A round of golf with Jason Kelce and his fans — and what it revealed about his growing fame

STATELINE, Nev. — Four-year-old Harbor Spears perched on her father’s shoulders near the 15th green at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort, hoping to attract Jason Kelce’s attention among the crowd of spectators.

“Jason, I made you a bracelet!” she politely yelled in the former Eagles center’s direction.

Kelce eventually walked toward the rope and thanked Spears for the gift, slipping it onto his wrist before setting up to putt. The accessory added more green and white to his mostly brown-and-beige wardrobe and matched the colors of his “Underdog” cap.

“Especially whenever it’s kids, it’s awesome,” Kelce later told The Inquirer. “That never gets old.”

That was one of countless interactions throughout Kelce’s week on the golf course that exemplified his transformation from Philly sports hero to bona fide mainstream celebrity.

It was clear when an adult woman wearing a pink tank top declaring “Jason in the streets, Travis in the sheets” looked on as Kelce waded into the crowd for a chip shot.

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And when an older woman clutched her chest in disbelief — while unleashing an “Oh, my God” — a few minutes after Kelce signed her hat.

And when, as Kelce walked the 17th fairway, a group of young men on a boat at the edge of Lake Tahoe asked him to sign a baby and shotgun a beer.

Kelce’s popularity has been exploding for several months while, outside his football career highlighted by six All-Pro honors and a Super Bowl win, he built a podcast empire with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro tight end Travis, and became associated with global megastar Taylor Swift when she and Travis began dating last fall. Yet shadowing Jason for his practice round at the American Century Championship — where he was one of the most sought-after figures in a pool of sports and entertainment celebrities — provided an up-close glimpse into his mass following, and how life now feels in his initial months of retirement.

“It’s chaos,” Kelce said as he walked the 18 holes. “But definitely something that it’s not like it’s all at once, like, ‘What’s happening?’ … It was kind of a perfect storm of all of this.”

Around 7:30 a.m. last Thursday, a chill still permeated the air on the picturesque lakefront course populated by pine trees with a mountain backdrop. And although baseball legend Alex Rodriguez puffed a cigar a few feet away, Kelce drew the media horde as players finished up their practice swings. First came questions from Access Hollywood about his post-football diet, then from Entertainment Tonight about attending Swift’s Eras Tour in London.

It was a dramatic shift from a clip shown in Kelce’s documentary released last year, when he expressed nerves about starting the New Heights podcast with Travis.

“As an offensive lineman,” Jason said then, “most cities don’t even know who you are.”

They certainly do now.

» READ MORE: The many hats of Jason Kelce, from podcasting to Wawa to ESPN

Several spectators on the course Thursday could toss back inside jokes from said podcast, including at least four mentions of ChapStick (Jason reiterated that he does not believe in it) along with references to proper showering protocol and to khakis that Kelce’s wife, Kylie, had packed for the tournament. Even “Intern Brandon” — aka Brandon Borders, New Heights’ supervising producer — got at least one autograph request while serving as Kelce’s caddie.

Those excited to meet Kelce still included boys proudly sharing that they also play center, or folks hollering that they are from various Cleveland suburbs or high schools, or singers of “Fly, Eagles Fly.” But now that group has expanded to young girls, such as the quartet wearing red Chiefs 87 jerseys who held signs reading “We may not know a lot about football, but we do know about Taylor Swift” and not-coincidentally yelled, “Shake It Off” when Kelce missed a putt. Or older women, such as the one who told her companion, “I see Kylie!” as Jason finished signing Friday’s scorecard.

“That part of it is crazy,” said former Eagles coach Doug Pederson, who also played in the tournament and was on the Chiefs’ staff when they drafted Travis in 2013.

To Jason, however, this has all felt gradual rather than jarring. And Thursday’s round coincidentally mirrored that rise.

When he stepped off his first green, four men in green No. 62 Eagles jerseys were there to greet him. As he moved from hole to hole, however, the crowd swelled into a sea of outstretched arms along the ropes, clamoring for an autograph or selfie. Kelce repeated that he was instructed to “keep it moving,” but offered fist bumps, smiles for cell phone cameras, and responses to questions hollered.

