during, during that Super Bowl, super bowl run that, that.

[Jason Kelsey]

You guys had leading up to the season? We had a lot of talent. I think everybody felt that we were, we had a lot of really good players. We were coming off a season that we ended. You know, we didn't make the playoffs in Doug's first year, but we kind of ended on a high note. So we felt good about ourselves coming into the season. We looked around at one point in training camp where we had added all these pieces like Garrett Blanc, Chris Long and Nigel Bradham. And it felt like we had a lot of good pieces to be a really good team.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And as the season went along, we kind of started off a little slow, not unsimilar, the way you guys started off this year. And then we won nine games straight, and, like, we felt like we were really, really good. And it was a combination of. We had great players, we were doing some things, at least offensively, schematically, that teams really didn't know how to defend yet. We just started running wham. And people didn't know how to fit it.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Like, you know, so we were doing some really interesting things, and then all of a sudden, you know, Carson Wentz gets hurt, and he was having mvp. He was the best player in the NFL that year before that. And then we kind of got, you know, cast to the side. Nobody thought we were going to be able to compete for that after that, which I understand, but we all felt. Felt like we still had a really good team, and we knew we had Nick there, who we had worked with in the past, and we all thought Foles was a very good quarterback. So it really took on this underdog theme that ended up defining that whole season. And it galvanized us, made us really close. We had a good breadth of young and older players. It was a very, very fun year. Personalities vibed.

[Chris Long]

Well.

[Jason Kelsey]

I mean, it was just, you know, it was a good time.

[Travis Kelsey]

Were you.

[Cooper De Jean]

Were you a part of the whole underdog mask thing?

[Jason Kelsey]

So that was originally done by Chris Long and Lane Johnson.

[Travis Kelsey]

Okay.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I don't know which guy thought of it first, but those two knuckleheads were the first ones that had the dog masks.

[Chris Long]

So you went from the dog mask, then you had the Batman mask.

[Jason Kelsey]

Well, the Batman was. That was. That was a Darius Sleigh in his infinitely creative mind. And he said, like, the swole Batman, skinny Batman, fast Batman. And then I was like, oh, there should be a fat Batman. That's how that got around. But no, that and that. I mean, I don't have. I know you guys just got your rings. Congrats.

[Travis Kelsey]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Jason Kelsey]

We. I lost my ring in Nevada, Chile. Word to the wise, don't hide it. But we had. We ended up having that underdog mask on the ring because it. It really just ended up embodying that team. There were so many guys on that team that had been other places or that had been with the Eagles or had been around and been cast out or had been, like, kind of like, hey, this guy's not really ever going to be good enough to do it. And it was a bunch of kind of just NFL guys that end up being the perfect collection of guys.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And in some ways, it symbolized Philadelphia really well.

[Chris Long]

I thought so. It wasn't a bunch of, like, star players, like, well known players. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

I mean, they were star. I think there were a lot of players that everyone in the NFL, highly regarded, but certainly not like, publicly, like, regardless, like, the best players in the league. And I think that was what was unique is, like, there was a lot of guys that had been other places or had been in Philadelphia. And me myself, I had one of the worst years of my career the year before. So people were doubting me.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

You know, people. Nick Foles had been gone before and come back, and there was all these themes of guys that were like, on second chances are on their. Whatever team. And, you know, it was. It ended up just being this team of guys that vibed really well together. Everyone played off of each other. Well, we had great coaches and.

[Chris Long]

They.

[Jason Kelsey]

Galvanized us for sure. And in some ways, I think it's perfect that it was the first team ever to win a Super bowl in Philly, because I think Philadelphia largely embodies a lot of that mindset.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Cooper De Jean]

100%. So you had one of the most iconic plays in Philly sports history.

[Travis Kelsey]

The.

[Cooper De Jean]

The Philly special.

[Jason Kelsey]

Really special.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yeah, that was pretty special.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, it's great. I mean, when he first. When Nick first came into the huddle, so Philly special, I was like, what the.

[Cooper De Jean]

Did you guys practice it during the week? Like, quite a bit or.

[Travis Kelsey]

No.

[Jason Kelsey]

So we. And we're going to get together and talk about this, I think, in a little bit, from what I remember. I don't remember that play being in for the Super Bowl. We had it in against Atlanta. We ran it before that game, and we didn't run it well, so we knew we weren't going to call it. Then we had it in against the Vikings, but for whatever reason, it didn't get called. I don't remember repping that at all leading up to the Super Bowl. And I remember being out there, but the last time we had repped it, we ran it well. And I remember going out there and didn't even think it was in the game plan. It's fourth down, Nick comes in. He's like, we're going to. All right. And we had to take a timeout, right?

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

So we were going back and forth, and we were going to kick it or go for it. We take a timeout. I'm like, we're probably taking a time out. We're going for it. I wonder what he's going to come back with. And he says, philly special. My Philly special. Are you kidding me? And then it, like, for whatever reason, after I thought about it for a second, I was like, this is going to work.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Because who the hell on like fourth down in the yard in the Super Bowl. These guys are going to be so aggressive trying to stop this play. They're not going to remember to cover Nick Foles. And that's a ballsy call. Very ballsy call.

[Travis Kelsey]

Was.

[Jason Kelsey]

Big balls.

[Chris Long]

Doug dropped them.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, it was. And really it was Nick who called for it. I believe Nick. You see the clip on the sideline, Nick. Like, I don't know if Doug asked what you're going to run or whatever, but Nick says, you know, I want to run Philly Philly. Which I think it was called Philly special. I don't know why I said Philly Philly. Probably because that was a snap count. But yeah. Anyways, what was the.

[Cooper De Jean]

Was that the communication on. On the snapper? How did you know when a snap.

[Jason Kelsey]

Nick would start the. The cadence.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And then he was acting like he was going to check the play. And because it's so loud, he was going to act like he was telling Lane something. He's like, so the key for me was a snap it on the second lane.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

So he was like, I forget how. What the beginning of it was, but maybe like, hey, is it. Hey, Lane. Lane. And then I would snap it to Corey, which I had to take it off. Like I had a pretty viciously violent snap, notoriously. So now Corey's trying to catch this thing. So I'm like, I gotta give this guy like a softball. Otherwise there's no way he's catching this. So that was my cue to snap it to Corey. Then we ran it like it was naked. He ran it like we were running zone. Tossed it back to Trey, threw it to.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

With the neck.

[Cooper De Jean]

What was the celebration like after the game? Like when the clock hit zero?

[Jason Kelsey]

I just remember. I mean, after the game is so crazy. It all is like a bore. The thing I remember the most is the last throw of the game. I remember the. The sack that BG got on Tom.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Because that sack fumble was like the end of the game. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it the end of the game. We had a. We didn't get the four minute jump. So they got the ball back. Like, damn. I don't like that we just gave this ball back to Tom. Like, it's not good. Dangerous. Yeah. And he's. And he had, like, 500 yards that day. So I'm like, this dude has been on fire all day, and he throws that last Hail Mary up. And I remember just how long it felt like the ball was in the air and how quiet everything felt like it was. I don't know if it actually was, but it. Like, the movies, the people that write that stuff, and, like, they do a great job. That's what it felt like. It legitimately felt like I was watching, like, the end of a movie. Like, the ball's just, like, hanging up there. Like, even when it hits the ground. Like, you're so in the moment that you don't even know if it's real. You don't hear cheering. So you're not sure if, like, the game's actually over. You're looking for flags, right? And then we're just running on the field, and sure enough, the game is over.

