Jason Kelce appears to be the most in demand man in the sports media landscape currently, with Amazon now said to be in talks with the star over bringing the podcast he hosts with brother Travis to their platforms.
The Philadelphia Eagles legend hung up his cleats following the close of the most recent NFL season after spending his entire 13-year career at Lincoln Financial Field. As the 36-year-old looks to navigate the next chapter of his life, it appears that he is not short on offers from leading broadcasters over a move into the industry.
Previously, it was reported that the elder Kelce brother had decided to join ESPN to feature alongside Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark and Scott Van Pelt on “Monday Night Countdown” next term. Now, it appears that talks are ongoing for the “New Heights” podcast to have a new home on Amazon’s Wondery service, as per the New York Post.
The popular podcast, which sees football’s most prominent sibling duo sit down to discuss their lives and that week’s NFL news, alongside providing often humorous insight. The show has proven a hit with listeners and critics alike too – with the podcast earning the iHeartRadio Podcast of the Year award among other honors.
Previously, a report in Bloomberg suggested that an eventual agreement with a major firm such as Amazon could reach “eight figures”. Having started back in September 2022, the Kelce brothers’ media venture has accumulated some 4.2 million followers on social media site TikTok.
During a previous episode of “New Heights”, Eagles icon Kelce spoke excitedly about the prospect of a media career presenting itself to him on the horizon as he discussed talks with ESPN. He said: “Nothing has been officially inked yet or announced yet but, obviously, there’s been a lot of reports out there about me going to ESPN and I think time will kind of take care of that but it’s a tremendous honor to even be considered to potentially work there.”
The brothers even discussed growing up watching ESPN in Cleveland, as they claimed that their shows were “everything” to them as aspiring footballers. Jason said: “We were glued to the TV each and every day, so the fact that I may potentially, probably will be working there is pretty darn cool.
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He added: I did my due diligence, you want to make sure you’re really looking at things, talking to people that are knowledgeable in the industry — neither one of us have ever done something like this. Throughout the whole process, meeting and talking to everyone over at ESPN, it became apparent that it was really the right fit and at the end of the day, something that I’m really, really looking forward to [in] this next phase.
During a previous appearance on ESPN, the Philadelphia hero acknowledged that he had things to learn in terms of the media game: “This is all new territory for me. I have even more respect for it now. It’s very hard to do something live, reactive of stimulus that just happened and having something clever and meaningful to say.”
“It’s a lot easier when you’re sitting on the couch or have heard the name over and over. Certainly, some of the names are difficult to remember on the spot.”
