The retired Philadelphia Eagles center is sharing his theory that the famed Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty was actually based on his likeness.
“I will take this to my grave. Gritty was started the year after the [2018 Super Bowl] parade,” Jason, 37, told his younger brother Travis Kelce on the Wednesday, Feb. 26 episode of their New Heights podcast. “That thing looks f—— just like me.”
After Travis tried to change the subject, Jason doubled down, declaring, “Tell me that thing is not my likeness!”
“Shut the f— up,” Travis told his brother, laughing it off.
“Dude, they stole it. Look at those eyebrows,” Jason joked.
But Travis insisted that Gritty “looks nothing like” his big brother.
“You mean to tell me after the parade, the Flyers just so happen to come out with a mascot that looks like that?” Jason questioned.
Travis wasn’t convinced, quipping, “Your eyebrows are aggressive, but they’re not that.”
Jason was firm in his stance, claiming, “They’ll never admit it. This thing, they f—— modeled this thing after me.”
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A longtime Flyers fan, Jason has regularly repped the hockey team’s orange jersey and attended games. He also played hockey in his youth ahead of his football career.
Gritty was first introduced as the team’s mascot in 2018, quickly going viral for its wild antics and look. The mascot was introduced after the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl.
Christine Mina, the senior manager of digital media for the Flyers, shared that after the Eagles’ 2018 win and subsequent parade, they realized they were the only Philadelphia team without a mascot.
“We were noticeably absent,” Mina told The Bleacher Report in 2021. “And I think that was sort of the last little push we needed to to get serious about it. So, summer of 2018 was when we really got to work on the concept.”
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