Emerging media star Jason Kelsey made an extended visit to Monday Night Football Booth during the Falcons-Eagles game last night. The move certainly impressed Eagles fans.
And it angered those who are biased towards the hawks.
Partisan fans (anyFans (and they are all fans) often spend a great deal of their time scrutinizing every word spoken by the announcers at a given game, looking for any evidence that the person speaking “hates” their team. They often ignore the good and focus on the bad, often twisting harmless comments into an indication that the announcers are “with” the other team.
Falcons fans didn’t need tinfoil hats last night. As several people (including Devin McCourty on Tuesday’s show) said, PFT Live), Kelsey’s presence made it feel like a preseason broadcast for the Eagles.
Kelce is great, and his talents (in my opinion) are wasted on the pregame show. He could make a great game analyst. But having him in the booth for only the second game the Eagles play without him will only infuriate those who follow the other team.
By the time things got really interesting, Kelce was supposed to be in the booth. Wouldn’t it have been great to hear what he had to say about the decision not to award Atlanta 10 points with less than two minutes left in the game and the Falcons running out of timeouts? Was he going to criticize, or was he going to be a (former) company man?
Why wasn’t he ready for the postgame show? This would have been a perfect opportunity for Kelce to offer honest, real commentary on why the Eagles did what they did and whether they should have done something different.
Kelce is probably glad he wasn’t in a position to comment on the situation. Had he defended the Eagles, many would have been upset. Had he criticized the coach’s decision, he would have been criticized by his former team.
This is the real test Kelce faces. Will he risk angering the only team he ever played for — and risk angering Philadelphia fans — if he tells the blunt truth as he sees it?
First, he has to reprogram his mind to see this, to shift from “us” to “them.” He realizes that his primary duty now is to the public.
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