[Chris Long]

And son of relief.

[Jason Kelsey]

You guys didn't get that climactic.

[Chris Long]

But still, because I was still waiting, because I was still locked in the whole time. Even when we got, like. We got pulled. I'm like, yeah, is it over?

[Jason Kelsey]

You got your helmet in your hand.

[Chris Long]

I threw my mouthpiece. For whatever reason, I had to go back on an onside kick twice without a mouthpiece.

[Jason Kelsey]

That's funny.

[Chris Long]

So I was the front guy, too. So I was like, please, nobody. Not my team.

[Jason Kelsey]

You're taking one.

[Chris Long]

Take it.

[Cooper De Jean]

What was the locker room like? Was it. Was everybody, like, spraying champagne?

[Jason Kelsey]

And a lot of people, you know, Jim Schwartz and Jeff Stoutland and Doug Peterson. Well, Doug had won one, I think, as a player. But, you know, all these guys had done their whole careers, you know, trying to get one.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

The whole organization. So it was. It was an emotional, emotional time anyways. Yeah, it was. It's hard to say what the locker room was like, because I don't remember.

[Chris Long]

Being honest about the parade.

[Jason Kelsey]

Parade was tremendous. I don't remember a lot of that either.

[Chris Long]

Outfit, too.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, that was good.

[Chris Long]

Legendary.

[Cooper De Jean]

Was that your idea? Was that your idea? Or did someone.

[Jason Kelsey]

So we. Me, Chris Selleck, BO I think JP had talked about wearing throwback jerseys to some of the Eagles greats that hadn't won a Super bowl. Like, paying homage. And then at some point, I forget who's, like, Chris ended up using. I'm gonna wear an AI jersey with, like, this fur coat.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

It kind of started devolving into like something else. And I was like, yeah, it'd be kind of cool to wear a Mummers suit. It's like a parade in Philadelphia. Might as well do it Philadelphia style.

[Cooper De Jean]

No, I never have.

[Jason Kelsey]

Well, insane. And as a player, I had never been you guys. We're usually playing and we're getting ready for a game New Year's.

[Chris Long]

So I was somewhere, I went, yeah, it's crazy, bro.

[Jason Kelsey]

But I'd seen it a bunch, like on tv. And I had seen the Mummers bands throughout the my time here. And my, my hairdresser, barber, whatever you want to call her? Libby.

[Chris Long]

Libby.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, Libby. I knew her husband Bobby was a mummer. So I text her, I was like, hey, is there any way Bobby could get me like a mummer suit to wear to the parade? And she texted back like, yeah, we got you. There's. There was a saxophone. It was like 63 and about my size. So. Sure enough.

[Chris Long]

Do you still have it?

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yep.

[Chris Long]

You have that but not your ring.

[Jason Kelsey]

I have that, but not the ring. Yeah. I got to get a remake of it.

[Cooper De Jean]

I can't believe they didn't get you a new one.

[Jason Kelsey]

They've offered. I think. We've just haven't. We haven't. I haven't followed up on it. Yeah, yeah, we'll get another one made.

[Travis Kelsey]

That's hilarious.

[Cooper De Jean]

Where does the day of the parade rank, like all time moments in for me in your life?

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

I mean, it's up there. Outside of having kids in the super bowl itself, it's.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

I mean, that was a very fun moment because. And I don't know if you guys felt this way, but when we won, we saw all, all the pictures. I'm. To answer your question, in the, in the locker room, I was on my phone looking at like all the people in Broad Street.

[Cooper De Jean]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

You know what I mean? Climbing the poles and everything. I'm like, man, I wish I was freaking there. Like, I don't want to go to this, like, corporate after party. I want to be on Broad Street. So the, the parade is like the first time you get to celebrate it with all of the fans. You know, you, you get to have the moment after the game with you and your buddies and teammates and organization. But the, the parade is the first time where it really magnifies, like, how much it meant to so many people.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right? Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And you know, there was a lot of emotion built up in Philly leading up to that day because, I mean, they had Never won one. Right. The fans were just like, overjoyed about it, and people telling stories about, you know, their, their dads and going to games at Franklin Field and the Vet. And so that had certainly started to rub off on us. And it was a day that was very cathartic for us. Being this team of like, kind of cast outs in a certain respect, having this moment of like, you know, we stuck it to everybody who thought that we couldn't do this in our careers, as well as like this whole city who had had to hear from Dallas and Washington and New York that they don't have a championship or a Super bowl trophy. So it was, it was a very glorious day of celebration that. I don't know, you can replicate.

[Cooper De Jean]

Which one's crazy.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

If we, if we lined up the 2017, 2018 team against our team last year.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Be honest.

[Jason Kelsey]

I saw you guys ask this Chris.

[Cooper De Jean]

What do you think, Chris? He said that, I think last year's team would.

[Travis Kelsey]

Would win.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think especially by the time we had been the Stru bowl, you know, we had already lost. Our starting quarterback, Jason Peters is out, Darren Sprouls was out. And like, listen, we. We won, but, you know, it took everything we had to beat the Patriots. And you guys beat the team that's been the best team in the NFL for pretty much.

[Chris Long]

I mean, what?

[Jason Kelsey]

Almost. I mean, Pat Mahomes has been in the conference championship every year of his career. Just finished the seventh season.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And you guys, like, it wasn't even close.

[Travis Kelsey]

No.

[Jason Kelsey]

So watching how you guys ended the season, I don't know how you could realistically think that we would beat you guys. But I'll tell you this, just being a competitor, we beat the out of you.

[Chris Long]

I was honestly waiting on you. Waiting on it. That's crazy.

[Jason Kelsey]

You guys, you guys came together so incredible all season.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And even the defense, I mean, I remember the, the first Atlanta game. It's like these guys are getting cut out on the backside. They can't stop, outside zone. And then you're watching like the. The Tampa Bay game. It's like, man, this, like, boy, this. It feels like this. The coverage is so soft. And yeah, I really like what Tampa Bay was doing, too. They would do like these jet motions in the flat. They rip it into the flat. Then you guys would start playing up on that, and they'd be hitting it over your head like Evans. And I'm like, dude, this they're doing some good. But I don't know what you guys did to figure it out. I mean, I know you guys start playing more six man fronts in certain situations, but then whatever it was, figured it out. Figured it out.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Well. And part of it is you guys are talented immensely. And then guys stepped up. And that's why I'm anxious. I mean, I'm very happy that we won the super bowl last year with you guys this year. It's going to be interesting to see who steps up this year.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right, right. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Nolan Smith, 100%. He played so well.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And that whole playoff. The whole playoff, yes.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And, you know, J. Hunt came on and then, you know, you know, Nicobe goes down. And I just felt like all the guys that needed to step up, similar to our year in 2017. A lot of times that ends up being a really crucial moment of like, can these young guys play well that get thrust in these boats because there's going to be injuries, there's going to be things that happen. And you guys were just so good there at the end.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And playing as a team, playing really confident.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yeah, it was really good.

[Jason Kelsey]

Pretty remarkable playoff run.

[Cooper De Jean]

What. What was it like that next season, coming back after the super bowl, going into it, did you feel like you had a. Get that extra, like, target on your back against teams you were playing against?

[Jason Kelsey]

For sure. Yeah. And, you know, we. We didn't play the Patriots that year, but we played them the following year and that one, there was more like juice to it. And you guys will feel. I mean, you guys will play KC early this season.

