Keeping Football Outside, Travis' Hoop Dreams & Jayson Tatum Goes From Duke to NBA Champion | EP 131

Summary

Podcast Summary: New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce Episode: Keeping Football Outside, Travis' Hoop Dreams & Jayson Tatum Goes From Duke to NBA Champion | EP 131
Release Date: March 26, 2025
Host/Authors: Jason Kelce & Travis Kelce
Produced by: Wondery

---

1. Introduction

The episode kicks off with the trademark brotherly banter between Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. The brothers tease each other while highlighting their partnership with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, setting a lighthearted and engaging tone for the episode.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [00:15]: "Don't crush my dreams. I'm 35 and I still got hoop dreams."

2. NFL News Updates

a. Cap Expert Poll

Jason and Travis discuss the results of their "Cap Expert Poll," revealing that 81.5% of their listeners support the introduction of a cap expert poll. This segment emphasizes the brothers' commitment to involving their fanbase in meaningful NFL discussions.

Notable Quote:

• Travis Kelce [02:53]: "Nice. All right, well, get ready. Get ready to hear some numbers and hear some nerds. Here we go, boys."

b. Guest Ideas for Future Episodes

The brothers brainstorm potential guests for future episodes, considering high-profile individuals like Howie Roseman and Nick Wright. They also contemplate featuring NFL staffers and trainers to provide deeper insights into the league's operations.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [04:24]: "We have a long offseason. Might be fun to do like an NFL dirty jobs, like NFL staffers, interviews."

c. Brandon Graham's Retirement

A heartfelt discussion centers around Brandon Graham's retirement from the Philadelphia Eagles. Jason shares personal anecdotes and praises Graham's dedication and impact on the team, highlighting the emotional weight of his departure.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [07:09]: "Congrats on a hell of a career, big guy."

d. Browns' New Indoor Stadium

The brothers debate the Cleveland Browns' proposed $2.4 billion indoor stadium in Brook Park. They express strong preferences for outdoor stadiums, particularly those located downtown, citing the unique atmosphere created by natural elements like snow.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason Kelce [11:27]: "Yeah, I do. I think a..."
• Travis Kelce [12:53]: "I don't like anything about this."

3. Fitness Challenge: DEXA Scans with Bo Allen

Jason and Travis introduce a fitness challenge involving DEXA scans with Bo Allen, focusing on losing body fat percentage while maintaining or increasing muscle mass. They outline a point system where participants earn points for each percentage of body fat lost and each pound of lean mass gained. The challenge culminates in a humorous consequence for the loser, involving wearing a Speedo at an event.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [19:11]: "This is why you're still playing football. Because when you retire, you have to do stupid competitions like this to keep your sanity."

4. Fan Engagement

a. Hobby Horsing Highlights

The episode features fan submissions showcasing impressive hobby horsing skills. Jason and Travis react humorously to the entries, celebrating the creativity of their listeners.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [24:04]: "Check this out. Look at this. This chick is jump."

b. Launch of YouTube Membership

The Kelce brothers announce the launch of the New Heights YouTube membership, offering subscribers access to full episodes, exclusive footage, bonus videos, and other perks. They highlight an upcoming exclusive collaboration with Aspen.com's Athlete of the Week.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [22:04]: "We officially launching our new Heights YouTube membership."

5. Interview with Jayson Tatum

a. Introduction

The hosts welcome Jayson Tatum, an NBA champion from the Boston Celtics, to discuss his transition from Duke University to the NBA, his experiences, and his relationship with the Kelce brothers.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [29:35]: "Our guest today is former Mr. Show Me Basketball from St. Louis, Missouri..."

b. Tatum's Career and Duke Experience

Jayson Tatum delves into his time at Duke, discussing the influence of Coach K and the rigorous training that prepared him for the NBA. He emphasizes the importance of professionalism, routine, and the mentorship he received, particularly from Al Horford.

Notable Quote:

• Jayson Tatum [35:00]: "I benefited so much from going to college in the sense of, like, when I got to college, that was my first time playing with, you know, other really good players."

c. March Madness Insights

Tatum shares his March Madness experiences, including memorable games and the competitive nature of college basketball. Jason and Travis also discuss their own bracket challenges, adding a personal touch to the conversation.

Notable Quote:

• Jayson Tatum [44:20]: "Honestly, I vividly remember in 2010, Brad Stevens probably not going to like this, but I remember Butler..."

d. Friendship with Travis Kelce

The interview highlights the brotherhood between Jayson Tatum and Travis Kelce, detailing how their friendship has grown over the years. They discuss mutual respect, shared experiences, and the importance of supporting each other's careers.

Notable Quote:

• Jayson Tatum [38:52]: "Everybody who ever played for the program, whether they 10 years older than me or 10 years younger, like, whenever we see each other, it's always love."

e. Views on the NBA and Future Aspirations

Tatum reflects on his ongoing development as an NBA veteran, his inspirations like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, and his aspirations both personally and for his son, Deuce.

Notable Quote:

• Jayson Tatum [50:05]: "I "can see that definitely being somebody you could look up to, man, or at least take notes from like that."

f. Fun Segments and Personal Stories

The conversation weaves in personal stories, including their experiences with fantasy football, favorite March Madness moments, and playful exchanges about high school sports and family.

Notable Quote:

• Jayson Tatum [75:09]: "This is real. This is what it's about."

6. Bracket Competition Updates

Jason and Travis revisit their March Madness bracket challenge, sharing updates on their standings and reflecting on their bracket strategies. They humorously acknowledge their missteps while encouraging listeners to enjoy the tournament.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Kelce [86:19]: "I did the same thing."

7. Outro and Shoutouts

The episode concludes with final thoughts, shoutouts to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and reminders to subscribe to the New Heights YouTube channel and follow the podcast on various platforms. They thank their listeners, the fans (92 percenters), and the production crew for their ongoing support.

Notable Quote:

• Travis Kelce [90:05]: "All right, now shout out to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and follow the show on all social media..."

---

Key Takeaways:

• NFL Insights: The Kelce brothers provide in-depth analysis of current NFL topics, including financial aspects and player retirements.
• Fan Engagement: Active involvement with their audience through challenges, fan submissions, and interactive segments.
• Exclusive Interviews: High-profile interviews, such as with Jayson Tatum, offer listeners unique perspectives from top athletes.
• Personal Connections: Emphasis on brotherhood, friendship, and personal growth both on and off the field.
• Humor and Relatability: Balancing serious sports discussions with humor and light-hearted moments to keep the content engaging.

Overall, this episode of New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce delivers a comprehensive mix of NFL news, personal fitness challenges, fan interactions, and an exclusive interview with NBA star Jayson Tatum. The brothers' chemistry and relatable discussions make it a valuable listen for fans seeking insider perspectives and entertaining sports commentary.

Transcript

[Jason Kelsey]

Do you think an NFL player could play in the NBA?

[Travis Kelce]

No, it does not work like that.

[Jason Kelsey]

Are there any NFL guys that could train for a year and go play in the NBA?

[Travis Kelce]

So listen, I have so much.

[Jason Tatum]

Don't crush my dreams. I'm 35 and I still got hoop dreams. Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen. A wondrous show produced by way of sports and entertainment and brought to you by Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. We've partnered exclusively with Reese's Cups to bring you this episode with limited interruptions. That's right. This is all Reese's. Or Reese's, however you want to say it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, baby.

[Jason Tatum]

Jason, I finally got my backpack. I'm back in Kansas City.

[Jason Kelsey]

Nice, isn't it cool? It's like it's got a bite out of it.

[Jason Tatum]

I could use a little sugar rush here. Get through this.

[Jason Kelsey]

Get you some.

[Jason Tatum]

I want to do what I want to do. Ooh, I think you get some Reese sticks. I ain't had no Reese sticks in a minute.

[Jason Kelsey]

I forgot about.

[Jason Tatum]

Get a nice little crunch going.

[Jason Kelsey]

God, those are good.

[Jason Tatum]

They are good. Listen to this crunch. It's almost.

[Jason Kelsey]

I forgot about the Reese sticks. Gosh, I'm so.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm with a banger right there. A damn good. Where your host? I'm Travis Coy. My big brother, Jason Kelsey out of Cleveland, Ohio.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, baby.

[Jason Tatum]

Cincinnati Bearcats alum. Shout out to the cats. Subscribe on YouTube onery plus wherever you get your podcast and follow the show on all social media at. New Heights show with 1s. I always forget it and have to read it off to remind myself. New heights show with 1s. Don't put two in there. Jason. Let the people know what we got Coming up.

[Jason Kelsey]

We got another incredible episode for you guys. We're gonna look at some of the latest NFL news. As always, we're also got an update on our March Madness brackets not going so well. My strategy did not turn out good.

[Jason Tatum]

And neither do mine.

[Jason Kelsey]

We have an incredible conversation with NBA champion Jason Tatum. That's right.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Gonna talk about his time at Duke winning an NBA title and he's going to answer some no dumb questions from all you guys.

[Jason Tatum]

I thought you were going to bring up his narrow hips and you never did it. Not one time.

[Jason Kelsey]

I didn't. I was too much of a chicken.

[Jason Tatum]

You always bring up someone's narrow hips and you just didn't do it.

[Jason Kelsey]

I know. We got soccer because the conversation was so great.

[Jason Tatum]

He's awesome.

[Jason Kelsey]

I gotta remember to think about that stuff beforehand. Anyways, before we get to that, it's time for a little bit of that new news. That's right. NFL News first results of the cap expert poll. Travis, you said you weren't in on the cap expert poll. I said that maybe the fans would appreciate it. You said, let's put it to a vote, and we did. That's right. New Heights is voted, man, 81.5% want the cap expert poll.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice. All right, well, get ready. Get ready to hear some numbers and hear some nerds. Here we go, boys.

[Jason Kelsey]

Who doesn't love nerds?

[Jason Tatum]

I mean, I'm in on nerds. I just didn't know everybody else was.

[Jason Kelsey]

That goes to show you, if you're in on it, usually most people. Most of the people are in on it.

[Jason Tatum]

Maybe not so much, but.

[Jason Kelsey]

All right, who should we have on? We have. We have. Obviously the two big ones for both of us are Howie and Veach, the two general managers for our respective teams.

[Jason Tatum]

I think that'd be fun. A Howie and Veech episode. We've already had Howie on, though.

[Jason Kelsey]

We have had Howie out. Well, yes, you didn't talk to him, but we did have him on at the combine one year. We could go outside of the organizations and go to somebody who is just a. Maybe used to work in the NFL or works in the media. Nick Wright threw his hat in the ring on Twitter.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice.

[Jason Kelsey]

Known Kansas City chief Homer.

[Jason Tatum]

Love. Nick Wright.

[Jason Kelsey]

There's also a four there. There is a guy that used to work with the Eagles that no longer works there that I feel very confident would be very interesting interview. Nobody knows his name, but yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, let's. Let's do it. So many of you guys can follow along with the full undergoing of the.

[Jason Kelsey]

Cap, its inner workings. What these numbers mean? Contracts that are made to make it look like a guy's making something. But usually I hate to see that. Oh, they just wanted a press release. Got it. Okay.

[Jason Tatum]

Yep. Yeah, there we go.

[Jason Kelsey]

We got a long off season. Might be fun to do like an NFL dirty jobs, like NFL staffers, interviews. What other people that work in the NFL would be interesting to talk to.

[Jason Tatum]

I mean, I wouldn't say dirty jobs. We got some. We got some top tier talent in terms of personalities in the Kansas City Chiefs organization. Got my guy, Alan Wright, who's been around for, it feels like a hundred years. I'm pretty sure he was. He's been the equipment manager since like the 60s, I think. I think he was here when they moved to Kansas City. Yeah, I would love to hear how especially Dealing with, like, sponsors, like, he's been through it through, like, Reebok and Nike and all these different, like, equipment and all the. How he's seen the helmets progress.

