CINCINNATI — Jason and Travis Kelce brought their popular podcast, “New Heights,” to their alma mater, hosting a live episode of the show Thursday evening at the University of Cincinnati. The sold-out event packed more than 12,500 fans into Fifth Third Arena and featured a special guest appearance by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
“We’ve always wanted to do something for this university, for this city,” Travis said to open the show. “You guys have injected us with so much love for the game of football and so much passion.”
This was the first setting of its kind for “New Heights,” which also held a live show last year in Kansas City. Thursday’s nearly 90-minute event included interviews with Burrow, his Bengals teammate Orlando Brown Jr. (who previously played with Travis in Kansas City) and former Bearcats quarterback Desmond Ridder, as well as questions from the audience. Jason played for the Bearcats from 2006-10, and Travis from 2008-12.
These two sure know how to make an entrance pic.twitter.com/EbycERDyG8
— New Heights (@newheightshow) April 11, 2024
Burrow’s appearance provided the buzziest moment. Asked about the budding rivalry between the Bengals and Travis’ Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, Burrow said: “They have great players, we have great players. I think we match up pretty well with them. We’re kind of built to beat them.”
The Bengals have won three of the past five meetings against the Chiefs, including an AFC Championship victory for Cincinnati in Jan. 2022. Kansas City beat the Bengals for the AFC crown the following season. Travis noted that playing the Bengals is “always one of my favorite games to look forward to.”
“I love playing against the best,” Travis told Burrow. “I have all the respect in the world for you.”
Jason Kelce (far left) and Travis Kelce (far right) welcomed Bengals players Joe Burrow and Orlando Brown Jr. (center) to their live podcast. (Courtesy of Steven Distel / Cincinnati Athletics)
Jason, who officially retired last month after 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, discussed how his friendship with Burrow started with a text message in 2018. Jason and the Eagles were coming off a win in Super Bowl LII, and Burrow had entered the transfer portal as a college player after three seasons on the bench at Ohio State. Then Bearcats head coach Luke Fickell had reached out to Jason for a little help recruiting Burrow to Cincinnati.
“Who knows what could have been? He could have been such a great player if he just would have come here,” Jason quipped before the show. “But unfortunately he went to LSU. … Ever since then Joe and I have been connected.”
Burrow went on to win a national championship and Heisman Trophy at LSU but said Jason’s text “really meant a lot to me, because at that time I was really going through it.”
“I was putting in the work but wasn’t seeing the fruits of my labor,” said Burrow. “(The Eagles) had just won the Super Bowl. … When you reached out to me I was really geeked up about that.”
It wasn’t all serious. Burrow, coming off a 2023 NFL season cut short by injury, also offered the crowd his thoughts on aliens — “I feel like if they are advanced enough to come and visit us, then they are advanced enough to cloak their technology from us.”
All of it was part of a star-studded showcase for Cincinnati football that came together quickly in the weeks since Jason’s retirement. Recently, when asked about planning for the event, Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham said he had been thinking about it so much that he had a dream he called Travis to discuss it, and Taylor Swift answered the phone.
Swift didn’t make an appearance on Thursday, but it was still the type of commemoration Cunningham envisioned, pairing two of the program’s most famous alums with Cincy Reigns, the university-affiliated NIL collective that will get a portion of the night’s proceeds. Exact figures weren’t disclosed, but the collective expects to bring in six figures to put toward name, image and likeness funding.
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“It was a no-brainer for us to do something for Cincy Reigns and the student-athletes and the athletic department,” Jason told reporters before the show. “This place did so much for my brother and I’s careers.”
Travis and Jason Kelce brought their popular podcast to their alma mater for a star-studded night that raised money for the school’s collective. (Courtesy of Abdoul Sow / Cincinnati Athletics)
The evening opened with the first-ever playing of the Great Lombaby Games, a “Slime Time Live”-esque competition emceed by the Kelce brothers. It was the brainchild of Jason, pitting a team of Bearcats athletes against a team of Cincinnati students in a series of games such as answering trivia questions while riding a mechanical bull and contestants “diving” for Jason’s Super Bowl ring in kiddie pools full of Skyline Chili. A slew of former Bearcats players were in attendance, as were Jason’s wife, Kylie, and the Kelces’ parents, Donna and Ed.
The show served as a kickoff of sorts for Cincinnati’s spring football game this Saturday, with the program set to enter its second season in the Big 12 and under head coach Scott Satterfield. It made for fortuitous timing, with Jason already planning to be in town this weekend for the university’s 125th anniversary celebration of Sigma Sigma, a men’s honorary fraternity dating to 1898 of which Jason is a member. Cunningham had reached out previously about ways to get the Kelce brothers back on campus for a marquee event, so when a Thursday show also fit with Travis’ schedule, the university went to work with Wave Sports and Entertainment, which produces the podcast.
The brothers had their hearts set on hosting in Nippert Stadium, where they played. That was the plan until the threat of severe weather forced a move indoors to the adjacent arena, which wasn’t announced until Wednesday. Significant interest from Bearcats fans, Kelce admirers and Swifties caused the event’s website to crash after it launched last month and before tickets had even gone on sale. The $100 general admission price rankled some fans, though not enough to dampen the turnout. Student tickets were free and awarded via a lottery, and overall sales received a boost when Burrow was announced last week as a special guest.
Jason spent Wednesday evening at Uncle Woody’s, an uptown bar and one of the Kelce brothers’ old haunts, with videos and photos on social media of him throwing darts and hanging with former teammates and coaches. Travis arrived on Thursday, and the two brothers spent part of the afternoon meeting with the current Cincinnati football team.
A surprise commencement we’ll never forget. Congratulations to Travis and Jason on (finally) picking up those diplomas! 🤣 #Bearcats | @newheightshow pic.twitter.com/JyVUuH6UhV
— Cincinnati Bearcats (@GoBEARCATS) April 12, 2024
Even after the eleventh-hour move indoors, the show went off smoothly, ending with a surprise commencement ceremony. Neither brother was able to walk at their original graduation, and Travis famously missed his flight for a belated commencement a few years ago. Cunningham and university president Neville Pinto adorned Jason and Travis with caps, gowns and diplomas, their parents joining them on stage.
Travis accepted his diploma while chugging a tallboy beer as “Fight for Your Right” by the Beastie Boys blasted through the speakers and confetti fell.
“Thank you so much for making this a night to remember,” Jason shouted to the crowd.
“Cincinnati, we love you guys,” Travis added. “And don’t forget to get your degree on the way out.”
(Top photo courtesy of Abdoul Sow / Cincinnati Athletics)