[Cooper De Jean]

Two, three.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

It is going to be a very fun environment to play a football game. And it's going to be. It's going to feel like a playoff game. And all off season, and we dealt with this in 2018. Everybody is looking at your film to try and replicate what you guys had success with and try to stop the things that you guys did well. And you have a lot more attention all off season on every coach in the NFL. All the brightest minds are going to be trying to figure things out that you guys did well. Players are going to be watching tape, so you're getting more attention on everything you've been doing. So it's. It's going to feel different. You're going to get every team's best shot. Yeah, but I mean, listen, what else do you want? Right? That's the way the challenge. That's right. It's the challenge. And you guys, I know you lost Kellen, but you still got Vic back. I think you guys unheralded on that defensive staff. You Guys got some great coaches, great players.

[Chris Long]

They listen to us, too, as players.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yeah, it's good.

[Chris Long]

It's a good back and forth. Really good back is.

[Jason Kelsey]

Is Casper the man who's the main dbs?

[Chris Long]

Christian Park.

[Jason Kelsey]

Christian Park.

[Chris Long]

And they both. I mean, they both have the same type of personality where they ask me stuff, I tell them stuff, and then vice versa. It's just working a relationship, you know, like, for sure, they're the coaches, but we're. We're the ones playing, and they want us to feel comfortable doing it.

[Travis Kelsey]

So. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Stout used to reference his book it's your ship, which there's a guy that did like a naval. Like a naval commander or something like that, and he ended up taking over a ship that was, like, rated poorly. And the whole gist of it was, is he started giving the members of the unit and, like, the soldiers or the navalmen more autonomy and telling him what they should and shouldn't do, which in turn caused them to have more ownership over everything. And they ended up being like, the best naval fleet.

[Travis Kelsey]

Wow.

[Jason Kelsey]

At the end of the day, because of it kind of like a Disney movie. I don't know how real it is, but it's still. It sounds good either way. That's how stop functions.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

And that was one of my things. I love playing with styles. Like, I could go to him and voice like, hey, I don't like that we're doing this. I don't think this is right. This feels like it's not. We're not getting the best. We're putting this guy in a bad position by doing this. And it never felt like a confrontation. It always felt like a conversation.

[Travis Kelsey]

Absolutely.

[Jason Kelsey]

And he would either be like, yeah, Jason, you bring up a good point. Or he'd be like, jason, you're fucking stupid. Shit. Get out of here. We're doing it this way.

[Chris Long]

We're doing it this way.

[Jason Kelsey]

But either way, the dynamic was right and style to top of guys all the time. Some of the best things he's learned in coaching came from his players.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I think when you got good coaches, they know how to take all that in for sure.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

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[Cooper De Jean]

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[Chris Long]

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[Cooper De Jean]

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[Chris Long]

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[Cooper De Jean]

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[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Chris Long]

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[Cooper De Jean]

So no more ice?

[Chris Long]

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[Cooper De Jean]

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[Travis Kelsey]

What.

[Cooper De Jean]

What was it like growing up in the Kelsey household? You and Trav, were you guys always, always going at it or what was it like growing up?

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, we were competitive as hell. We were only two years apart, and, you know, we played every sport possible. My dad was really, really involved with us in athletics. So is my mom. And, you know, we have a very small family. Yeah, we have no first cousins. Both my aunt and uncle. My aunt. My dad's on my uncle. My mom's side. Neither of them had children, so, you know, we kind of hung out with our friends. We would go to Fairfax elementary, play pickup baseball. We go to Roxborough elementary, play street hockey. And we kind of just, you know, athletics was our major thing. We did all growing up.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

Was more athletic when you got younger.

[Jason Kelsey]

I was older, so I would win most of the competitions. But I think really, once Trav got to middle school and he started hitting his growth spurt, it really became apparent that he was by far the better athlete.

[Chris Long]

You just grow up so fast.

[Jason Kelsey]

It was so funny because when we were growing up, he was the short, fat one.

[Cooper De Jean]

My youngest brother was.

[Jason Kelsey]

He was the short, pudgy one. And I was kind of like the taller, leaner kid. And when he got to middle school is really when he started, like, shooting up there. And he was Travis, a very good basketball player. He played ice hockey and, like, his team. I don't know if they won state championship in, like, middle school or whatever, but they were very good. I mean, he played a wooden bat league. He was a very good baseball player. Any sport he's played, he's been tremendous at. And he's the opposite of me. I was always a tightly wound, explosive kind of athlete. That's how I played every sport. Trav has always was more smooth. Like, that was one thing that you don't think he's really going that fast, but then you kind of compare it. You put on tape, and he's moving around with other people. It's like, oh, this guy's actually looks.

[Cooper De Jean]

Smooth moving around on tape.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

You guys. Did you guys ever get in any. Any fights?

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

I can imagine.

[Chris Long]

Me and my sister used to get in fights. I can only imagine having your sister.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yes.

[Jason Kelsey]

Nice. What kind of. Did you get, like, fist fights or.

[Chris Long]

Not, like, fist fights? Close to it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Close to it.

[Chris Long]

Close to it. Because she was. She hit a growth spurt. Like, she was a tall. Yeah, she's four and three and a half years older than me.

[Jason Kelsey]

Nice.

[Chris Long]

So she was the one that was taller than everybody in her class, and so obviously, she was way taller than I was, and she would, like, you know, try to muscle me around and stuff. But, sir, you know, sure enough, I shot up, and I was like, you.

[Jason Kelsey]

Can'T mess with me. The testosterone started coursing, and you kind.

[Chris Long]

Of got messed with.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

My brothers and I, we always. Whenever. Whenever we weren't on the same team, we were always getting in fights and being against each other, but when we were on the same team, it was like no one could stop us. Yeah, we were all always thinking the same thing. And that was.

[Chris Long]

So y'.

[Travis Kelsey]

All.

[Chris Long]

All three play together at one point.

[Cooper De Jean]

Oh, just, like, pick up.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Two brothers.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yeah, two younger brothers.

[Jason Kelsey]

Where are you in the pecking order?

[Cooper De Jean]

I'm the oldest.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oldest.

[Cooper De Jean]

I'm the oldest.

[Chris Long]

They all look the same.

[Jason Kelsey]

We. We usually never fist fights, but eventually fist fights in wrestling, and the one rule was no hitting in the face.

[Chris Long]

Did you follow that rule at all?

[Jason Kelsey]

I broke that rule once, and it wasn't really an established rule until this moment, and that's when it became a rule. But my dad would always warn my brother because my brother would antagonize me, and, like. And my dad better stop. I'm gonna let him hit you. One of these days. I'm gonna let him hit you. Sure enough, he's like, all right, Jason, go ahead. And he, like, Stuck his face. He's, like, sitting on the couch like this. He stuck his face out over the couch, and I just punched him. Right. My mom said not in the face. So, yeah, we. We got after each other. Pretty hilarious.

[Cooper De Jean]

How much older are you then, than him?

[Jason Kelsey]

Almost two years. Exactly. He's October 5th. I'm November 5th.

[Travis Kelsey]

Okay.

[Jason Kelsey]

So one year and 11 months. Exactly.

[Chris Long]

That's sick.

[Cooper De Jean]

So you got. You guys got to play in. In high school together.

[Jason Kelsey]

We didn't. My bro. Both of the times I would have played with my brother my senior year.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

He was ineligible.

[Travis Kelsey]

Okay.