[Jason Kelsey]

That's what I'm saying, dude. If we could. We. If somehow we could get, like, equipment from when he first got into the NFL and, like, you could do it with each piece. You could do with helmets when he first got in to where they're at now. Shoulder pads to now. I mean, even knee pads. Well, knee pad is probably the one thing that hasn't changed much. Thigh pads, though, changed a lot. People used to wear hip pads and butt pads.

[Jason Tatum]

Bring those, like, the hardest. That was the hardest thing to get ready when you were a little kid. So much keeping those hip pads and tail pads in, man. Yeah, man, they used to be the worst. You had to take the rinky dink belt that you had anyways.

[Jason Kelsey]

Didn't do a single freaking thing.

[Jason Tatum]

And yeah, got my guy, Pistol Pete. Making sure. Making sure the place is spick and span and everybody's. Everybody's happy with the vibes.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, he's a custodian.

[Jason Tatum]

Janitor. Yeah. Jack of all trades. Jack of all trades.

[Jason Kelsey]

He's keeping everything. Keeping everything running smoothly.

[Jason Tatum]

There you go.

[Jason Kelsey]

Love it. Love it.

[Jason Tatum]

I think maybe even a trainer episode.

[Jason Kelsey]

I'm all in on the trainer episode. I think the trainers to.

[Jason Tatum]

My trainers over there. And we got.

[Jason Kelsey]

We got. My man Joe Pell has been winning quite the awards.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, yeah. Shout out to Joe Glove Julie. Let's start off with the what the 92 percenters want. And that looks like they want to talk numbers.

[Jason Kelsey]

I'm sure I'll be able to find a way to make it interesting, Trav.

[Jason Tatum]

We always do neck rolls. That's funny as hell. Yeah, bring back the neck rolls. There's still guys. Still guys out here that are rocking them for sure.

[Jason Kelsey]

I used to wear a neck roll. Looks way different. Way less conspicuous, way more inconspicuous.

[Jason Tatum]

Now the pads used to be the size of. I mean, you should be SUVs.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, let's keep it moving. Brandon Graham retires on top of the world.

[Jason Kelsey]

There we go, bg.

[Jason Tatum]

Congrats on a hell of a career, big guy.

[Jason Kelsey]

Obviously retired on Tuesday and, you know, the press conference, very emotional. Listen, I've been talking to BG for a long time, and obviously he made it known before the season. It was going to be his final year. He was playing so good before his tricep injury. I was. I was like, man, is he going to do it again. And he still could, like, he could definitely still play. He rushed it. He wanted to play in the super bowl really bad. End of retearing his tricep in the super bowl. And it just tells you the type of competitor and person he is and just what a pit bull he was for the Philadelphia Eagles for 15 years.

[Jason Tatum]

And you ain't lying.

[Jason Kelsey]

Even though he announced before the season he's going to retire, it's hard to make that announcement official. And I think that that's why you see such an emotional moment out of the guy. And as someone who's been there before, like, you know, you put so much into this game. The finality of it happening, no matter how much you've thought about it or talked about it, is. Is intense. And I don't know that there's anybody in my tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles that put more into the game as a player, as a teammate. He loved football. He loved his teammates.

[Jason Tatum]

You don't play it that long unless you love it, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's. It's going to be very. I mean, now fletch me. BG Lane's the only one left. He had this tweet up there over the weekend.

[Travis Kelce]

Classic.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, classic Lane. But, you know, I think it's just. I don't know that anybody represented what it is to be a Philadelphia Eagle more than Brandon. Like the. The genuine love to be on the field for your teammates, the energy he brought on a daily basis. Yeah, I was fortunate to see him Monday that week, and I saw him later that week after the announcement and just very happy for him, very happy for his family and looking forward to what's next. So shout out to you, B.G. love you, man.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm sure he'll stick around Philly, just like you did, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think that's the plan. I think there's obviously some opportunities in media. Wouldn't be surprised if, you know, like Selleck and some of the other guys you stick. And myself, he sticks around the team and tries to help out where he can. You know, it's just a guy that loves the game and the organization so much. So really happy for him.

[Jason Tatum]

Shout out to bg.

[Jason Kelsey]

They got the billboards out.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, yeah. You know, Philly's always going to make sure that they get those billboards out there.

[Jason Kelsey]

Iconic Brandon Graham. Make sure I snagged a picture of that.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice.

[Jason Kelsey]

Not working.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice. Philly does it right. They always support the most loyal to the. To the city. And BG was one of them, baby. As he. As he always Will be as he always will be. He ain't going nowhere anytime fast. We know that. Yeah. The Browns tweeted out a look at a proposed new indoor stadium.

[Jason Kelsey]

Okay.

[Jason Tatum]

How about that, man. The Browns. Everyone's going indoor because of the. What is this thing?

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, something really stupid out in Brook park that they're trying to get everybody excited about the stadium no longer being in downtown Cleveland.

[Jason Tatum]

I just. I don't know why. What it is about me. I don't know what it is about us. We just. We.

[Jason Kelsey]

I know, I know. I know. Kansas City's stadium and everything is like sports, like towns.

[Jason Tatum]

It just. It feels better when it's downtown.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's way better. They just don't want to pay for it, Travis. Or they don't want to cooperate with the city. That's the only reason this is not in downtown Cleveland. And they can make it out about, like, space. There's plenty of space and buildings that they could overtake and, like, I'm not trying to hear none of this. So. Yeah. Looks beautiful. Great rendering. It's gonna be fun driving out there.

[Jason Tatum]

Does look real nice. What about driving downtown?

[Jason Kelsey]

Good for Brook Park. You're driving downtown. It's part of whether you like it or not. Downtown is an economic driver. Even though the city of Cleveland. Downtown. Economic driver. You would like it to be. Listen, I like when stadiums and everything are downtown in the hearts of the cities. I think it's one of the beautiful thing that Philly has, and hopefully it remains that way. Yeah. I'm not a fan. I don't know what you want me to say. I don't like it.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. I'll tell you what, though. It doesn't matter how cool it is.

[Jason Kelsey]

I'm not going to like it.

[Jason Tatum]

This thing looks sweet.

[Jason Kelsey]

I like the old stadium because it's downtown. I'd rather play in a dilapidated stadium than this.

[Jason Tatum]

Looks epic.

[Jason Kelsey]

Looks great.

[Jason Tatum]

It looks like some out of, like, Star Wars.

[Jason Kelsey]

It does look pretty cool.

[Jason Tatum]

Spaceship. That thing looks awesome. Just do it. Downtown Cleveland. We love. We love it. Being around already.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think it's already official. It's not going to be downtown.

[Jason Tatum]

It's unfortunate. It's a proposed $2.4 billion stadium in Brook Park. Do you. Do you at least agree that an indoor stadium is. Is kind of going against, you know, the nature of living up there on the lake? Like, that's like, I don't like anything about this.

[Jason Kelsey]

I don't like that it's not downtown. I don't like that it's indoor. Like, I Don't like anything about this. And I'm sorry if I'm in. Maybe I'm so detached from Cleveland that I'm not in the majority here. I don't know what the majority of Clevelanders want, which is really what is most important.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

All I know is I like when the elements play a role in the game. I like when snow is involved. We had an awesome playoff game here at the Link this year in the snow against the Rams. That wouldn't have happened with an indoor stadium. I don't like indoor stadiums. I don't care. I'll put a jacket on and go watch football.

[Jason Tatum]

Do you think that outdoor stadiums should get more looks for Super Bowls?

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, I do. I. I think.

[Jason Tatum]

Like. Do you think. Do you think a Lambo should get a Super bowl or like how they did in New York?

[Jason Kelsey]

It'll never happen because it's not a big enough city to. To handle the business and everything else that happens.

[Jason Tatum]

That they did it in Minnesota.

[Jason Kelsey]

Minnesota is a much bigger city than Green Bay, Wisconsin. Travis. Very true. But I'll give you I. We had a Super bowl in Minneapolis. Did it suck that it was in the cold all week? Yeah, but it's cool going to every city that's around now. That was an indoor.

[Jason Tatum]

It was an experience, man. I like the. It was a fun experience. You're walking through the tunnels or the catwalks that connect all the buildings. It was fun.

[Jason Kelsey]

Listen, I'm on record. I like when the elements play a role. I like when the elements play a role in football. I like that. That's one of the unique things about the game. I've heard a lot of arguments that, like, it levels the playing field for worse teams. I don't care. I like that. It's a different element that you have to deal with.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. Everybody.

[Jason Kelsey]

I don't guess. What if the other team is worse than you, but they're better that day. That's what football is. I don't know what you want. The best team that is going to win a series doesn't always happen. That's one of the great things about football. Whoever's better on that day and the elements matter. I don't like indoor stadiums. I don't. Unless you play in the south because the heat sucks. I like snow.

[Jason Tatum]

I hate the heat, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

The heat is miserable.

[Jason Tatum]

The worst.

[Jason Kelsey]

I don't like the indoor stadiums and I don't like that it's going to be in Brook Park. There's zero percent that I like about what's happening in Cleveland right now, just.

[Jason Tatum]

Make it a retractable roof and keep the elements. And then when you want to do a stadium for a. A live show in December, close the roof.

[Jason Kelsey]

I would be okay with that if it's retractable, but it's open during games no matter what.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And then you can still. Because that's a big reason why they make these in like a big reason they do these, especially in colder climate, is that you can do year round events in there.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

So the owners in the NFL make more money off the year round events.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Which I get. Listen, it's a business.

[Jason Tatum]

We got to make money all indoors. Regardless. Should have the situation that Vegas and Arizona have of the field going in and out it. That it just. It has to be grass. This turf stuff has to kick rocks, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

I mean, I'm with you on that. All right.

[Jason Tatum]

Well, at least we agreed on something.

[Jason Kelsey]

So you're a fan of this, though. Do you like the stadium?

[Jason Tatum]

No. I mean, I think the stadium looks beautiful. I think it is. I think it's very cool. We were kids when they got a new stadium. I don't think that the stadium that they have is outdated. I mean, it's. I guess it's 20 years old.

[Jason Kelsey]

It is older than 20 years. It's almost 25. Yeah. It was built in 90, 97, 98, and then the team came back in 99.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

So it's close to 30 years old. I mean, it's not like. I mean, I don't know what the average age of an NFL stadium is, but it ain't new, that's for sure. Not anymore. I don't know why I like it when they're downtown.

[Jason Tatum]

I don't like when I'm with you, man. I'm with you.

[Jason Kelsey]

Like, I think it's something that's so cool.

[Jason Tatum]

It's just something about taking the rapids all the way downtown. And I'm sure they'll have some sort of way that you could take the rapids out to Brook park from everywhere in Cleveland. But it's just. It's just such a unique feeling going downtown, feeling the excitement of everyone going down to the. To the busiest part of city and that atmosphere that it creates in Cleveland, for sure. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

The entire metropolitan area is Cleveland. Right. That's the way we associated with. Right. It's not Brook park. So going out to play in Brook park doesn't feel as cool to me. It doesn't feel like it's as much.

[Jason Tatum]

Cleveland, I'm pretty sure. Municipal. I'm not sure. Where Municipal Stadium was.

[Jason Kelsey]

Cleveland.

[Jason Tatum]

But I don't think it was downtown.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yes, it was Municipal Stadium.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, it was downtown.

[Jason Kelsey]

Pretty sure.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, well, you're better than me. I thought it was. The NBA team used to play out in Richfield. That's what I'm thinking. The Cavs used to play out, and then they moved that downtown. They created the Gateway sports district in. In the. In the 90s, and that brought both teams downtown, and that's when the baseball team was thriving. NBA was at its peak. Oh, no.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. The Cleveland Municipal Stadium was on the lake.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. There you go.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think it was, like, right by.

[Jason Tatum]

Where the First Energy or Huntington bank is.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, well, let's keep it moving.

[Jason Kelsey]

Shout out to Cleveland on the new stadium. Well done, guys.

[Jason Tatum]

Jason's DEXA scan. What are you over there talking about? Who do you got going?

