And to be sure, for a while I actually did like Kelce. Many conservatives didn't like him for his Pfizer sponsorship, which is fully understandable. Pfizer is not a good company, and it doesn't lend to Kelce's look as an all-American good guy who likes to have a rowdy good time. A lot of people don't like him because of the over-saturation he has in the media thanks to arguably being the Chief's most famous player, thanks to both his talent (he is admittedly very talented) and, of course, his relationship with international superstar Taylor Swift. 

I can sympathize. I'm no fan of Swift's music or of her as a person in many respects, and Kelce's very public relationship with her doesn't exactly help me believe he is who he displays he is on camera. 

My problem with Kelce does involve those two things above, but I could probably dismiss them both if it wasn't for my major problem with him, which is his inability to not turn into a tantrum-throwing toddler on the field. 

When things aren't going well, Kelce becomes nasty. He's screaming at people on his own team, he's throwing his helmet, and then Sunday night at the Super Bowl, you saw his rage get the better of him--and he went so far as to damn near assault Andy Reid, his coach. 

As I said on X, I might have been rooting for the 49ers to win (I love an underdog, and Brock Purdy is the man) but I have a massive amount of respect for Reid, who is clearly a very talented football coach and, from what I've read, a stand-up guy. Watching Kelce nearly knock Reid over out of frustration made me lose an insane amount of respect for Kelce. 

I might be rooting for the 49ers but I have a DEEP respect for Andy Reid. The disrespect here from @tkelce is gross. pic.twitter.com/AjGariQnZd

— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) February 12, 2024

When the game was done, I watched Reid and Patrick Hahomes lift the Lombardi trophy and give a short speech, as was their right, but when they handed it to Kelce and he started acting like a drunk college kid, it only made me dislike him more. If he had been a good-natured dude who had just won his first Super Bowl and was too excited for words, this might have actually been something of a funny moment. The internet would have turned it into a meme, and we all would have had a good-natured laugh about it. 

But watching Kelce hoist that trophy after all of that nonsense, with the camera continuously cutting back to Swift for her reaction, it just felt wrong. 

Why the hell does he talk this way?

Is that what the vaccine does to you? pic.twitter.com/OxEhyblLdR

— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) February 12, 2024

Kelce is a man who I sincerely believe came from something wholesome and good. His brother Jason, the now-retired Eagle's center, has a lot of the same personality as Travis but comes off as more wholesome and genuine. Jason is a family man with a wife who doesn't crave the spotlight at all. Watching the Kelce brother's podcast, "New Heights," you can get the real sense that Jason actually is the good-natured, jolly man of the people Travis is painted as but doesn't quite reach. 

In fact, you can see the way Jason handles his anger and frustration in a quiet and self-aware manner, even when the person acting like an ass toward him is his little brother. 

But Travis Kelce feels over-produced, media-assisted, and ultimately, not what he's being sold as. While he comes off like Jason Kelce to the public, behind the scenes he continues to demonstrate he's childish and capable of throwing tantrums that sometimes get physical. His brand deal with Pfizer, a company that's so evil it makes Disney look tame, only lends to the idea that he's not a down-home corn-fed American good guy, and his highly visible relationship with a politically and culturally divisive woman just makes the man so fake that the conspiracy that he's somehow part of a government psy-op starts looking plausible. 

But at the end of the day, what kind of message does that send? 

Whether we like it or not, Kelce is being pitched as a role model and there will be success in that regard. Kids will be wearing Kelce's jersey and have posters of him up on their walls. They will watch games with him and when things start to go wrong for him, they will watch as he throws a tantrum, starts throwing equipment, and possibly treats his fellow teammates like garbage. 

Then they'll watch him smile and wave at the cameras, kiss his superstar girlfriend, and continue receiving accolades and praise from every media personality under the sun. He'll take responsibility for his actions on "New Heights" with his brother admonishing him, then go back out and do it again. 

All of this sits wrong with me. Kelce is a man I want to like but too much indicates he's not a man I should celebrate. 

Perhaps he once was something far more genuine and wholesome but maybe fame did what it does to quite a few people and it made him into a perversion of his actual self. I'll never fault a man for losing some control in tense moments that they later regret as it happens to all of us at some point, but for Kelce his moments aren't uncommon and they're accompanied by a host of issues that make him seem less than real. 

I can think of a lot of role models that are better than him at the moment...Brock Purdy comes to mind. 

“I believe that Jesus Christ did come down and die for my sins and rose again.” - San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy pic.twitter.com/74iHXeE872

— Daily Christian Tweets (@JesusSavesUs777) February 12, 2024