[Jason Kelsey]

So his freshman year, he played jv. I was playing varsity. I would have played with him my senior year, but he failed some French class, which made him ineligible. So he's crazy. So he couldn't play. And it wasn't even a, like, state ineligibility rule. It was like a school issued one. So he missed out on that year. And then my senior year in college, I blocked for him a couple times in college. He was a Wildcat quarterback when he was a redshirt freshman.

[Chris Long]

I've seen videos.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. My senior in college, I would have played with him a lot, but he failed a drug test for marijuana, and it was an NCAA test at the time. And at the time, it was a full year suspension, so he lost a full year of college.

[Chris Long]

Still a full year?

[Jason Kelsey]

No, it's not anymore.

[Cooper De Jean]

So you never. You never really got to play with him then?

[Jason Kelsey]

Not really. I mean, I blocked for him for a handful of plays in college.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah. Yep.

[Chris Long]

That's still sick, though. Having your brother go to college with you, though.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, it was. I mean, he. So when he was ineligible, I forced him to move in with me and be my roommate so I could keep an eye on them.

[Chris Long]

Was it just y' all two, or did you have.

[Jason Kelsey]

We had a whole football house. I'm a big football house guys. I don't know if you guys are. Football house. A bunch of teammates. That should be like, one of the things you. Every coach, when he's bringing in rookies, like, all right, was he in a football house? This is a team guy if he's a part of the football house. Right, right. Actually, our house has won between my brother, me, Derek Wolf, we've won five, six Super Bowls or five Super Bowls.

[Travis Kelsey]

Wow.

[Jason Kelsey]

And the quarterback that was in there has won a couple great cups. Zach Calera. So we've got a bunch of championships in that little house. It's fun to think about West Nixon or East University. I forget what street it was but in that house, there's been a lot of guys that have gone.

[Chris Long]

It's funny that you still remember the house, like the street names.

[Jason Kelsey]

Dude, that. That house was so much fun, bro.

[Chris Long]

They've had.

[Cooper De Jean]

That was. That was like the best times, just going like, you go to football all day and then you just go back and. And chill with your boys.

[Chris Long]

And we had this passage drive, bro. Passage drive. It was a weekend. We had a slip and slide party and we had this hill going straight down and we'd put a. Laid a huge tarp down it. Coolers, beer, everything.

[Jason Kelsey]

How to.

[Cooper De Jean]

How'd you end up at Cincinnati, though? Was that. What was your recruiting like?

[Jason Kelsey]

So I was a walk on at Cincinnati. I had a couple offers from one AA Division 2 schools and I wanted to play Division 1 football.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And it came down to really Cincinnati, Ohio State and Pittsburgh. Those are the three. I don't know if you guys like, preferred walk on. Have you ever. Yeah, so I had. Those are the three preferred walk on spots. I could have gone that I liked. And I thought I was going to go to Pittsburgh. Ohio State is like, this is. It's going to be hard to crack this roster.

[Chris Long]

Who was there? Who was there at the time?

[Cooper De Jean]

What year was this?

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, man. At the time, Luke Fickle was the linebackers coach.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I liked him a lot. And this is before he ended up being a head coach of Cincinnati. I went to a camp down there and just like really liked Luke. He was a linebackers coach. I played linebacker at the time. So he was taking me through, like, how to get in a stance, like all these things. And growing up in Ohio, like the pinnacle of college football is Ohio State, so everybody wants to go there. And then I ended up taking a visit to Pittsburgh and I really liked my recruiting coach, Paul Rhodes a lot. He was the defensive coordinator.

[Travis Kelsey]

Paul Rhodes. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And then I went to Cincinnati and at the time, Mark Dantonio was a coach there and I just went there. Pat Narduzzi was the defensive coordinator.

[Cooper De Jean]

You got a lot of. A lot of guys that are. That were head coaches.

[Jason Kelsey]

Well, and all the guys. I ended up being coached by three head coaches in Cincinnati and all three went on for bigger, better jobs. And yeah, Dave Wanstead was the head coach at Pittsburgh at the time. But I just love the university, love the campus. And it felt, you know, like the easiest path of, hey, I can earn a scholarship here. And Antonio had been a walk on too, so he was pretty like, he, he liked the walk ons.

[Cooper De Jean]

It seemed like you came in as a, as a linebacker. That's crazy, dude.

[Chris Long]

That's crazy to think.

[Jason Kelsey]

I would call me Dick Buckus.

[Travis Kelsey]

Really?

[Jason Kelsey]

They call me Dick Buckets because I was like, I couldn't do anything. I think it was just because I was just a raging lunatic. Like I would tackle during tag off drills and like, I was like, I was Rudy. I was like, I want to make the team. I want to get a scholarship. I mean, so they were all laugh at me and I was. I had these like forearm pads because I broke my thumb. So the whole thing was like padded up.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

So I looked like an old school player. And yeah, it was played there. Played linebacker, was scout team defensive player of the year. That's a big one.

[Cooper De Jean]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Accolades. Not a lot of people know about. And then Dantonio left that spring or Danton left that winter. He got the head coaching job at Michigan State. And Brian Kelly came in and the strength coach that came in with him, movement offensive line.

[Cooper De Jean]

Brian Kelly, like the, the LSU coach?

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah. Oh, wow.

[Chris Long]

I didn't know that.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, yeah. Brian came in from Central Michigan and he came in with a spread offense, no huddle. They wanted to run these zone reads and zone concepts. They want a more athletic offensive lineman. Before we had been like a power run system. And the strength coach, Paul Longo, he was like, you know, I think you'd make a great center.

[Chris Long]

And so you had to gain all that weight too, didn't you? Or how long?

[Jason Kelsey]

£235. When Paul told me, I think he'd make a great center.

[Travis Kelsey]

Wow.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I got to 260 roughly that first year. Didn't play, played spare. I was. I ran down on kickoff with knee braces on. I got the wedge buster on kickoff.

[Chris Long]

The wedge.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. I remember I was like that punt protect. The worst.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yes.

[Jason Kelsey]

Like the worst position on the field. Like, people just run straight into it. So I did special teams that year. Played a handful of games like when guys got hurt or whatever. And then the next year I started at guard at 280. The following year I got up to about 300. I was pretty heavy that.

[Chris Long]

How did you do that?

[Jason Kelsey]

I've forced myself to eat food. Yeah. I would so go to the calf. I would max out. And because now it's so different now they have like cafeteria set up for the players and there's like, there's like stations and whatnot. At that time there was a lot more restrictions on what you could give the guys that were on scholarship. So I would go to the calf max out my, my allotted little car meals.

[Chris Long]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Then there was a night one called Stadium View and they had burgers and french fries. And for me I was just like, calories, calories. So I got fat. I got real fat. Yeah. So. And Paul Longo was the strength coach and his main thing was you need to eat as much as you can. You need to get as big as you can. While you're getting big and you're lifting, you'll be putting on muscle too.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

And then whatever you want to. The first year the goal was 260. So you want to go into training camp at like 265 to 70. Lose a little bit in training camp.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And that'll be what you play at.

[Cooper De Jean]

Who do you think had the biggest impact while you're at Cincinnati on you, like when you switched offensive line?

