After the Eagles’ 20-17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, Jason and Travis Kelce had quite a lot to talk about on the latest episode of New Heights — from the growing outrage toward the Tush Push to Travis’ costly drop-turned-interception in the fourth quarter.
But before the brothers broke down the X’s and O’s of Sunday’s Super Bowl rematch, they were joined by The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon for a segment of “New News.” Here’s everything you missed from the latest episode …
Tush Push hate
We’re only two weeks into the season and the Tush Push is already a topic of discussion. After Sunday’s game, which saw the Eagles run the play six times — converting for four first downs and a touchdown, some clips have stirred up controversy.
The slow motion clips that have been circulating on social media show the Eagles offensive line moving before the ball is snapped. Since then, Tush Push hate has taken over the internet and Jason is “tired of it.”
“I’m tired of talking about it,” Jason said. “That’s the reality of it. Like, I get that there’s a hair of a second early on some of these. Some of them are legitimate false starts. Some of them fall well within the parameters of any other short-yardage play. And here’s the other thing, the false start thing, that thing is going to happen whether it’s a Tush Push or a regular quarterback sneak. Guards are going to be trying to time out the snap. Good guards on short-yardage runs are going to be trying to time out the snap. If you’re late, you’re going to be screwed. So, it’s not like they’re trying to false start.”
The Tush Push dialogue was a main topic of discussion in the offseason and the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to ban the Eagles’ signature play was rejected in May. Jason Kelce joined Jeffrey Lurie as they traveled to Minnesota to advocate for the Tush Push at the NFL owners meeting.
Now, as the play continues to get criticized online, Jason warns the Eagles about using the Tush Push further down the line.
» READ MORE: The Eagles are bucking some longtime beliefs about the NFL. And people don’t like it.
“They’re going to be under a microscope moving forward,” he said. “Everybody is going to be looking at this because of what happened, not just against you guys, but the first week, too. Everybody’s taking pictures of it. They’re saying they’re in the neutral zone, they’re saying they’re false starting because they slow it down to like a thousand frames per second. So, they need to be very, very cautious because the calls are going to be starting to come and they should be.
“Once you go on and you start putting this out on tape, I guarantee the team that the Eagles are playing this week, they’re throwing in all of these clips to the NFL as well as everybody else on social media. The refs are going to be looking for anything to call.”
‘Got to catch the ball’
“There were a couple [Tush Pushes] that were questionable,“ Travis Kelce said. “It’s not the reason why we lost the game. I don’t care what anybody else says about that. We should have won that game in other aspects of the entire four quarters that we played football.”
The tight end holds himself accountable after a costly drop-turned-interception near the end zone during the fourth quarter. The pass ended up falling into the arms of Eagles safety Drew Mukuba as the Eagles held a 13-10 lead.
“The ball was where it needed to be, when it needed to be there,” Travis said. “I’ve just got to get my head around out of the break. … It’s one of those plays where it happens bang-bang. And I know that’s the window that it needs to be in. I know it’s coming out of the armpits and ear holes of the offense and defensive line getting their hands up.
“And I just have to be able to get my head around right now so that I don’t put myself in a position to let the ball surprise me like that. It’s frustrating, man. I’ve scored on that play a million times in my life and obviously I’m exaggerating but it’s something that should have never happened. It cost us. It cost us big-time and that [expletive] hurts, but we’ll get it fixed.”
The Chiefs start the season 0-2 for the first time since 2014. They’ll look for their first win Sunday night against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium.
“Got to catch the ball and we give ourselves a chance,” Travis said. “I’ve got to be there for my guys, man, knowing that they put a lot on my plate to, you know, be a good player for this team and I need to [expletive] answer that bell, man. And an 0-2 start is not how you envision the year starting.”
Arm wrestling with Claude Giroux?
After Fallon announced his new show On Brand and his Sunday night The Tonight Show specials, he asked the duo a question: “Out of the big four sports — football, baseball, basketball and hockey — which athletes are the biggest partiers?”
Jason was quick to answer: “I think it’s hockey by far. … Any sport where it’s a badge of honor to be missing teeth, those guys get after it.
“I used to live down the street from my man [former Flyers winger] Claude Giroux and I would hang out with a bunch of the Flyers when they were all there. Scott Laughton and those guys. And Giroux, every time we were out, he just wanted to arm wrestle. I’m like, ‘Dude, can we just drink and have fun? I don’t want to arm wrestle right now.’ It’s like a lose-lose for me. If I lose to you, I’m like twice your size, I look like I suck. And if I beat you, I’m just this meathead arm wrestling another guy in a bar.”