[Jason Kelsey]

Bo Allen reached out, and, honey, Bobo, he said, hey, do you want to do a competition on who can lose the most body fat percentage but still gain muscle? I don't know. Bo wants to have some competition, so we agreed to get DEXA scans. So I got a DEXA scan for the first time.

[Jason Tatum]

Ah, Very fat, I see.

[Jason Kelsey]

That is a lot of fat in there.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, it is.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's kind of embarrassing seeing your body broken down like this. Although I'm not gonna lie. It's a good calf to hamstring ratio, I think. Trav, what do you think my total mass is?

[Jason Tatum]

I'm not sure what that's even. What you're even asking me.

[Jason Kelsey]

Wait. What do you think my weight is?

[Jason Tatum]

Your weight? Your weight is 2. 83. 3.

[Jason Kelsey]

Close. Close. I'm 276.6 according to the scan. My lean mass.

[Jason Tatum]

You've lost 30 pounds. That's crazy.

[Jason Kelsey]

I've lost 20 pounds. I was never heavier than 300. Well, I did maybe a couple times. I tipped 300 in the NFL.

[Jason Tatum]

It's all the same. Go ahead.

[Jason Kelsey]

Lean mass. 207 pounds of muscle. Feel like it's pretty good.

[Jason Tatum]

Strong man. It's a strong man right there.

[Jason Kelsey]

58.7 pounds of fat. Ah, it's a lot of fat.

[Jason Tatum]

We got to get that down.

[Jason Kelsey]

A lot of.

[Jason Tatum]

We got to get that down.

[Jason Kelsey]

According to this metric, it is exactly 21. 21 body fat. That's all I know.

[Jason Tatum]

21 of your body is fat.

[Jason Kelsey]

21.2.

[Jason Tatum]

All right. Yeah. I mean, 270 is you're hefty load, dude.

[Jason Kelsey]

Big man.

[Jason Tatum]

So I get it. I get it. But that is a lot of. That's A lot of muscle as well. All right, so what's the point? What's the point of this? This. You and Bo. You and Bo just wanted to have a dude.

[Jason Kelsey]

This is what you do. This is why you're still playing. This is why you're still playing football. Because when you retire, you have to do stupid competitions like this to keep your sanity. So Bo and I are going to try and lose as much body fat percentage as possible in three months. We have the Ocean Drive event that we do for the Eagles Autism foundation every year.

[Jason Tatum]

So what was. Do we know Bo? What was Bo's DEXA scan? Where is he at?

[Jason Kelsey]

Bo's at 18 point something. So I'm actually. Slight advantage. Yeah, slight advantage for the competition.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, he has more to cut.

[Jason Kelsey]

18% body fat and I think 280 something. So Bo's. Honey, Bobo is doing all right.

[Jason Tatum]

18 at 2. So he weighs more than you but has less body fat.

[Jason Kelsey]

Well, have you ever seen Bo's ass? Bo's got a big old donk on him.

[Jason Tatum]

I was about to say. I think he. That's the disadvantage right there.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. Bo, I think his lean mass is like 220. So he's got like roughly 15 pounds of muscle more than me too. Okay, so this is how the competition works. For every percentage lost, we get two points. Okay, so every percentage of body fat, you lose two points. For every lean mass pound gained, you get a point. So if you get muscle on, you get a point. And if you lose body fat percentage, you get two points. I don't know why we discern determine this point system.

[Jason Tatum]

Have you heard this competition before?

[Jason Kelsey]

Listen, Bo was really specific in the way he wanted this judged. And then he said the loser has to wear a Speedo at the Ocean Drive event.

[Jason Tatum]

Is this just a competition?

[Jason Kelsey]

That's what it feels like. It feels like Bo just wants to wear a Speedo. That's what it feels like. He just wants to wear a Speedo at the Ocean Drive.

[Jason Tatum]

He has less fat to give up. He just wants to like.

[Jason Kelsey]

He wants to be like, oh, I have to wear a Speedo. Twist my arm.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, no. Jason won. That's hilarious.

[Jason Kelsey]

I feel like we can't let that be the factor that happens if you lose.

[Jason Tatum]

I think it is. I think it's motivation.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think we should.

[Jason Tatum]

We should things motivation for you.

[Jason Kelsey]

We should. Oh, yeah. I definitely don't want to wear a Speedo. I'm definitely packing that thing if I have to. I'm packing it with a socks, anything I can fit in There. And if we do lose, I think we should leave it up to the fans on Twitter.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, my God.

[Jason Kelsey]

Throw out different recommendations about what we should have to do if we lose.

[Jason Tatum]

And then we'll take it to a poll.

[Jason Kelsey]

And then we'll take it to a poll.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, If Bo's.

[Jason Kelsey]

If you're open to that. Bo. Well, I don't want to say 92 percenters, because green lights involved, too. We're going to have to find a way.

[Jason Tatum]

The 92 percenters and green light.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, we're going to have to find a way to involve both fan bases in choosing this.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice.

[Jason Kelsey]

But I think that this could be a lot of fun.

[Jason Tatum]

A lot of fun. There you go.

[Jason Kelsey]

The guy did say, apparently you can. You can see how, like, dense your bones are with this thing. He said my head was one of the thickest heads he's ever. You know, Dexa scanned.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

I don't know if that's the years of hitting it or if that's just, like, genetic or both.

[Jason Tatum]

I think it's all. I might have. I got a dome, but I don't think I'm dense.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, I think it's dead.

[Jason Tatum]

It's not much up there.

[Jason Kelsey]

No. Well, that's because it's. It's packed so tightly, it's hard to get stuff out.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, biggest new news. 92 percenters. We're officially launching our new Heights YouTube membership. That's right. As a member, you'll get access to full episodes, video perks such as footage that never makes it to the feed, which is terrifying for me and Jason to have to hear, and all the bonus videos, badges, and other stuff that will make you stand out. That's right. This Thursday, we're dropping an exclusive combo with Aspen.com's Athlete of the Week. That's right, Jake. Chad Ziggy.

[Jason Kelsey]

Jake, you're the athlete of the week. What did you do?

[Jason Tatum]

That's Jake. That's right. Yeah. He's on the front of Sports Illustrated here. Guts and glory. Hey, Jake forgot to tell us that he played for the Oakland A's back in the day and was the guts of the. The Bay Area there. Jake, I didn't know you were a heavyweight when you were a kid. I was about to say, what's your DEXA scan lately?

[Jason Kelsey]

Andrew Gardner in that?

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. Chipmunks.

[Jason Kelsey]

Unpack, Unpack.

[Jason Tatum]

There it is. Check it out. Today On New Heights YouTube channel. Subscribe now. 92 percenters.

[Jason Kelsey]

Unload. Chipmunks. Unload.

[Jason Tatum]

There it is. The. Unload. Unload. Chip. Lunks on YouTube. Before we get to the Jason Tatum interview, we got some fan mentions we want to give a big shout out to. Thank you to all the 92 percenters who tag us with all of this beautiful hobby horsing. That's right, Abby. Rad Milovich, I believe is how you say it. Not sure how this ended up on my algorithm, but it seems.

[Jason Kelsey]

Check this out. Look at this. This chick is jump. I mean, this is impressive, Travis. She is straight jumping over hurdles that are taller than her.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. Makes you ask how much. How much higher she could jump if she didn't have that silly ass. She can fucking be. You ever just tried high jumping? You can go represent your country.

[Jason Kelsey]

And I think this might be more challenging than high jumping, if we're being honest.

[Jason Tatum]

I mean, I'm over this.

[Jason Kelsey]

Jason.

[Jason Tatum]

What? This is challenging.

[Jason Kelsey]

She's got to do, like, a whole gate. Look at the frolic. And then she's frolicking into a high jump. There's a lot more form and technique involved in this.

[Jason Tatum]

I cannot agree to that. But I do think this is the most impressive hobby horse eating thing I've seen.

[Jason Kelsey]

The bar is at her neck, and she's jumping over it straight.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Did she invent that technique, or is this something that's, like, common in hobby horsing?

[Jason Tatum]

Gosh, we're gonna need Judge Jake's sister to jump in on this one.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yep, we do. Should I try hobby horsing?

[Jason Tatum]

I mean, only if, like, when you hit the bar, it doesn't just fall off the thing if the bar is there for good. Meaning if you hit it, you will your up.

[Jason Kelsey]

You want me to get hurt?

[Jason Tatum]

Yes. But if it's just. I'm not. No, I want to see. I want to see a life or death situation. I don't want to see just, I'm itching jumping over.

[Jason Kelsey]

I want to get into it. You know what?

[Jason Tatum]

I want to jump in rugby. You just popped your.

[Jason Kelsey]

I want to play all this stuff, I think.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, I know, but I got on the ice. I finally got on the ice, dude.

[Jason Kelsey]

Nice. How was it?

[Jason Tatum]

Dude, I literally look like Happy Gilmore trying out for a hockey team. Like, it is so bad. It is a full send for me, but it is. I. You could tell I am off balance. You could tell every slap shot I had up on the ice.

[Jason Kelsey]

But how. How did it make you feel?

[Jason Tatum]

Like a little kid. I loved every bit of it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Best.

[Jason Tatum]

Dude, it was epic. It was so much fun.

[Jason Kelsey]

I just want to go around different beer leagues and freaking, like, Just play. Let me.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm with you, dude.

[Jason Kelsey]

That sound fun.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. Is there a beer league that you could just every, every, every league in Philadelphia just tell them, just have you, like, just sponsor, sponsor the league and be like, I can join any team kid coming.

[Jason Kelsey]

I can't be doing every beer league, but I want to do, like, stuff that's like, obscure, like hobby horse and, or like darts or. I guess darts isn't. I shouldn't throw that in with hobby. Anyways. Have you ever seen Gaelic football? There's a league around our block. A bunch of, like, Irish people. There's a, like, large contingency in Havertown.

[Jason Tatum]

Okay.

[Jason Kelsey]

And a lot of them will play Gaelic football where you like. It's this weird sport where you have to dribble. You have to touch the ball with your foot, but they carry it with their hands. Like every two steps they're kicking the ball back up to their hands like they're dribbling. And then there's a.

[Jason Tatum]

Okay, I think I've seen this. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

And then there's also a goalie and a goal. So it's like soccer combined with like, rugby and I, I. It's very hard to explain.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm here. I love back backyard games. Those things are the.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's not a backyard game. There's like, this is like, in Ireland, there's a full on, like, league and it's kind of cool. You have to play for the county that you live in for Gaelic football, like, wherever you're from, you can't play for, like, another county. I don't think. I think you have to play for the county that you grew up in.

[Jason Tatum]

But it's basketball.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's.

[Jason Tatum]

You're just combining different games.

[Jason Kelsey]

It does sound, it does feel like that, but I think it's an older. I think it's been around for a minute. Maybe not. It's also hurling. I could try hurling. I guess I'm just naming Irish games. Yeah, that'd be fun, though. This all sounds great. I'll probably get hurt.

[Jason Tatum]

Jesus. Not if you unfatten yourself, Jason. Nice. Well, shout out to the. The fan. Mention of the week there. I say we toss it to the old Jason Tatum interview.

[Jason Kelsey]

Hey.

[Jason Tatum]

Get to what all the 92 percenters have been waiting for.

[Jason Kelsey]

I'm with that. Alrighty. Thank you to our partner, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I feed my fandom every March with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, of course. Chocolate and buttery Peanut butter Delight. That Peanut butter and Chocolate Fits perfectly with the madness.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, I mean, this level of craziness deserves a snack that I'm crazy for. And Reese's Cups are the candy champ. I need the Reese's just to keep my sanity while my entire bracket gets completely demoralized.

[Jason Tatum]

It's a big sanity for my mental happiness and my taste bud happiness.

[Jason Kelsey]

Thank God I have Reese's. What's your favorite right now?

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, I was smacking all those Reese's sticks.

[Jason Kelsey]

Whatever you do, feed your fandom with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

[Jason Tatum]

The go to snack of March, April, May, October. Every single month, every single year.