[Jason Kelsey]

I mean, the two big ones are Paul Longo, the strength coach. Like, I really think Paul was. He did it with a number of guys. Joe Staley also played tight end in Central Michigan, playing in left tackle for the 49ers for a long time. He had an eye for taking athletic guys that were tweeners at another position. Like I was a 47 linebacker who could stuff the run really well, but I was a liability in the past game boys. Like, I was not covering tight ends or running backs out of the back. I'd like tackle the running back in like one on one drills. But so I was athletically a mediocre at best linebacker and all of a sudden a athletically like best offensive lineman in college football, arguably like metric wise. So that's what he did. And he was very good at it. And I think his, his programs, everything were geared towards making you bigger, faster, stronger, more explosive. And he was phenomenal. And then the other guy, I would be remiss if I don't. In my first offense, line coach, I read Jeff Quinn, I was with him for three years and he taught me the position from scratch. Like I had never played offensive line. Yeah, I, in college I played or in high school I played a little bit of like wing T, like tight end, fullback type position where I'd pretty much ISO or get like a end around. But I didn't know anything about blocking concepts.

[Chris Long]

So like were you. You had to be more vocal too, right. Or did you always have that sort of.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think, well, when you don't know what you, what you're doing, you're not very vocal. You're just kind of following along.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I, they tried to start me at center And I think that was hard.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

One from the snaps we were all gun and then to make all the calls, that was a big thing to ask somebody who's never done that before.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

So they ended up moving me to guard and that's where I played for two years. And I could. I ended up being very vocal at guard too once I got everything down. But it was a. It took some time. I mean.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

You think, you think playing linebacker helped you for sure when you turned to thousand percent center.

[Jason Kelsey]

I'm a big believer, you know. And now it's different. Teams have gotten better at hiding the stuff. But you know, noticing wild like it's a single high safety, the linebacker's got this gap. If he's not in that gap either, this guy spiking the safety is going to rotate back and play shell. So you start to understand structurally why guys are in certain positions. Even like little calls. Like a linebacker comes up and taps a guy in the ass, like he's going to spike. Right. Like. So you pick up on stuff like that. That I think guys that haven't played the position, you know, they don't really have that frame of reference.

[Chris Long]

You went from a walk on to now a six round pick. You know how. I guess. How was that draft experience for you?

[Jason Kelsey]

I knew I was an undersized guy and there was going to be a smaller amount of teams that would be interested in me. I was expected to be a day three guy. Some people were saying maybe like the fourth round I would sneak in or third round. But I got appendicitis at the combine. So I did all this work to put all this weight on. I thought I had the stomach flu at the time because I was like, you know that like little room where you're like going and talking to coaches like in that. It's a huge room. I was going in between talking to coaches, like throwing up, going to the bathroom. I thought I ate something and I felt better the last day. So I ran really well and I just could. I salvaged that. I was able to go out there and do that. And then a week later came back, I was like, what is going on? I've had to have an emergency appendectomy.

[Chris Long]

So to say you waited what, two weeks?

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Ain't that like really dangerous?

[Jason Kelsey]

So what happened when I found this out later? Your appendix can do one of two things really. Once you start having that happen, it can burst, which is like bad. Real bad. Right. If you don't get it done quickly, you could die. Mine Perforated. So it's like a really small hole happened. So I got felt better for, like, a week. But slowly, that stuff was still leaking out, so it was, like, infecting me and all that other stuff, so.

[Chris Long]

And you ran with that?

[Jason Kelsey]

I ran with it. I. So I put all this weight in to try and weigh 295. That was my goal. I want to weigh 295 at the combine. I'm like, two days, three days before this, I start feeling like this. I'm, like, throwing up. I feel terrible. And I go in there on the scale, and they tell you that in front of all the coaches, like, Jason Kelsey, 280. And I'm like, oh, crap, this ain't good. That was right away. I was like, I'm off, like, half of these test boards at this point. The Patriots worked me out as a fullback.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

They're, like, trying to figure out maybe this guy's probably too small to play center. Maybe we can use it in a different way. But, yeah, ended up. There were really three teams I thought would draft me. Those are. I only had three, like, top 30 visits. It was St. Louis, Kansas City, and Philadelphia. Kansas City drafted Rodney Hudson early. So I'm like, oh, man, that probably ain't gonna happen.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Cooper De Jean]

Where were you at when you were watching the.

[Jason Kelsey]

The third day when I thought we were gonna go, I didn't want to watch it because I didn't want to be, like, watching all these. Round by round, pick by pick. So we went bowling.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And we start bowling. Beginning of the fourth round, we finish bowling. I still haven't been drafted.

[Travis Kelsey]

Oh, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

So we go back to the house, and I'm like, man, this is. I'm starting to get ready for, like, what happens if I don't get drafted. I'm talking to my agent like, hey, you know, do we have. What teams do we like, which we end up? And Philly had two picks back to back. I was like, you know, they haven't picked a center really yet. They drafted Julian Vanderbilt, who could play center. But, you know, I had a good visit there with those guys, and, like, maybe it'll work out here.

[Travis Kelsey]

Still at the time.

[Jason Kelsey]

No.

[Travis Kelsey]

Oh, wow.

[Jason Kelsey]

Howard Mudd, and he was another guy who's. I mean, I don't know they actually have offensive line coaches in the hall of Fame, but if they did, he'd be in it for sure.

[Travis Kelsey]

Wow.

[Jason Kelsey]

He was. He played for the 49ers back in the day, and he coached, you know, Jeff Saturday, Kevin Malai, he was the Offensive line coach for the Colts all those years when Peyton Manning was there. So he was a legendary coach. And in particular with working with undersized linemen, he liked athletic guys.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

He didn't want, you know, these big guys that couldn't move. He wanted guys that could move.

[Chris Long]

I felt like that's where it was trending towards anyway at that time.

[Jason Kelsey]

Right? It was at that time. I mean, it. There were still. I mean, the Eagles at the time were a very big power system with Juan Castillo and they had massive offensive linemen. They brought in Howard and they tried to do a little bit of a. He wanted more of a smaller profile type guy. So the zone systems in Denver with Shanahan, yeah, they were notorious for having smaller guys that could move. So there was kind of a movement to these zone blocking systems than smaller guys, but not. Not as small as I was. I was definitely an outlier.

[Chris Long]

I know that's. I don't want to skip ahead, but I remember my first time up here, like I was doing the scout team stuff and like, you're. It was a run play and you're running right beside me and I'm like, almost full speed. I'm like, holy flying insane, dude.

[Travis Kelsey]

Insane.

[Cooper De Jean]

So you get. You get drafted in the sixth round and then you. Did you have to sit out at all for your surgery or.

[Travis Kelsey]

No.

[Jason Kelsey]

So the appendectomy, I was out for a month or two. It was like four to six weeks maybe. So it was just from after the combine. I was good to go after the draft, but I was just talking with Scotty about this over there. Our rookie year was the lockout year, so we didn't have any OTAs. We didn't have any off season programs. I got the playbook like the day I flew in before the first day of training camp.

[Travis Kelsey]

Wow.

[Chris Long]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jason Kelsey]

That was the first time we really talked to the coaches. It was off limits before that.

[Cooper De Jean]

What was.

[Jason Kelsey]

And it wasn't even over. They did like an alleviated thing just to let guys go to training camp.

[Chris Long]

And like, you had to learn all that stuff before training camp too, or majority.

[Jason Kelsey]

I learned on the fly at training camp.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah. Yep.

[Chris Long]

That's what makes volume.

[Cooper De Jean]

Was there. Was there. Who was the center before you were?

[Jason Kelsey]

Jamal Jackson. And Jamal had had some injuries the previous years. I think he had an ACL and then he tore his triceps. So he had kind of had injuries for a couple seasons. Another guy, Mike McGlynn, had played a lot of center the year before. AQ Shipley was here who ended up playing a long time in the NFL. So my first offensive line room was really Jamal Jackson, Mike McGlin, AQ Shipley, and me. And the four of us were kind of competing for the two center positions.

[Cooper De Jean]

Do you start your rookie year?

[Jason Kelsey]

I did.

[Travis Kelsey]

You did?

[Jason Kelsey]

First game? Yeah.

[Chris Long]

How. How nervous were you?

[Jason Kelsey]

Very, very nervous. I mean, and it was. We were playing like the Rams. And their best player was Chris Long, a defensive end, who I know you guys just had on shout out to Chris. They had James Laranitis as the starting middle linebacker. And outside of that, I don't remember. I'm trying to remember who else was on that team. Defensive line, and I can't right now, but they. It wasn't like I was going up against anybody, like, particularly crazy. It was just like, it's your first time ever playing in the NFL. You're starting. It was wild. And yeah, it was a fun experience.

[Chris Long]

Could you feel like a huge shift from Cincinnati to.

[Jason Kelsey]

For sure. And I saw. I felt that we used to do. Andy has these things in training camp. He calls them 10, 10 tens, where the starting offense will do 10 plays against the starting defense or one of the backup defenses. Then the defense will do 10 plays. Then you do like a special teams, then you do another 10 play. So you do end up doing 30 plays throughout the day. It's a shortened practice. This is like. This would be like a red day.

[Travis Kelsey]

Oh, okay.

[Jason Kelsey]

You know, I mean, so you just do. Those are the only periods you do. You don't really have any individual. And it's kind of. He eases you into training camp.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And we did a 10, 10, 10. And I was on the. Doing second team or third team reps, but we were going up against like the first team defense. And I just remember how unbelievably fast the entire play happened. Yeah, like, we ran like a zone and I was like, that fucking thing was over and over. And that's. You know, you guys have all. Everybody who makes it to the NFL has played against really good players in college.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

So you've had that, like, individual guy that you played against that's good enough to play in the league.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

So that it's not one on one. That really, in my opinion, is the biggest shock. It's more just like how fast the whole thing. Yeah, like the. The back hits the hole harder, the linebacker flows faster.

[Chris Long]

Everything's like.

[Jason Kelsey]

Everything just gets accelerated. Right. That took a lot of getting used to early on for sure.

[Chris Long]

Since we're partnering with my fitness pal, I think we should check out the meal planner, see if we can have success throughout the season with it.

[Cooper De Jean]

Let's do it.

[Travis Kelsey]

Let's do it.

[Chris Long]

Let's see. What are your goals, bro?

[Cooper De Jean]

See what are my goals? I need to lose weight.

[Chris Long]

I need to say eat healthy. And let's do eat healthy, eat out less. Which diet plan do you prefer? I'm doing a balanced diet. What are the main reasons you eat out at restaurants today? Saves time. Not sure what to cook. Oh, and actually ask you about your allergies. Which of these cooked veggies would you like in your meal plans? Oh, spinach.

[Cooper De Jean]

Blanched green beans. Which of these fruits would you like in your meal plans?

[Jason Kelsey]

Apples.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yes.

[Cooper De Jean]

Oranges. Grapes, Bananas.

[Chris Long]

Hot apples. Write a few recipes so we can.

[Cooper De Jean]

Oh, I can slice a few recipes. What'd you get? What was your first one?

[Chris Long]

Garlic pork chop.

[Cooper De Jean]

Garlic butter pork chops.

[Chris Long]

Like peach bacon quesadilla.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Maple apple.

[Cooper De Jean]

Oh, I just got that too. Alex, Gas. Wow, this is awesome, dude.

[Chris Long]

I would eat all this stuff.

[Jason Kelsey]

Loki.

[Travis Kelsey]

Same.

[Chris Long]

I'm glad it can pick out what.

[Cooper De Jean]

I like and what I don't like. Yeah, me too. You guys can plan your own meals with my fitness pal. Scan the QR code on the screen or click the link below and download my fitness pal today.

[Chris Long]

Welcome back to the exciting mics presented by Benda Pharmaceuticals, the new heist podcast. Who was. Whose idea was it to. To start that?

[Jason Kelsey]

So we had talked about doing it for a while, couple years, but I'll give Travis's team credit. His team was really the ones who kind of spearheaded it. We'd always talked about doing a show together, doing something and busting with the boys and started to have success. Draymond Green's podcast was killing it. Pat McAfee. There started to be current players or guys that were just out that were going into space, and it was going well. So they were like, hey, would you guys want to do that? And we had been hesitant for a couple years, nervous about, you know, the season isn't going well. You gotta do this podcast, and people don't want to hear what you're saying. And is it a distraction? And I think some guys doing it and winning championships like Draymond and guys doing it, playing at a high level, I think gave us a little bit more comfort to be, you know, let's go for it. Doesn't seem like it was a distraction for those guys.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right?

[Jason Kelsey]

So.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah, exactly.

[Chris Long]

Be yourself, I guess.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, well, be yourself. To me, the thing that I liked most and I Still, like, for any current player, doing it is for years, everything that you said got framed through a media member to the public. Right. And Philly, you guys know, I mean, you go after practice, there's almost 100 beat reporters in the locker room. Damn near. Right.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Like, there's a lot of hunger and desire for Eagles content.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

And the beat reporters do a fantastic job, but as a player, you have an ability to say exactly what you want and message it the way you want it to the. The fan or whoever's reading it or watching it. And it was something that really wasn't as available before. And sometimes that's good. If you're good at it, it's good at it.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

You're bad at it. It can lead to some not so good things. But. And that's where, like, I think it was an amazing platform to utilize as a player. And it. You guys are doing it, I think more players, like, I don't know that I'm. I just think it's a great platform to be able to talk and connect.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

With fans.

[Chris Long]

Yeah, I've enjoyed it.

[Cooper De Jean]

I've enjoyed it, too.

[Chris Long]

Yeah, I've enjoyed. I mean, get to know people kind of. You can say whatever I say, say whatever you want, but you're not worried about that one thing getting out and stuff getting twisted, you know what I'm saying?

[Jason Kelsey]

For sure. Well. And you guys have, like, we edit stuff out, we talk as free as possible.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right? Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And try and make it as organic of a show as we can. And sometimes like, hey, you know, I don't like the way this sounds, or, you know, I don't want to upset this person. And you figure out what ends up going in.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

But it's. It's a pretty authentic connection with the fan and seeing your face, you know, the fact that this is all video.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's. It's. And it's one of the reasons, I think, like, offensive lineman, dude, I played center.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Like, most guys can't name more than five centers that played in the NFL. Right. Having the ability to get out there and to be seen and to tell your story, that was not readily available for offensive lineman for a long time. And I think now you're starting to see offensive linemen develop into, you know, personalities within the NFL. Dion Dawkins does a great job. Jordan, a lot of Lane Johnson. And it's not. No longer. Only if you're a big, massive, great offensive lineman. If you have a personality now, all of a sudden, you can. You can start to Be good there too.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

Who's a. Who's a guest you would like to have on that you haven't had on yet?

[Jason Kelsey]

Cooper De Jean and Reed. Blanket shirt.

[Chris Long]

Set it up.

[Cooper De Jean]

Gotta get it on.