[Jason Kelsey]

Buy Reese's Peanut Butter Cups now at a store near you found wherever you can get candy. I mean, it's pretty much the easiest to find a candy. You go into a store, they're going to have Reese's. Enjoy.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, Jason, you want to do the honors? Are you. You. You ready?

[Jason Kelsey]

Who are you talking to? Are you talking to me? Are you talking to Jason?

[Jason Tatum]

Gosh, this is so. This is going to be tough, man. Is it, J.T. i guess I got to go. J.T.

[Travis Kelce]

Can I go?

[Jason Tatum]

J.T? nice. Nice. I heard you took that nickname over anyways from. From Jeff Teague back in. Yeah, I heard that one. All right, so J.T. it is. That'll help me at least differentiate it. Go ahead, J. Sean.

[Jason Kelsey]

Alrighty. Our guest today is former Mr. Show Me Basketball from St. Louis, Missouri. He's a McDonald's All American, six time NBA All Star from the reigning NBA Boston Celtics, Jason Tatum, everyone.

[Jason Tatum]

Let's go.

[Travis Kelce]

Appreciate it.

[Jason Kelsey]

NBA champion. J.T. how we doing, brother?

[Travis Kelce]

I'm doing good. Thanks for having me.

[Jason Kelsey]

No, thanks for coming on.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, we saw the ankle injury up there in Sacramento, man. Hopefully everything's good and you'll be. You'll be back on the court asap, brother. But how's it. How's everything feeling?

[Travis Kelce]

I'm feeling good, man. It's. It's a few benefits to being 27, you know, you recover a little bit.

[Jason Tatum]

Let them know. Let them live, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

What it was like.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, I can remember the day I.

[Jason Kelsey]

Sprayed my calf jumping rope the other day. That's what I did. Yeah. That's awesome, man. What's. Dude, the Celtics were just sold, right?

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, recently.

[Jason Tatum]

$6.1 billion. What was your cut?

[Travis Kelce]

I won't disclose that on this.

[Jason Tatum]

Well placed, smart man. Right there is a smart man. I don't know nothing. That's. That had to be like, interesting news though for you as a player. Like, I've never had my, like, Organization sold before. It's always been the same ownership since the 60s, essentially the same family. Is it like, do you expect to have like a different feel in the, in the building or a different feel?

[Travis Kelce]

I don't think so. I think the weirdest part was when I found out that it was the process was going to start was like a few days after we won a championship. So that was, that was a weird conversation. But, you know, after that you should start to understand the process and you know, the candidates and things like that. And I actually got to meet Bill last night. He came to Sacramento. Him and his wife, you know, seemed like great people and we've had a few conversations. So just looking to add to what we have, you know, obviously we have a really good thing going and like, where our culture is at.

[Jason Tatum]

Heck yeah. All right, well, Wikipedia's got you nicknamed the Anomaly. Has anybody that is close to you ever actually called you the Anomaly?

[Travis Kelce]

Man, Twitter is not a real place. I'll say that.

[Jason Tatum]

I concur.

[Jason Kelsey]

I would run with that one. I like it. The Anomaly is a good one. I don't know who came up with that.

[Jason Tatum]

It is a banger. You are the Anomaly dog. What's like one of the most random nicknames that you've gotten? Maybe not even on Twitter, just like growing up or like in the park or wherever.

[Travis Kelce]

A lot of my close friends, they call me Taco.

[Jason Tatum]

Taco.

[Jason Kelsey]

Taco.

[Travis Kelce]

That's.

[Jason Tatum]

I wasn't expecting that one.

[Jason Kelsey]

Just because you like tacos. What is, what is the. Why Taco?

[Jason Tatum]

What's the connection there?

[Travis Kelce]

This. I. That's my favorite. My mom, my favorite thing that my mom used to make when I was growing up all the time, shout out.

[Jason Tatum]

Mom for making some, some banging tacos.

[Jason Kelsey]

We going corn tortilla, flour tortilla. What we going with?

[Travis Kelce]

I'm a real simple guy. Hard shell, ground hard shell, nice about.

[Jason Tatum]

Man.

[Travis Kelce]

And some sauce that I don't need much.

[Jason Kelsey]

Okay. All right.

[Jason Tatum]

After one year at Duke, you were drafted just at 19 years old. I don't know what the I would be doing if I was a professional at 19, let alone a professional NBA player. What was. You got to tell us what was the silliest thing you bought with your first, like NBA check? Did you do anything crazy? Did you like go out and grab something insane like a human sized hamster ball or some.

[Travis Kelce]

To me, I would always tell people that the best part or the, the best part of, I guess, experience and, you know, having money for the first time at such a young age. I Could go to the grocery store and just buy whatever. I wanted everything. I could go to CVS and I could get 10 bottles of soap.

[Jason Kelsey]

You get a lot of tacos.

[Jason Tatum]

You get a whole lot of tacos with that. That's good right there.

[Travis Kelce]

That was like. It wasn't anything crazy expensive. It was just like. I remember going to the grocery store with my mom and, you know, having a budget to get one of each. And we go to the grocery store, we get what we want.

[Jason Tatum]

The pantry's full. You know it, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

I remember when I was 19, Xbox was, like, the big thing, and Halo and all them games were still popular, but you couldn't really play online. Like, they had just started to do that. So you have to do. They used to call it the land connection. Do you have to ever have to do the LAN connection where you would link them with a ethernet cable? This might even be before. This is how old we are, Travis. People don't even know about the la.

[Jason Tatum]

The land connection, Jason, you're insane. This is all people talk about is ethernet cable. Go ahead, Jason.

[Jason Kelsey]

All right, whatever. Either way, we would rig them through the dorms up and through the ceilings so you could play with each other in different dorm rooms anyways. That would have been what I would have done. I would have rigged up the most dope setup of Xboxes I could have figured out.

[Jason Tatum]

Jason turned 19 and found out he was eligible to go and get a loan out. So then he could then buy a TV to play video games on that was bigger than the TV he already had. So that's what we were doing. We were nice. But stuff in the pantry definitely does it, man. That had to be. That had to be crazy, though. Are you a fan of the. The one and done rule, like, the year at Duke? Did you think it, like, made you that much better and prepared for the NBA, or do you think you might have been able to be one of those guys they went. That just jumped straight to the NBA.

[Jason Kelsey]

Good question, Trav.

[Travis Kelce]

Man, people ask me that all the time. I would like to think I would have, you know, still figured it out, but I benefited so much from going to college in the sense of, like. Like, when I got to college, that was my first time playing with, you know, other really good players. Right. I went to Duke. I was. We the number one recruiting class, and we had Grayson Allen and Luke Canard. Like, we had, like, seven pros on our team, so it was the first time learning to, like, play off the ball, play with other really good players.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Be in those environments, lift weights, condition, learn about nutrition. I would do it all over again. Like, I would go back. Knowing what I know now. I learned a lot, and it prepared me for when I got to the NBA.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, for sure, man. It's. It's cool to hear, though, that it kind of like, it gets your professionalism. It. It makes you understand how to be a pro, especially at a program like Duke. Yeah. With Coach K and everybody. I'm sure you. You. You saw the. The. What is it? The. The prestige of it, and you were like. You bought in immediately. Let's talk a little March Madness. Jason, you want to hit it?

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. Let's talk college while we're on college. We'll stay where we're at right now. We're in the best time of college basketball that there is. March Madness in full effect.

[Jason Tatum]

Gone.

[Jason Kelsey]

Did you fill out a bracket?

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, I mean, it was pretty easy for me.

[Jason Kelsey]

You knew who it was just a straight line for Duke all the way to the championship.

[Jason Tatum]

You knew McNe was going to be Clemson. Knew it.

[Travis Kelce]

I mean, the final of my bracket every year is the same. This is the best I've felt about my bracket in a very, very long time.

[Jason Kelsey]

I'm sure.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

I don't know. What do you think so far? Who's in your Final Four outside of Duke, Obviously, we're pulling Duke. Who else did you think was gonna.

[Jason Tatum]

Is gonna get go all number ones or what?

[Jason Kelsey]

Two of my final Fours are out. I'm screwed. I'm out of this thing.

[Travis Kelce]

Houston, Florida and Michigan State. I got Michigan State and Duke in.

[Jason Tatum]

Jason went Michigan State.

[Jason Kelsey]

Jt, it's all about physicality, toughness, good coaching. That's what it's about.

[Jason Tatum]

Travis, you just hyped this man up more than you could ever imagine.

[Jason Kelsey]

You just did.

[Jason Tatum]

He. This is coming from a guy that literally just looks at what school would beat up the other school in a fight, and that's who he picks.

[Jason Kelsey]

That's what a basketball game is.

[Travis Kelce]

Fight to get the ball through the hood team. I like them in a fight for sure.

[Jason Kelsey]

Right.

[Jason Tatum]

Detroit, or I should have said the Mint, not Detroit. Yeah, yeah. I got dude going all the way, man. Cooper Flag's been an unbelievable player. He's. He's got a lot of hype. I know you were playing against him a little bit in the. The USA practices.

[Travis Kelce]

The first time I saw him play live was. This was two summers ago. I. I hosted my first JT Elite camp, so I had like, the best 20, 25 players in the country. You Know, that were sophomores and juniors or whatever. So it's been cool to see, like, hanging around those guys there for a weekend. And a lot of them are in the tournament now. And, you know, the first impression I had of Coop was just how hard he played, how he competed. You know, in high school, it's rare to see a guy that wants to guard the other best player, trying to block every shot, rebounding, and he just plays the right way. He has a great feel for the game. He knows how to set a screen, knows when to cut. He likes to get his teammates involved. And, you know, it's been on full display all season. And a big reason why, you know, they have a chance to win a championship.

[Jason Tatum]

Heck, yeah, I love it.

[Jason Kelsey]

One of the things I love doing now that I'm older, players watching young guys, sometimes it's the way they move, sometimes it's their mentality. But you pick up on things, and it's. It's just fun seeing a young player like, man, I really think there's something in that kid. And then all of a sudden, you know, this kid's the best player in the country. And I'm sure that has to be awesome for you, especially playing for Duke.

[Travis Kelce]

It's a brotherhood.

[Jason Tatum]

It has to be, man. Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Everybody who ever played for the program, whether they 10 years older than me or 10 years younger, like, whenever we see each other, it's always love. I always go back and work out with the. With the team and play pickup with them and stuff like that, because that's what happened when I was there. Jabari Parker came back, Jahliel Okaford, all these guys. So it's just. It's a part of the program is the pride that comes with it, and you just. You want to help push it forward. And, you know, I'm always rooting for them, and, you know, I hope they cut the nest down this year.

[Jason Kelsey]

Not only is it a brotherhood, but it's also a sisterhood. You just donated shoes to the Duke's women's team.

[Jason Tatum]

The whole family over there, man.

[Travis Kelce]

I sent. Actually, I sent both the program some shoes, but Carol Lawson, she was an assistant coach with the Celtics. My third year, the year the pandemic happened, we went to the bubble.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, nice.

[Travis Kelce]

A week into the bubble, she got the. Or, it might have been like, two days. She got the head coaching job at Duke, so we spent. I spent like six months with her. Unbelievable person. Unbelievable coach. Love it to death. So anytime that I can, you know, support them and help that program out I try.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice. Man.

[Jason Kelsey]

They gave a walk on some minutes in the first two games. I mean, that's pretty good when you're giving walk on.

[Jason Tatum]

Walk ons are getting in like Duke's.

[Jason Kelsey]

Playing pretty good basketball.

[Travis Kelce]

Belt to ass.

[Jason Tatum]

That's belt to ass.

[Jason Kelsey]

I hear it. I hear it. Hell yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

That's just got to be electric. Every time I used to go to the UC basketball games and, and the walk ons, we get in, man. The crowd knows that which guys are in, and it just gets nuts in there if they can get a shot off or get a. Or at least make a bucket.

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, and it's probably the same like with the guys on the practice squad. Like, you guys, they. Oh, yeah. Time with you, they, you know, in the practice squad and film and workouts every single day with you. And then, you know, they finally get opportunity, even if it's at the end of the game. Right. You just, you're really happy for them because you understand, you know, they. They with you every step of the way. But they might not always get the, the opportunity or the recognition, but they're just as much as part of the team as, you know, the rest of.

[Jason Kelsey]

The guys for sure.

[Jason Tatum]

Was it always Duke? Was Duke like the top team for you? Did you always, like, love them growing up and did you always, like, see yourself going there? Who was, who was on JT's leaderboard growing up or who were. What jersey did you have on growing up?

[Travis Kelce]

I had a Evan Turner Ohio State jersey.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, my God. E. Turner.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. Okay. Okay. I mean, you grew up in St. Louis, so it's. There's a little bit of Big Ten country, Midwest, a little bit area, and Ohio State was at the top of the top of the charts for, for quite a while around those years, for sure.

[Travis Kelce]

And football as well. So, like, I play football for like seven, eight years. When I was younger, what.

[Jason Kelsey]

What position.

[Jason Tatum]

What were you playing? You were playing wide out. What were you playing?

[Jason Kelsey]

Time out. We're not getting off of this yet.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, we're not going off of it.

[Travis Kelce]

I played quarterback for the first six years and then wide receiver my last two. So my last year I played was eighth grade. So I was going to play in high school, but then, you know, my parents was like, I think we gonna focus on.

[Jason Kelsey]

You might be drafted in. Only four more years. We should probably stick to this.

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, but we went to Florida twice. I won a JFL national championship in Florida. Lost one year. I never forget. We played this team called the Delaray Rocks. They was like green and white.

[Jason Tatum]

What made them unforgettable?

[Travis Kelce]

Built to ass. They.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

50 to 0 look like they had.

[Jason Tatum]

Grown men on the field for sure. Dallas Carter and what is it, Friday Night Lights.

[Travis Kelce]

All those guys.

[Jason Tatum]

That's too funny, man. We all played against a team like that, especially in middle school, man. We used to play a team down the hill called Kurt.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yep.

[Jason Tatum]

And they were right there in East Cleveland, man, it felt like they had kids that were 18 years old if. I mean, I had never been ran the over like that at that age ever in my life. I was always one of the.

[Jason Kelsey]

Shaw was the high school, Kirk was the middle school. Yeah, Kirk was bad too, because a lot of the kids were held back. I wrestled a kid with a beard in middle school. That was. Talk about intimidating. You're an eighth grader, you just started your pubes and all of a sudden this guy's got a full beard across from you. Like I don't. I was like, what is going on right now?

[Travis Kelce]

Right.

[Jason Kelsey]

I won. I got him. I got him.

[Jason Tatum]

So if it wasn't Duke, if it wasn't Duke, who were you thinking about going to? Ohio State was on the list or so.

[Travis Kelce]

I was a big Ohio State fan, like growing up.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Even when they had Terrell Pryor, Teg and Junior.

[Jason Kelsey]

I used to love the football teams were crazy.

[Travis Kelce]

Basketball team, you know. When I got older and I got to high school, it really came down to. So I only took one official visit, like I only took one official visit to Duke and I, I knew right away when I was there. I was a junior in high school and I was like, this is, this is where I want to be a long shot. My second choice would have been St. Louis University. Just cause hometown. I thought I might have been homesick if I left. So there was a part of me that like, man, I think I might want to stay close to my family.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

You know, after I took my visit, it was really like, you know, this is. If I want to get to that next step, this is going to be the best place for me to go.

[Jason Tatum]

Before we get out of this March Madness stuff, what's your first memory of March Madness? Like what? Can you take me back to being in St. Louis and having the love for basketball following the tournament. One of the biggest moments growing up.

[Travis Kelce]

Honestly, I would have to say I Vividly remember in 2010, Brad Stevens probably not going to like this, but I remember Butler. I remember watching Butler play against Duke and Gordon Hayward shooting at a half court shot. Yeah, Hitting the backboard and running out. And actually, ironically, I was cheering for Butler at that point. I didn't hate Duke, but I didn't. I never envisioned myself right. I never thought Coach K would come to my house and recruit me. So Duke just seemed kind of like out of the realm or the possibility. So that was my earliest memory, just watching Butler and, and Duke play in the National Championship and just envisioning myself like, man, one day, you know, I'm gonna play in March Madness. And, you know, it came true.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

We can't talk about Duke without talking about Coach K. What was it like playing for Coach?

[Travis Kelce]

It was quite the experience, for sure.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You gotta tell us, man.

[Travis Kelce]

No, man, Coach. That's my guy. He's unbelievable person, somebody that I still talk to, obviously, you know, pretty frequently to this day. He still always checks up on me.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's awesome.

[Travis Kelce]

A leader amongst men, right? He just. His ability to motivate guys to get you to buy in, to get you to run through a wall. And you guys know, being in college, like being coaching 18 to 21 year olds and getting them to believe in something bigger than themselves. I think he was unbelievable at that. He was great at making you uncomfortable in ways that he knew that it would make you better.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice.

[Travis Kelce]

Being at Duke and playing for Coach K, it definitely prepared me for the next level. And it wasn't always great moments. He cussed me out a lot and things like that, but it was well warranted in those moments.

[Jason Tatum]

That's what I'm talking about. I love some good tough love, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

Gotta have it sometimes.

[Jason Tatum]

Made me criticize myself more. And that's how. That's how I ended up getting better. To start criticizing myself on everything.

[Jason Kelsey]

Whenever you have a coach who's really trying to push you, you're going to have those moments. I know I've had it with every great coach I've ever been with and every great teammate. Like, if you're always just comfortable around people, you're usually not testing those extremes to make each other better. That's just the reality of it. I've been cussed out by my dad in football. I mean, everybody's giving it to me, so it's part of the territory for sure.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, man, that just reminded me one of dad's best, one of his best rules. He never was a basketball guy and I ended up like, gravitating towards basketball around like elementary school and middle school. It really took off for me in high school. I took it serious. And he always told Me, he said, if you're. If you're not getting three, at least three files a game, you're not being aggressive enough. You get five, you get five.

[Jason Kelsey]

That's solid advice. We're being honest. That's solid advice for sure.

[Jason Tatum]

Until you get three in the first quarter.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. Then it's back.

[Jason Tatum]

All right. All right. I need to. I need to.

[Jason Kelsey]

I'm. Go sit on.

[Jason Tatum]

It really is. That's all. He's like, you're going to be an intimidator. Oh, I was going to ask you. John Shire, man. Coach Shire. His. Was he there when you were there?

[Travis Kelce]

Yes, John is. He's the guy that actually recruited me.

[Jason Tatum]

Is that right? What? He was going door to door trying to get guys to come to Duke.

[Travis Kelce]

I joke with him all the time that, you know, he should thank me that he is the head coach.

[Jason Tatum]

Let him know.

[Jason Kelsey]

Let him know.

[Travis Kelce]

But no, Jon, I talk to John every single day.

[Jason Tatum]

That's awesome, man.

[Travis Kelce]

That is. That's my guy. He's done an unbelievable job. He was recruiting Luke Canard out of Akron. We had a tournament. I think I was a soft. I might have been a freshman. Freshman or sophomore. And we had a tournament in Milwaukee. Canard was supposed to play on the court next to me, but I don't think his game started yet. So I think Jon was waiting on his game to start, and he just happened to sit down and watch our game. And I tapped one of my teammates. I'm like, yo, he coached. He work at Duke. And we had like 10 minutes left, and I was just like, I just got to it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

Not just worked. He's like one of the greatest shooters ever at Duke.

[Travis Kelce]

He is. He just came back to the next game and the next game and then, you know, eventually got a call that Duke had offered me a scholarship and, you know, never looked back.

[Jason Tatum]

So I remember Shire chucking threes during. During his times at Duke. In his prime and your prime at Duke. Only who was a better shooter?

[Travis Kelce]

I mean, he gonna see this. I. At Duke.

[Jason Kelsey]

He gonna see this. I love the preface. Like.

[Travis Kelce]

I'll give it to John when I was at Duke.

[Jason Tatum]

I hear you.

[Travis Kelce]

He was a better shooter at Duke. But.

[Jason Kelsey]

So you're in your eighth season. Do you finally feel like an NBA veteran? You know, I mean, obviously you came in at 19. Now you've championships, you've been in for a while now. Like, I mean, how's it feel differently than your rookie year? What. What's. What have you learned most from your rookie season?

[Travis Kelce]

Oh, man, I Could write a book.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

All right. We'll be looking for it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

You can catch it on audible shout out.

[Travis Kelce]

Do I feel like a vet? No. Like, I just turned 27. Like, I. You guys probably know, I feel like I got drafted yesterday. I remember what it felt like, but year after year, it's like when the rookies come in and you'll see their. Their comments or interviews at the draft and, like, you know, who did you model your game after? And now I'm starting to be one of the guys that they looked up to.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

And that transition is like, whoa, like.

[Jason Tatum]

You'Re still in your 20s, man.

[Travis Kelce]

Like, I'm. I remember looking up the KD.

[Jason Kelsey]

Hey, I just got here. What do you.

[Travis Kelce]

I. I guess I'm transitioning to an NBA veteran just because, you know, I've been in the playoffs every year. I play over 100 playoff games, so. Basketball terms, yes. But, you know, I just turned 27, so I still feel just as young.

[Jason Kelsey]

Well, speaking of other guys looking up to you, who are the vets that you looked up to? Who did you model your game after?

[Travis Kelce]

Oh, man. I mean, Kobe was my. My. My idol. That was my favorite player. You know, kind of like why I fell in love with the game.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Guys that I really studied, KD would be at the top of that list. Melo, Paul, George. Then I get to the league, and, you know, you guys probably understand this as good as anybody. Al Horford, from a professional standpoint, like, somebody that came to work every day, had a routine, had a plan, whether it was a practice day, a game day, or off day, that was so beneficial to me of, like, you know, when I was young, I just think I could show up, put my shoes on, and get on the court.

[Jason Tatum]

Of course.

[Travis Kelce]

And Al really showed me. Not even by telling me, just by, like, watching him go through his routine. And now he's in. I was in year 18 and still a vital part of a championship team. I learned so much from him of, you know, what it is like to have a routine and create your own and what works best for you. I think that's so important for. For any young guy coming into the league is like, you need a routine. You need a plan every day, and your plan is going to look different from other guys. But every single day, you should know what you need to attack, what you need to do to get yourself ready for, you know, whatever it is to come up.

[Jason Kelsey]

I love what you just said because it's so true. Everybody has players you look to growing up and that's the end product that's on the field or on the court. And of course you want to do things that they're doing out there. But once you get there, whether. And you start learning it really in college and then the NFL, you see guys that are getting an edge or preparing a way and you're like, hey, I like, I really like what he's doing there. I'm going to start doing that. Or you know, this guy gets the most out of the meeting room because he's taking notes or, you know, how does he do that? And you're drawn from all these guys. So I think you're right 100%. Like that's really what ends up making the biggest difference is how you prepare for game day.

[Jason Tatum]

You ain't lying.

[Jason Kelsey]

Game day is a manifestation of all the preparation that went into it as well as all the God given talent.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm telling you, keep having those conversations with the guys that are out of the league that, you know, I mean, are later in their career, because I'm still learning from guys. I'm taking that. My brother has told me I'm taking stuff you've never told.

[Jason Kelsey]

I've been telling you for, I told you last year, get out of them cleats. And you didn't do it one time.

[Jason Tatum]

You told me literally to wear the special gear red. No, but he, I still take notes from a guy like Tony Gonzalez or a guy like, like Unk Shannon Sharp. I'll hear what these guys, you know, say they did towards the end of their careers that helped them get the best out of their body week in, week out. And it's like, it's just a non stop like cycle of like trying to better yourself. And I, I can see it right now, the way Al Horford plays the game, his alertness, his attention to detail. He's always in the right spot, always ready for the moment. Like I could see that definitely being somebody you could look up to, man, or at least take notes from like that. Your profile picture is actually you with, with Kobe Bryant. And we were talking about how he was the guy that kind of got you into, you know, loving the game of basketball a little bit. Or at least, you know, you idolized and we all idolize at some point our in our lives. Is it weird playing against the, or playing for the Celtics against that guy who is literally at the top of the Lakers. Did you, did you always kind of envision yourself maybe playing in a Laker uniform or.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, we don't gotta answer it. We don't gotta.