[Chris Long]

That be sick.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Honestly.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. We've had a lot of great guests. I mean, it's. I think that's an ongoing thing, you know, I don't want to. I don't like throwing names out there to try and.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Say anything. I think already. I mean, we had Adam Sandler on this year. We had Farrell on this year. We've talked to the people that were like icons to me growing up. Arnold Schwarzenegger. I sat in a room and talked to Arnold Schwarzenegger for two hours.

[Chris Long]

That's crazy.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's nuts.

[Chris Long]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Right?

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

So, you know, we've. We've had some unbelievable people that like. For me to actually sit down and talk to him has been absolutely.

[Chris Long]

Probably just normal people too, I think.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Arnold wasn't normal to me. That dude is a machine.

[Chris Long]

Terminator.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, man. Even the way he sounds still. No, I, you know, it's. And when you talk to people that like, you grew up idolizing.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's never normal.

[Cooper De Jean]

It's a little different.

[Jason Kelsey]

Like, I met Adam Sandler at a Sphere concert for YouTube. I couldn't even talk to him. Like, I'm like, what do I even say? Like, I was like, like back in middle school trying to talk to a girl again. I didn't know what to say. It was wild. And it wasn't even just him. I was like, you know, Chris Rock was over. I mean, there was like this like star studded group in this like section next to us. Sounds like I like starstruck.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

I don't even know what I would say.

[Jason Kelsey]

Loki, because you're like, I'm gonna. What do I whip out like every Billy Madison? He's not gonna think that's funny. Like, you probably get that non stop. Yeah. But he was awesome. Great dude. Great dude.

[Cooper De Jean]

You got any advice for us as we continue to try and grow ours?

[Jason Kelsey]

Not really. You guys are killing it, man. I think just keep being authentic. The best. Best advice I got actually at broadcast boot camp for the NFL was watch your shows back. Right. Which I hate it because I hate. I hate watch listening to myself. But you have to do it because you're gonna hear and see things that you're gonna think, oh, if I. I'm talking too slow or if I do this, it'll. I'll like the way it sounds better Just, like, watch it. Yeah, Seriously, like, you can't play DB in the NFL and not watch tape on yourself. True. Right. So that was something that one of those guys at the. I forget who said at the broadcast boot camp I might do, but that was one where I was like, oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So then I started listening to it more, and I don't do as good of a job now, but certainly early.

[Chris Long]

On you started listening.

[Jason Kelsey]

I was. I was very much listening to all of it.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

Now your wife's got a podcast, too.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yes.

[Cooper De Jean]

That's.

[Jason Kelsey]

What do you think? I mean, it's better than ours. So she's killing it. She's doing great.

[Cooper De Jean]

How'd that come about? She. Did she come to you?

[Jason Kelsey]

It mainly came about. So our family has a lot written about it, and again, we talked about, you know, listen, there's people that are going to say things about you out there and write articles and things like that, and a lot of it nowadays, we live in this world of clickbait, and people are going to write headlines just to get people to click the articles.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think Kylie was seeing more and more of that, and she was like, you know, I'm tired of everybody else saying things about my family, and I want to be able to articulate things happening and what I want to say about our family. So that was a big reason for it. And she was. She does not like the spotlight. I know it's hard to believe. Like, she's got her own podcast. It was a lot to get her to that point, to be comfortable doing it. And I don't know that she's still fully all, like, comfortable being as well known as she is now, but she has killed it. She's an authentic, genuine person, and there's a audience out there of women that want to hear her perspective and her talk to people and other mothers or other women in sports. WNBA and women's sports is exploding right now.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

So it's. It's doing really well.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Especially a partner of a NFL man.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

You know.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah, I know.

[Chris Long]

My. My wife now, she. She's listened to it a couple times. She just. She loves it.

[Jason Kelsey]

So, I mean, for a long time, the partners of NFL players got bastardized a little bit with these wags and stories. It became like a show.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I think it's just not real for most of the women in the NFL and like a stereotype. There's certainly aspects of it that are real and true, but I think, you know, that's One thing that she certainly likes doing is trying to, you know, just have a more community that is based in reality as opposed to kind of what had been out there before outside the podcast.

[Cooper De Jean]

You. You're a musician now, too?

[Travis Kelsey]

This.

[Cooper De Jean]

This past. Over this past couple years.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. I mean, what's that.

[Cooper De Jean]

What's that been. Like, got the Philly special, was it. That was like a. That was like Christmas special.

[Jason Kelsey]

So we've done. We've done three Christmas albums. Me, Jordan and Lane, as well as a bunch of other Philly artists.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

You know, lead drummer for the war or the drummer for the war on drugs, Charlie Hall. Very connected in the Philly music scene and just music scene in general.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

We've had a bunch of people who are actual musicians help us make that. And then Malada, as, you know, can carry.

[Travis Kelsey]

Crazy. Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Good gosh.

[Jason Kelsey]

But, yeah, that started off. That was a lot of fun. I played saxophone in high school. That was a great time. I was in the jazz band.

[Travis Kelsey]

Wow.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, we would tour every spring, other cities to compete against other jazz bands.

[Chris Long]

Dude, I did not know this.

[Jason Kelsey]

Went to Chicago, New York, Boston, and then, for some reason, Carolina.

[Travis Kelsey]

I don't.

[Jason Kelsey]

I don't know if they're necessarily known for music, but. Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

And you still play?

[Jason Kelsey]

I have not played saxophone as much. I have a. So I played Barry sax, to be specific, and I now have a Barry sax, but I also have four kids and a lot of other things happening, so I don't play it. I want to, though. I want to get back into it.

[Cooper De Jean]

You think if Taylor Swift asks you to come play saxophone on stage at her concert, you think you'd be more nervous for that or for one.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, my gosh, would I do it? I don't even know if I would do it. I'd be so nervous. I got nervous playing in front of my parents at, like, oh, my God. Concert.

[Cooper De Jean]

Her concerts are insane, though.

[Jason Kelsey]

She's got something absurd. Have you guys ever been to one?

[Cooper De Jean]

Never been.

[Jason Kelsey]

I recommend.

[Chris Long]

Really?

[Jason Kelsey]

I'll say that. Like, listen, the music is. I don't think was made for my demographic in mind. Right.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

But when you go, you'll realize, you know all these songs, like, even though you might not know you do, you've heard them. Yeah, I swear. Because the first show I went to you over in London, and I'm like, I don't my brother sound like, dude, this thing is, you're gonna have so much fun. And you're like. And I'm going there. And I'm like, dude, it is a blast. Like, everybody is so into it and you realize you know all of them. You're maybe not like to the point that you know every single word, but you have heard so many of her songs. There's no way living in America, you haven't. So it's. It's outrageous. Yeah, you're probably right. And the fans are so rabid about it.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And even like the. This last tour, the era she was doing, the. Not the acoustic set.

[Travis Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

Where it's just her and a piano, nothing else, and everybody's singing it and it's. It's a fun time. So I. I would not want to mess that up.

[Cooper De Jean]

I kind of want to check it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Out around on a. Very sad. For sure.

[Chris Long]

That would be sick though.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. No, she's got to figure it out.

[Chris Long]

You never know. A little taste in there.

[Jason Kelsey]

That's right.

[Cooper De Jean]

When. Let's talk about your legacy a little bit. I know you probably don't. You don't like talking about yourself.

[Jason Kelsey]

I love it. Let's go. Yeah, it's great.

[Cooper De Jean]

But you're six time first team all pro, seven time Pro bowler, Super bowl champ.

[Jason Kelsey]

Defensive scout, team player of the year.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yes. In that. You can't forget that one. What would it mean to you to be inducted to the pro football halls hall of Fame one day?