[Travis Kelce]

They had the second pick. So there was a part of me that's just like, man, my. My dream of being in the NBA is about to come true. And then, like, my real dream of playing for the team that, you know, I grew up a fan of, you know, I was. It was so close, but yeah, it made me appreciate it a lot more. Just like I remember, I remember the first day I walked into Staples center, like the first time we played the Lakers, and I was in disbelief or just like, man, I watched so many of his games in this building, and now, like, I'm on the same floor. In that moment, it bridged the gap of, like, me and my favorite player. Like, I got to share the floor, you know, of the place that he helped build.

[Jason Tatum]

That's pretty fucking epic.

[Travis Kelce]

And, man, that's what sports is about. Like, you guys understand our responsibility is to motivate and inspire the next generation. Somebody inspired you guys. He inspired me, and you guys have inspired millions of kids to be the next Jason or Trav. And it's cool about what we do is, you know, there's somebody watching us that's going to grow up. Like, man, they really helped me, you know, motivate me. Even if we never met them before, right? They, they, they help motivate the next kid to chase their dream. And, you know, that's one of the coolest things about, you know, what we do, in my opinion, for sure.

[Jason Tatum]

Hell yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Unbelievably well said. 100%. I think everybody remembers when they were a kid looking up to somebody. When you see kids come up to you, that's one of the bright spots of being an athlete, right? You get to know, see that innocence and just like, that genuine pleasure of like, interaction is just incredible. And Kobe, even for he came and talked to us, we were a full on NFL team in 2017. He was from Philly the year we won. The shoe boy came and talked to the team, and even then, like, still motivating. There were guys that took more away from that conversation than they had taken away from anybody in the football world. And how he prepared, how he got ready, how he. His process in getting better, like, it was. It was phenomenal. So I'll never forget that. He was great. Probably one of the best people we've ever had talk in to the team since I was in the Eagles. It was great.

[Jason Tatum]

What was your impression of Boston fans initially? Or at least before you got to Boston?

[Travis Kelce]

To be honest, like, before I got to Boston, I didn't know much or really pay attention. I grew up a Laker fan, so I didn't really like the Celtics and I wasn't aware of, you know, the Boston sports culture.

[Jason Tatum]

Uh huh. For sure.

[Travis Kelce]

Patriots beat the Rams. So just growing up from St. Louis, the Red Sox beat the Cardinals. St. Louis, you just don't really like Boston.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[Travis Kelce]

Whether it's a TNT game, it's a preseason game, or a league pass game on Monday, it's. We always sell out majority of the time when we go on the road, like every game is road trip. It's been three straight games. We hear let's go Celtics chants throughout the arena. Like, our fans just travel so well. They show up early and often. It was a relief. And it was a special moment to win the championship in front of them. And then, you know, you guys being on a parade, it was the best two hours of my life. And having 2 million people in green and white outside, you know, cheering you on and expressing their joy for, you know, what we accomplished. It was special for sure.

[Jason Kelsey]

Of course. What's it like playing for Joe? You enjoy that?

[Travis Kelce]

Joe is crazy.

[Jason Tatum]

He seems like quite the character.

[Travis Kelce]

We actually talked about you. We played Portland the other day and I got a tech with like, we was. The game was basically over. I ended up getting attacked with like 30 seconds left.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, I'm always here for a good fourth quarter. Tech.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Right. So Joe, he comes up to me after the game. He like, so if you get. If you get like 16 or 17 texts, you get suspended for a game. So Joe like, he's like, yo, can you just get four more so you can get suspended? I'm like, joe, I think I'm done. He like, I would. I would much rather you just come punch me. I. I want to fight. He's like, you see when. When Travis Kelsey ran into Andy Reid.

[Jason Tatum]

Do that to me.

[Jason Kelsey]

I love it.

[Jason Tatum]

Keep it in house, baby. Keep it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, that's right.

[Jason Tatum]

Shout out to coach Reed for being the man, for not getting too riled up. But no, that's too funny, man. You could tell Joe does it the right way, man. He. He seems like he has you guys enjoying what you're doing. And, and that's always, I think the hardest part as a, as a coach in any of these professional leagues is making it serious, intentional, but at the same time so, so loose that everybody feels comfortable being themselves and making it, you know, a fun thing or an enjoyable process. You know what I mean? He seems like he's got that all figured out, man.

[Travis Kelce]

I Don't think coaches get enough credit for that because it's. I mean, you guys got 60 people on the team. I have no idea how you guys do that. You know, it's only 15 or so of us, but Joe does an unbelievable job of just managing all the personalities and the ups and downs throughout the season and getting us to buy in. That's really important.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's a mark of a great coach.

[Jason Tatum]

I'll tell you what, man, you just mentioned there's, like, 60 guys on our team, and you guys got just 12.

[Travis Kelce]

But do you know everybody on your team?

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, of course. I mean, there are. Obviously there are, like, the handful of guys, like, on the practice squads and. And everything. They come in and out per week. Like, we'll. We'll have a. Like a transition and like a switch in and out every single week of, like, just got development guys. But for the most part, I know everybody. If I don't know you, I'll go up to you and say, what's up? Like, you. You want to be able to at least. You know what I mean, keep it and make everybody feel like they're a part of it. You know what I mean?

[Travis Kelce]

What's the he on the D line? Turon?

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. He's a St. Louis guy.

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, I played football with him.

[Jason Tatum]

For real. Turk just got a big contract. I think Carolina. I think he went to Carolina.

[Travis Kelce]

Just got a huge contract on the same football team. We grew up in the same neighborhood for, like, five years. I just.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, man, Turk, he's a tough son of a gun, too, man. That's one dude I am not around with.

[Travis Kelce]

He's been like that, too.

[Jason Tatum]

He's a hell of a competitor, man. I've seen him actually hoop. He's a. He. At least he tries. I'm not gonna say he's a bad Hooper or a great Hooper. He's like. He's just. He's gonna compete his ass off, though.

[Jason Kelsey]

Playing good defense, basically, is what you're saying.

[Jason Tatum]

If he's guarding me, I'm uncomfortable. If he's guarding me, I'm un. He is the epitome of a. Of an NFL guy playing defensive basketball.

[Jason Kelsey]

Dude, we gotta get on that. Do you think that. Do you think an NFL player could play in the NBA?

[Travis Kelce]

Oh, my God.

[Jason Tatum]

So, you know, we had to ask.

[Jason Kelsey]

We got to ask all of every. Come on.

[Jason Tatum]

I would.

[Travis Kelce]

I would venture to say no from both standpoints. Like, I. The guys that get on TV and be like, you could just take this guy from the NBA and throw him in the game this Sunday, it's like, no, it does not work like that.

[Jason Kelsey]

I mean, it might.

[Travis Kelce]

No, it does not.

[Jason Kelsey]

Well, you mean to tell me Russell Westbrook can't go out there and give you some points? Give me. Give me at least play special teams.

[Travis Kelce]

Not on a week's notice. And I love Russell.

[Jason Tatum]

I hear you on that. I hear you on this. I do you actually. You're making a great point. I hear what you're saying.

[Travis Kelce]

I think there are a handful of guys that played in the NBA that if they had an entire, like, summer or a year to train and prepare, could they make an impact? For sure. But, like, just drop a guy from the NBA and throw him on in the game, no shot.

[Jason Kelsey]

Other. Any NFL guys that could train for a year and go play in the NBA.

[Travis Kelce]

So listen, I have so much.

[Jason Tatum]

Don't crush my dreams. Don't crush my dreams.

[Travis Kelce]

I'm still.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm 35, and I still got hoop dreams, man.

[Travis Kelce]

I got so much respect for you guys and what you guys do.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's so true.

[Travis Kelce]

It's just so true. We all know there's nothing funnier than watching football guys play basketball, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

And how funny is it when people are, like, impressed with something that an NFL guy does on Twitter? And as a basketball player, he's got to be like, come on, guys. Like, this is really what we're like, oh, wow.

[Jason Tatum]

He.

[Jason Kelsey]

He can play in the NBA. He just dunked. Yeah, that's for sure. That's all it takes.

[Jason Tatum]

That's hilarious.

[Jason Kelsey]

That's it.

[Jason Tatum]

That is typically.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, it's like, dam.

[Jason Tatum]

He just did a windmill. He can do it.

[Jason Kelsey]

He can play in the NBA. Talking about.

[Travis Kelce]

There's always a video that comes up on Twitter of somebody in the NFL, their high school highlights, and. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, he could have been. It's like, yeah. No, I think they chose.

[Jason Kelsey]

No, I think it worked out all right.

[Jason Tatum]

You were. You were mentioning Terrell Pryor growing up. What I'm. I'm telling you right now, I think Terrell Pryor's best sport was basketball. In high school, I played against him on the court, and I always looked at him and other guys that were, like, in my grade, like, all the camps that I went to and stuff, and I'm like, man, this dude, he just. He's a different type of athlete, man. And he definitely had. He had offers to go D1 in both sports and just decided he wanted to be a quarterback.

[Jason Kelsey]

But it's an interesting name you brought up because Terrell was definitely athletically. He was. He was ridiculous, man.

[Jason Tatum]

When I tell you. With the ball in his hands, too, he was special.

[Travis Kelce]

So I think at that point, like, in high school, if you.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's a different conversation.

[Travis Kelce]

Depends on where you decide. Like, all right, instead of football, I'm going to go give my all to basketball, then. Yes, then I definitely believe in that. But just like, oh, you've been focusing on football for the last 12 years and now. No. And vice versa. I don't. I just don't think it worked like that.

[Jason Tatum]

I hear you on that. Well, glad we got that out the way. That was actually a pretty good. I mean, you're right. I feel. I feel everything you're saying kind of got sidetracked there.

[Travis Kelce]

No, I got a question. I got one.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, hit us one. Yeah, hit us. What do you got?

[Travis Kelce]

So this is my first year playing fantasy football.

[Jason Kelsey]

Oh, gosh.

[Jason Tatum]

Okay.

[Jason Kelsey]

All right. All right.

[Travis Kelce]

So I was in two leagues.

[Jason Tatum]

And who's your tight end?

[Travis Kelce]

Mark Andrews.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, Mark was a good one, though. Mark, he finished strong. He probably helped you out in the. In the. In the playoffs for short. He finished strong with a bunch of touchdowns.

[Travis Kelce]

I had two leagues, so in one league, I had Pat. I didn't understand all about fantasy football. I'm just like, oh, shit.

[Jason Kelsey]

Took a quarterback first.

[Jason Tatum]

That's. There you go. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Got to go running back. Got to go running back.

[Travis Kelce]

Got to go running back.

[Jason Kelsey]

Should have gone Saquon. Yeah, should have gone Saquon. I'm.

[Jason Tatum]

Anybody that's.

[Travis Kelce]

Let me go get the best player in the league. Let me go get Pat. And nothing but respect for you and Pat, but it's like, it didn't work out.

[Jason Kelsey]

It didn't work out.

[Jason Tatum]

It was a different year for us. Yeah, it was a different 18.

[Travis Kelce]

18 to 12.

[Jason Kelsey]

You got to get the. Either the running quarterbacks or the. Like, you got to get. You know, Jaylen's a great one because he's gonna get. He's gonna get you, like, 15 tush pushes into the end zone.

[Jason Tatum]

Lamar's a great one.

[Travis Kelce]

Lamar. I had Lamar in my other league. He's. Lamar's unbelievable, obviously, in the real game, but in fantasy football, too.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

He's perfect for fantasy. I mean, he's perfect. He's pretty perfect for regular football as well. But fantasy, he's covered one of the most insane things. We were in a joint practice with the Ravens, and I'm not going to say nobody's name, but he did a juke move and a tag Off. Like, you're not even supposed to tackle, right. You know how hard it is to.

[Jason Tatum]

Juke somebody who's just trying to tag.

[Jason Kelsey]

He's just supposed to like, t, you're playing tag. Essentially, this dude just has to like, get within a seven foot wingspan of touching. This guy completely falls over. I mean, one of the. It was insane. The movie put on the like to the point that both teams, Eagles and Ravens, just erupted in the middle of this practice. It was so. It was right then and there, I was like, oh, this guy's way different. This guy's way different.

[Jason Tatum]

He's not fucking around.

[Travis Kelce]

Should he have won mvp or do you think they got it right?

[Jason Tatum]

God damn.

[Jason Kelsey]

They both had great cases for mvp. The only reason I tend to think they got it right with Josh is because I think Josh, a lot of the times the MVP comes down to expectations. And I think the Ravens expectations were high from the get go. And I think Josh losing some of the guys that they lost, they didn't really have a lot of other star power. I think they overachieved. And he had a season that was unexpected, which is why he got it. I think that narrative a lot of times ends up being the one that wins, but both of them had merits of winning. And that's the reality is, like, most years, multiple people are up for it. So they both could have got it. But I do think that right there was the reason why I think Josh did end up getting it. But if they would have given it to Lamar, I would have been like, hey, he deserved it too.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, there's no wrong answer, I believe. Let's get to some no dumb questions. All right, now. Hey, we always ask our fan base of 92 percenters to send us their questions, and there's no dumb questions, just two dummies answering it and then the anomaly. So would you still want to be 6 foot 8 if you were bad at sports?

[Jason Kelsey]

Ooh, it's a great question. It's a lot of inconveniences that come with that height.

[Travis Kelce]

How? Like, how bad?

[Jason Tatum]

Like, like, like you're not even getting picked at the wreck.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. Last pick in dodgeball.

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, I. I love being 6 8. I ain't gonna lie.

[Jason Kelsey]

Fair enough.

[Jason Tatum]

I respect it.

[Jason Kelsey]

They're not being able to find shoes that fit is. Is an inconvenience I can deal with for being 6 8. I love it. Pretty sure if you had to play an entire game wearing flip flops, how many points are you realistically dropping?

[Jason Tatum]

You're still finding a way to get some space.

[Travis Kelce]

Flip flops.

[Jason Kelsey]

You at least catching. You can sit in the corner and catch.

[Travis Kelce]

You know, my ankle last night wearing basketball.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, that's a great question. Let's just pass that one. Who's on. Who's on your Mount Rushmore of basketball players?

[Travis Kelce]

Oh, Mike, Brian, Kobe.

[Jason Tatum]

This is where it gets tricky, right?

[Travis Kelce]

I would say Kareem Reem.

[Jason Tatum]

You're going Kareem. The hook shot. Kareem. Okay, I respect it. I respect it. Listen, man, do you think his hook shot would still be as unstoppable in today's game?

[Travis Kelce]

I mean, like, the short answer would be no, but would he adapt and still be effective? Yes. The game is not played like that today. But he was so talented and skilled that he would have found other ways to score the basketball. For sure.

[Jason Tatum]

That thing was unstoppable. I love watching highlights of that thing. Just, whoa.

[Jason Kelsey]

That was the last fist fight Travis and I got into. He just kept doing this dumbass hook shot in the backyard. I couldn't stop it.

[Jason Tatum]

I was dog. Jt. I was. I was nice in the paint. I was only 6 5, but. But I was nice in the paint.

[Travis Kelce]

I believe it.

[Jason Kelsey]

I was utilizing all five of my files early. All right, what's. Why is it called a field goal in basketball?

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, that. That's actually very interesting.

[Jason Kelsey]

It makes zero sense, right?

[Jason Tatum]

I feel like back in the day, they might have called the basket a goal.

[Travis Kelce]

I get that part makes sense. The field part is. Never really thought about that.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's on a court and it's not a goal, but it's still called a field goal. This is why I think it's called a field goal. This is why I think it's called a field goal.

[Jason Tatum]

Here we go.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think they used to only have scoreboards made with the fg, like field goals. So they just started calling them field goals because that's what the scoreboard had, and they had to call it a field goal. No. Don't make any sense.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm not. I'm not buying into any of this.

[Travis Kelce]

I'm surprised nobody asked. Growing up in St. Louis, was I a Kansas City fan?

[Jason Tatum]

I was about to say, man, hold on, hold on. You already mentioned the Rams once. You already mentioned the Rams once. I'm trying to think of what eras those. Those would have been for you. Like the Stephen Jackson era. Like, yeah, who. Who is your team?

[Travis Kelce]

Sam Bradford. Stephen Jackson.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

Huh.

[Travis Kelce]

So they won a Super Bowl 2001. They lost in 02 or 03. And then after that, they didn't make the playoffs.

[Jason Kelsey]

It was, it was a little bit.

[Travis Kelce]

Of a drought for like 15 years at least. They didn't make the playoffs. The rest of the time they were in St. Louis. So I was a Peyton Manning fan. That was my favorite player. I love.

[Jason Tatum]

You went north. You went north, sheriff. Right down the street. Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

But ironically, like, when the Rams left, the older people in St. Louis just became Chiefs fans.

[Jason Tatum]

They did 100. We, we gathered everybody in Missouri.

[Travis Kelce]

They pretty much, when they left, I wasn't like, all right, I'm a Chiefs fan now because, like, I don't know, St. Louis and Kansas City just kind of always had this, like a bit of a rivalry. Royals. Oh, yeah, it was like a little rivalry.

[Jason Tatum]

Cincinnati and Cleveland had a very similar thing, especially with the, with the two being sports rivals in the, in the AFC east or the AFC North. I mean, no, I, I, we definitely com, Completely agree with that. We ended up going to Cincinnati, so we ended up getting kind of love from both cities and having that love for both cities. But. So when, when they moved to la, did you go to LA with them?

[Travis Kelce]

No.

[Jason Tatum]

So you just, and this is why you play fantasy football. You're just a fan of the league now.

[Travis Kelce]

I don't have a team. I appreciate players. I appreciate, like, not to bring it up, but like, when you guys played the Eagles this past, you know, super bowl, it was like, you know, Eagles, great team, great story. But me just winning the championship and like, damn, we trying to win our second one. You guys trying to make history and win your third. Like, I appreciate it, you know.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Potentially watching, you know, history being made.

[Jason Tatum]

So I, I appreciate you jumping on and then being, and I'm sorry that you had to endure that. Nah, man, that's, I respect it for sure. How do you guys feel like it's been trying to defend that championship? Like, how, how tough has it been throughout the year? And I mean, you guys are getting everybody's best shot right now. And I'm sure it's a, it's a lot different playing 16 games than it is playing 82 regular season games. Trying to, trying to like, navigate week in, week out, different lineups, different. You know, you guys are going to have to probably play a few games without you in it. Like, how difficult has it been?

[Travis Kelce]

Joe talks about all the time is he said, expect it to be tougher than you think. Right. None of us have been in this position besides Drew. Drew won a championship with Milwaukee. But the rest of us, like, we don't, we don't Know what it's like, you know, coming back after you just won a title. You know, you think it can go one way and you know, there's, there's good stretches and then there was a, there was a stretch where, you know, there was a 12 game stretch where we won one, lost one. One, one, lost one. And we playing against teams and they have a guy that, you know, is a 33 point shooter and that night he had 11 threes and it's like.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, everybody's getting hyped.

[Travis Kelce]

They play you guys, everybody's excited to play. You're getting everybody's best shot. And then, you know, dealing with injuries and certain guys being out, it was tough and we had to, you know, come together and get closer. But I would say, you know, we 22 and 4 in our last 26 games, right? So we've definitely hitting our stride at the right time and, you know, with 10 or so games left and getting ready for the playoffs, you know, this is when you want to feel your healthiest, want to feel your best, want to be the most confident, understanding that you know what's, what's ahead. And you know how tough it was last year. Expected to be tougher this year.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Because what we trying to do.

[Jason Tatum]

Hell yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

[Jason Tatum]

Well, nice, man. I think that does it for our no dumb questions. Get into our last segment, man, get you out of here. We appreciate you having fun with us, jt, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yep, absolutely.

[Jason Tatum]

This is our last segment. We. We close out all the convos with a segment called we gotta ask, but you don't have to answer. You can tell us to off and kick rocks or you can have fun answering some of these silly questions, man. What was your welcome to the NBA moment?

[Travis Kelce]

Oh, my first two games. So, man, we, we get Kyrie. Our first game of the season was back in Cleveland. So Kyrie's first game back, we playing LeBron. It's on TNT. I'm still 19 years old, man, and this atmosphere is unlike anything I've ever been a part of.

[Jason Tatum]

I can't even fathom this for you right now. Oh, my God.

[Travis Kelce]

I plan it cool going through my routine. I go, just play it cool, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

Just play it cool.

[Travis Kelce]

I remember I go up for, I go out for our like, individual warm ups and I just look down the court and it's Dwyane Wade warming up and I. It's just like, it was just like, wow. Like, I'm really, I'm really here.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Then I get, I put my uniform on. We Go out for layup lines and I'm cool. I'm laying the ball up. Cleveland hasn't ran out yet. After like two minutes, they run out, and I. And Bron runs out last. And I was like, oh, shit.

[Jason Kelsey]

Like.

[Travis Kelce]

This is. This is real. First shot. First shot of Tim I got. He blocked that shit to, like, the fifth row. And I was like, yeah, this is. This is what it's about.

[Jason Tatum]

All right, man. That's a great story.

[Jason Kelsey]

Made it. I don't know if you saw this. You see George Yang talking a little bit of trash the other night with Quentin Grimes? Did you see that?

[Travis Kelce]

Yo, I love. I love Georgia Yang.

[Jason Kelsey]

Me and you both. Me and you both.

[Jason Tatum]

That's my dog. Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

All right.

[Travis Kelce]

And shot the three at home.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah. Is the psych out still? Like, did you ever watch basketball growing up?

[Travis Kelce]

I did. I haven't seen it in a long.

[Jason Kelsey]

Been a while. So what about the psych out? What's. What's the art to trying to psych somebody out who's about to shoot a ball? Like, what's the. What's the best strategy? Like, whether you're playing horse with them, like, what. What's the best thing somebody said to you or something that you found that you can say to somebody else right away to get them off their game?

[Travis Kelce]

So, like, say something to them or just all the antics that guys do.

[Jason Kelsey]

I would say either or whichever one you want to go with. Are you an anti scout?

[Jason Tatum]

Are you a verbal Different. Yeah, there's different.

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, I don't really talk much when I play. Like, I really. Like, we have to have a relationship. Like, Bam Adebayo. Like, I've known BAM since 8th grade. Donovan Mitchell, like, guys in my draft class, like, if I know you, like, you know, we'll have friendly trash talk or whatever. But, like, I'm not just, like, I don't. If I score on you, like, I'm not gonna say I'm just gonna run back on defense. But always having other team's best defender guard you. Throughout the years, seeing the different things that guys like, you know, will do to try to get you off your game has is. It's funny. I remember. I remember one time playing against Patrick Beverly when he was with the Lakers.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, man, this is the king at this. Go ahead.

[Travis Kelce]

I love Pat Bev. I love how he competes talk trash with the best of them. But I don't. I don't say much. So I remember it was one game we played with the Lakers, and they was waiting to take the Ball out of bounds and he like, start like tickling me.

[Jason Kelsey]

All right.

[Travis Kelce]

I like, smacked his hand. He was like, you got stronger, you got stronger. But just like, as a defender, any little thing that they can try to do, pull your sock down, untuck your jersey at the free throw line. I wear armband. People pull my armband down to my hand all the time.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, man, these are, these are all great moves. Yeah.

[Travis Kelce]

Back, the back of your neck, just like all type of things that, you know, is, is part of. And, and I'm pretty sure it's things like that in, in football.