[Jason Kelsey]

It'll be weird, to be honest with you.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I think it's weird because I don't even think I'm the best player that I've played with in the NFL. Like, even on the offensive line, like Jason Peters, Lane Johnson, Brandon Brooks, you know, they're all better players than I ever was. I think I was very good at center, but I was a scheme specific guy. And when I think of hall of Fame players, I think of people that this is a guy that was so good. No matter what team who he played with, wherever he was at, he was going to be one of the best players of all time. And I just don't think that's the case for me. I was better when I had great players next to me that allowed. Now when I did have that, I could do some really interesting things that nobody else could do.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

But I needed a lot of other pieces in place and coaches in place for me to excel. And that's why it feels weird to me if it ever happens.

[Chris Long]

I don't know, man. Now you're a little too hard on yourself.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

I think. I think we're all that way, though.

[Chris Long]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think you got to hate yourself to be good.

[Chris Long]

Absolutely.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah, you do?

[Cooper De Jean]

What, what do you want your legacy to be off the field now that you're done with football and you're into the media space and giving back and the things you do already?

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I don't think about it as much in terms of, like a legacy. I think I just, you know, want to be good to people, be a good neighbor, you know, try and show my kids how to treat people. You know, I think the legacy thing takes care of itself as long as you are a good person and kind of do things the right way, you know, Bottom line, I want my kids to know that I love them. I want them to treat people with respect and kindness and are well mannered. I want them to work their asses off, which is a conundrum for me because now I'm like, retired.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

So I'm like, not supposed to be working, but I don't want my kids to just see me on the couch all day. Like, dad doesn't really do anymore. He just like. Yeah. So I think it's important to, you know, kind of maintain all that stuff for that aspect. And then publicly, however people think about me, hopefully is a reflection of who I am.

[Chris Long]

Well, you've been a really good role model. I just say that much. Even when I came in as a.

[Cooper De Jean]

Rookie, even not playing with you.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

So people talk about you and you.

[Jason Kelsey]

Guys didn't know me when I was younger.

[Chris Long]

Well, it don't matter. We all had our younger days. Still trying to get through it too. No. But just want to shout you out, you know. Thank you for joining us for episode 10.

[Jason Kelsey]

Dude. Thank you for having me.

[Chris Long]

We really appreciate it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Honored to be here. Happy you guys are doing this. Yeah, I think it's, it's. It's an awesome tool and a platform for you guys. You guys are killing it. Good luck this year.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yeah, appreciate it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Can't wait to watch you guys.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Training camp.

[Chris Long]

Have fun with it.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Enjoy being there, but not having to sweat.

[Chris Long]

Sweat.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

Hit and be sore for straight is what it is.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, that's right.

[Cooper De Jean]

Be sure to follow [e-mail] on all platforms and check out the new Heights podcast. Appreciate you taking the time.

[Chris Long]

Appreciate you, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

Thanks.

[Travis Kelsey]

Means a lot.

[Cooper De Jean]

Appreciate it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yes, sir, it is time for exciting bites, presented by Cooper. Cheese. It's not just any cheese. It's Cooper.

[Chris Long]

And today's exciting bites is from Bean to Bean Cafe.

[Cooper De Jean]

Got a little bacon, egg and cheese.

[Chris Long]

Little chili. Chili what? Chili.

[Cooper De Jean]

Chili. Marita Marita. Let's give it a try.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelsey]

Look at that.

[Cooper De Jean]

Look at that Cooper cheese on there.

[Travis Kelsey]

Oh, my God.

[Chris Long]

Did you taste the sweetness of the bun?

[Cooper De Jean]

I could eat this whole thing.

[Travis Kelsey]

I know.

[Chris Long]

The sweetness of the bun to the egg, dude, there's nothing.

[Travis Kelsey]

The.

[Chris Long]

Honestly, the chili, I didn't. I was very. I was kind of worried about how it would taste.

[Travis Kelsey]

Taste.

[Chris Long]

Honestly, it just kind of.

[Cooper De Jean]

It's very cheesy. It is, and I love it.

[Chris Long]

I'm gonna give this dude.

[Cooper De Jean]

Come on, right? Give it a good rating. Come on.

[Chris Long]

Eight and a half.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Cooper De Jean]

8.5.

[Chris Long]

8.5, bro.

[Cooper De Jean]

I'm going 8.8. It's a big time hit for me. I think that.

[Chris Long]

I'm telling you, that sauce, bro, that's boss.

[Cooper De Jean]

I might need this every morning during training camp. Little bacon, egg and cheese.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Chris Long]

There's of kind by the facility and drop it off.

[Cooper De Jean]

From Bean to Bean cafe.

[Chris Long]

Bean to Bean. Shout out, shout out. Get the Billy pin.

[Cooper De Jean]

That's exciting. Bites Philly eats Cooper cheese and some serious flavor.

[Chris Long]

But Cooper isn't just stopping at cheese. They just dropped limited edition merch. Football inspired merch. Look it up@cooper cheese.com.

[Cooper De Jean]

Inspired by yours truly and built for fans who want to bring the heat. And we're back with another segment of the fan rapid fire Q and A. We have Travis. Travis, where you. Where are you calling in from? I'm up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Canada.

[Chris Long]

Love the wilderness up there, man.

[Cooper De Jean]

Y. I'm in like a parking lot right now, man. What's your question you got for us? I wanted to know how you guys chose your jersey numbers 33 and 32. And if Coop, you tried to steal.

[Chris Long]

Number three from Nolan, he ain't getting that number.

[Cooper De Jean]

33. How did I get 33? I mean, that's what. That's the first number that was offered to me.

[Chris Long]

Mine was the. I think the lowest number at the time. 32. But it kind of worked out.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yeah, but you wore 46 or something.

[Chris Long]

I wore 46 in training camp, bro.

[Cooper De Jean]

46 in training camp. Switched to 32.

[Chris Long]

What did you wear?

[Cooper De Jean]

I wore 33.

[Chris Long]

Oh, you're 33 the whole time.

[Cooper De Jean]

Yeah, we're 33 just because I wore three. And three's already taken by Nolan, so added another.

[Chris Long]

There's no way he's Gonna get number three from Nolan.

[Travis Kelsey]

Yeah, no way. No way.

[Cooper De Jean]

32 and 33 works out, though. I know it goes. Goes hand in hand.

[Jason Kelsey]

Perfect.

[Chris Long]

It was a blessing.

[Cooper De Jean]

Appreciate you, brother. Thanks for joining us. Go birds. Go bird. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Exciting Mics.

[Chris Long]

Remember to to like, comment, share and subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen.

[Cooper De Jean]

To your podcast and drop your questions in the comment section below. If you could be joining us live.

[Chris Long]

In the episode, we always appreciate your love and support.

[Cooper De Jean]

Go birds.

[Travis Kelsey]

Morning. One sausage McMuffin with egg, please.

[Reed Blankenship]

Okay, your total is.

[Travis Kelsey]

Wait. Let's negotiate.

[Jason Kelsey]

How's about you throw in hash browns for a dollar?

[Reed Blankenship]

Well, yes sir, that price is already a dollar.

[Travis Kelsey]

Take it or leave it.

[Reed Blankenship]

Take it, I guess. Buy one, add one for a dollar on sausage McMuffin with egg, hash browns and more with McValue. Most locations open 5am or earlier. Price and participation may vary. Limited time only. Valid for item of equal or lesser value.