[Jason Kelsey]

No, I love it. I love all that little stuff.

[Jason Tatum]

Anything you can do, get real cheeky. Your childhood friends with a beaut, as they call him in hockey. Matthew Tkachuk.

[Jason Kelsey]

That's right.

[Jason Tatum]

He's a beauty, man. Him and his brother were recent guests of the show as they represented USA in the, in the Four Nations Tournament. That was fun seeing them throw the hands and, and, and fight for the USA in that regard. Uh, you guys recreated this old photo of you both after. Because you guys grew up around each other, huh? In the St. Louis area, we went.

[Travis Kelce]

To school together from seventh grade to 10th grade. So, yeah, two years of middle school, two years in high school. And then after our sophomore year, I think the rules are different for hockey. He ended up leaving and going off professional, playing juniors. Yeah, yeah, we, me and Matt, we had classes together. That, that picture that we took, I think we was going on a field trip at like, Chicago or something.

[Jason Tatum]

Nice.

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, we had projects together, so it. It just cool to, you know, see both of us. We won a championship in the, in the same year.

[Jason Tatum]

That had to be awesome, man. Great dude, man.

[Travis Kelce]

Unbelievable person. Hockey player. His brother is amazing too, and comes from a great family as well, so couldn't be happier for him and, and his family.

[Jason Tatum]

Hell yeah, man. Did you ever get on the ice? No, no, no, no, never got on the ice.

[Travis Kelce]

We would play. We would play hockey in gym class, but, like, in the gym. Yeah, I would try to be goalie because I was like the tallest kid, but that.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, man, Jason used to force me to be the goalie. Be like, no, I'm taking shots on you. And he would just rip them from like 10ft away. I'm like, come on, man, this is up. We got two champions in their respective sports, but there's a third guy hanging out in the back of these. This picture right here. I don't know if it's the same kid or is the third. Is he the third that's the homie. Is he. I was about to say, has he won any championships or.

[Travis Kelce]

I don't think so. He's another kid in our class named Jacob. He didn't. He wasn't a sports guy, but he was cool and nice. The Cardinals end up flying them in. I think he lived in like San Diego or something. They end up flying them in so we could recreate the picture, so.

[Jason Tatum]

That's too funny, man. Shout out to Jacob.

[Jason Kelsey]

There we go.

[Jason Tatum]

Jacob, your seven year old son Deuce is always courtside. Are you gonna be able to, you know, play in the NBA long enough to maybe, maybe play with your son? Get the Celtics to draft him.

[Travis Kelce]

A lot of things got to go right for that. Sounds cliche to say, like I never like forced him to play basketball. Obviously he's always been around it and even like at home, like I would just want him to naturally, if he wanted to play basketball, then we can. So I would say in the last man, like the last like six to 10 months, he's really like fell in love with the game and been more attentive at the games. He asked questions. He plays basketball now every Saturday and I can honestly say, like, I haven't ever had more fun in a gym than going to his pee wee game Saturday morning. That's the most fun I've ever had in a basketball gym.

[Jason Tatum]

That's awesome, man. You can see him go crazy. Is he chucking it?

[Travis Kelce]

He shoots every time.

[Jason Tatum]

That's what I'm talking about. Keep chugging it, Deuce.

[Jason Kelsey]

Why would I do that? It's way more fun to shoot this thing.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm watching you doing it. Yeah, exactly. Did you ever get a follow back from LeBron? Did he ever follow you back?

[Jason Kelsey]

Still waiting.

[Jason Tatum]

We got the. Oh, we got the old tweet from back in April of 2012, man. King James followed back as Larry hughes nephew from St. Louis. Shout out to Larry Hughes, man. Cavalier for a while. I definitely was rocking with him for a while. But that's pretty cool, man. I had one to have an uncle or someone like Larry in the league already and. Yeah. Did you ever get the follow back?

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, Brian ended up following me back. It was funny because they brought this tweet up when we played him in the conference finals my rookie year.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, shit. So he finally. He leaned in once. You guys were in the Eastern Conference finals together?

[Travis Kelce]

Yeah, he. He followed me back out on Instagram after that. But nice many of battles against each other and been on Olympic team and Brian is a great friend of mine and somebody that I got a really good relationship with. But I made that tweet that was like when I first got Twitter, and.

[Jason Tatum]

Oh, listen, you already know somebody like me. You bring out my 2012 tweets, right? When I have a field day. I can't even spell. I want to spell cousin with no. Oh, there's no. There was no. There was no autocorrect back then. Nice, man. Glad you got the follow from Braun and that, man. You're. You're chasing your second ring, big dog. And appreciate you coming on here and. And chopping it up with us in the 92 percenters, man. Everybody, Jason Tatum.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, baby.

[Jason Tatum]

Appreciate you, dog. Thanks for. Thanks for all the time, too, man. Much love. Get that ankle right, and. Yeah, it might. Might have to catch you courtside of the Eastern Conference finals game, man. Catch you against CLE Again, man.

[Travis Kelce]

That was their last year.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, it was just the end. It was like two years ago.

[Jason Kelsey]

That was last year. That was in the regular season.

[Jason Tatum]

Y. Wishing you nothing but the best, man. Go and get you another one, big dog. Appreciate, man. You know it. All right, now. Well, that does it for our interview with Jason Tatum. Man, I just love talking to champions, man. The guy. You could tell why he is a champion. You know, the guy just has such a professional. Professionalism about them.

[Jason Kelsey]

It's a good time talking to highly successful people that have dedicated themselves to being the best in the world at something. Let's take a quick look at the leaderboard of the New Heights March Madness Challenge. We have zero perfect brackets left after the first weekend in both our men's and women's brackets. Current New Heights Men's bracket rankings. Brandon, did you guys put this in there just because you want us to say that you guys are ranked above me and Travis right now?

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. Ranking is higher than mine. Yeah. How is that possible in terms of points? Yes. Jason's. Jason's got you beat right now.

[Jason Kelsey]

How is that? I. I have two Final four teams out. How is that possible?

[Jason Tatum]

Sure, it just. Your total score that you could end up with is much, much lower than Travis's. But currently, right now, you're in the lead. You got more in the first two rounds. Correct. Than he did. You just are dead in the water for the eight and the fours, basically.

[Jason Kelsey]

So I got to really hope. Trav, who's your. You have. You have. Who's your Final four? Duke.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah.

[Jason Kelsey]

St. John's who's out of it? Michigan State. No, Auburn.

[Jason Tatum]

Auburn in Florida.

[Jason Kelsey]

So I gotta hope Auburn in Florida. Take some L's, Otherwise I'm screwed.

[Jason Tatum]

I'm not sure if that's how it works, but Jake and Brandon do. And Brandon and Jake are both at the.

[Jason Kelsey]

They're winning.

[Jason Tatum]

They're doing well in both brackets because they. They cheat and they just give themselves extra points. I'm sure.

[Jason Kelsey]

But what we do know is that Travis is in last place. I just don't understand, because he just doesn't know basketball. That's what I keep.

[Jason Tatum]

I thought I did.

[Jason Kelsey]

You think it's about points and stuff, and it. Dude, it comes down toughness.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. I also took Akron over Arizona. I'm a dumbass.

[Jason Kelsey]

So did I. Jeez, Go, Mac. I don't know why I put Akron so high. It was the dumbest thing in the world. I just saw an Ohio team in there. I'm like, yeah, they're doing it. Let's go Akron. They're tough. Rubber ball. You shitting me? I did the same thing.

[Jason Tatum]

Fell right into that trip. We're idiots. You did call it with those silver spoons. Stop it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Sorry, yo. Sorry, yo.

[Jason Tatum]

That's not. That was uncalled for, dude.

[Jason Kelsey]

I did input all of my women, so the way I did my women's bracket, I did UConn and South Carolina. I forgot about Don Staley, South Carolina. That's why I had win in it. Shout out to Don Staley, Philadelphia Zone. I. But everybody else, I just did. Based on roster average roster height of the top five. It took me legit a full day to calculate the roster heights of every single women's team in the March Madness.

[Jason Tatum]

Okay. All right. So this is proof. This is. He's citing his sources that he did it.

[Jason Kelsey]

Apparently, it is not panned out. I am in third place.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. Glad you had it all documented to show us how bad you are figuring out.

[Jason Kelsey]

I searched so long to try and find this information, and I just gave up. I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna do it myself.

[Jason Tatum]

There you go.

[Jason Kelsey]

That was a good waste of time.

[Jason Tatum]

Hopefully everybody's having some fun watching these games. I know I am. Jason, what's your favorite part of March Madness so far?

[Jason Kelsey]

My favorite part of March Madness is as much as it hurt watching St. John's lose, because I had them going all the way to the championship. Well, I didn't. I had them losing to Michigan State, but I had them going all the way to the Final Four. I was happy for Calipari, I think. I mean, listen, it's a. It's a matchup against two coaches that Back when I used to watch college basketball a lot were two of the premier coaches in college basketball still premiere and obviously still are. So I think having that connection and watching those two guys go at it as well as those two teams, and it was a great game. Yeah, that was probably the highlight. What do you got?

[Jason Tatum]

My highlights.

[Jason Kelsey]

Calling Drake. Calling the Drake. I mean, yeah, that was dope.

[Jason Tatum]

Unfortunately, they lost to Texas Tech.

[Jason Kelsey]

Did you have a beating Texas Tech?

[Jason Tatum]

I did. I had him beating Tech. And Pat made sure to let me know that I was an idiot for doing that. But they're obviously a fun team to watch, have nothing but love for the. The Tech group. And, man, my favorite one so far, I don't know what it was, but I just love a buzzer beater. Man, that Maryland game the other day and, and seeing, you know, Maryland, what I didn't realize is coming into it, they only have four losses and they were all at the buzzer. It was crazy how like, they finally. And their next close game in at March Madness, they. They went on a buzzer beater. That team right now is. They. Their bigs are physical, you know, they control the game or they. They control the tempo of the game because they. They play inside out. And I just. Right now, I love. I love that team, man. They kind of just like grabbed me and they're like. The Terps are. They're fun to watch, man.

[Jason Kelsey]

I think everybody's kind of on that bandwagon right now. And that's where I really screwed up when trying to figure out this bracket. I should have leaned into one of my best resources.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah, don't even look at my bracket.

[Jason Kelsey]

Scott Van Pelt really could have just let me know all this stuff.

[Jason Tatum]

The McNeese game. I called and was telling everybody I'm a fucking genius. You even hit me and asked me how the fuck I knew that one. Yeah, no, I. I don't know much, but I. If you pick another.

[Jason Kelsey]

Now I get it. This is how you play roulette. You just play enough numbers and then all of a sudden it hits and you're like, yeah, see, I told you it was going to be Red 7. You also said it was going to be, you know, all those other numbers.

[Jason Tatum]

Look where I had most of my chips. It's brilliant. Play the neighbors. Just play the name.

[Jason Kelsey]

That is a funny way to pick out brackets is to just pick all the underdogs.

[Jason Tatum]

But, yep, I literally called it every one of them. And I could just be like, knew it. Drake knew it. McNeese knew it. What about Grand Canyon, Travis? I thought I knew it. They got fucking smoked by 40. Hopefully, you know, Duke finds a way to. To make it all the way and. And take the cake so I look at least somewhat intelligent. It's looking like they're going to, but I say we wrap this thing up, man. Shout out to Jason Tatum. Appreciate you, brother.

[Jason Kelsey]

Yeah, baby. That wraps up another episode of New Heights. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the new Heights channel. Follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You guys listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.

[Jason Tatum]

Once again, New Heights, a wonder show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. That's right, sweet ass jacket. Reese's got me. You. You.

[Jason Kelsey]

That is dope.

[Jason Tatum]

Yeah. All right, now shout out to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and follow the show on all social media for fun clips throughout the week at new heights show with 1s. And thanks to our production and crew for always making us look way better than where we are, 92 percenters. We'll see you guys next week. Good luck in your brackets.