When one fan asked as Kelce zoomed down the fairway in a cart for his favorite Swift song, for instance, he responded with, “I Can Do it with a Broken Heart,” a tune about staying resilient (and playing to the crowd) even while internally struggling. And as he finished up on the sixth hole, he could hear a mic’d-up emcee on the next tee saying, “Jason, we’re waiting for you!”

“I’m coming!” he yelled back.

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That seventh hole is defined by its hecklers. But they quickly morphed into cheerleaders when Kelce won a beer-chugging competition, then stretched out his arms and screamed in celebration, and then posed for a photo with a baby. He had already tasted a cocktail on 17, and taken a swig of Korbel champagne that “was actually very refreshing” after clobbering a 322-yard drive on 16 that held up as the longest of the day (yet fell short of Travis’ tournament record, which was marked by a cardboard cutout that Jason posed with for a photo).

After he finished Thursday’s round, fans swarmed Kelce under a tree, then again after the cart transported him to the putting green. One young woman jumped up and down after securing a signature on a kelly green Eagles jersey. A longtime tournament staffer said the fervent reaction was on the level of Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry — when he was about to win the tournament.

Kelce exhaled as he disappeared from the crowd, and into a back entrance of the clubhouse.

The ensuing days drew even more attention, partially because the rounds became competitive and partially because Travis had finally arrived fresh off attending the ESPYs. Jason joked that the brothers began periodically playing golf together as kids at a public course in Cleveland “almost as childcare,” but that Travis currently has the stronger game.

“[Jason has] played more golf this year than in his entire NFL career,” Travis told NBC from the course. “I think this will be his little retirement hobby.”

» READ MORE: Jason Kelce is stealing the show in Lake Tahoe, chugging beers and ripping 320-yard drives

That enthusiastic recognition even came from his famous colleagues. As Jason warmed up Friday, LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam stopped him for a photo. Then former Sixer and longtime TNT analyst Charles Barkley, arguably the king of this tournament, set up next to him on the driving range — and insisted he meet Kelce’s family while in Tahoe.

“I had heard nothing but great things about him, and everything they said was true,” Barkley told The Inquirer, noting that they first met during a round of golf a few weeks ago. “I’m glad he’s here. He’s a Philadelphia legend, [which is] well-deserved, and I just hope he has fun.”

Wrestler Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, who was paired with the Kelce brothers Friday, later called their round together “18 holes of pure joy.” Mizanin, a fellow Clevelander, has known Travis for years. But he noticed that Jason flashed his blend of relatable personality and hardworking style on the course when Jason still played out a hole following a sharp slice to the right, or after popping a drive straight up.

“I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun in a golf game,” Mizanin told The Inquirer. “… In four hours, you can see the cracks, there’s no cracks in the Kelce brothers.”

Who also got introduced to Kelce up close? The four men paired with him for that Thursday practice round, who are high-powered in their respective career fields but not exactly in the public eye.

John Hahn, the executive chairman of the board at Galway Holdings, joked on 13th hole that if Kelce “wasn’t so popular, we wouldn’t have all these cameras.” On hole No. 6, Victor Zhang, American Century Investments senior vice president and chief investment officer, told Kelce that, at an event the night before, multiple people of all ages and demographics approached him to express excitement that he was playing with Kelce, including one who said, “Jason is my favorite person.” Murmurs about Kelce as the men walked their initial holes turned into Kelce cheering each player by name, and holding individual conversations about strategy, football, and life.

And on their final hole, Zhang proclaimed to the whole crowd, “In case you didn’t know, this is the best center in football!”

“Was the best center,” Kelce corrected.

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That was a reminder of what’s next. Kelce said he will “surely” miss parts of Eagles training camp, which begins next week. Instead, he will spend much of the remaining summer at his family’s shore house, where he acknowledges he has been eating plenty of ice cream. Then, he will ramp up preparation to join Monday Night Football’s broadcast crew, with preseason games beginning in August. In this new phase of life, he will aim to satisfy some of that competitive itch with “toned-down” scorekeeping activities such as recreational sports, cornhole, board games ... or golf.

“One thing we haven’t struggled to do is fill out the time,” he said. “... I like any game. I’m down. I’m into all of it.”

Such as this celebrity tournament, where his growing mainstream fame was on full display. Yet amid the massive crowds, the podcast inside jokes, and the Swift references, one simple message was particularly poignant as Kelce approached the 14th tee.

“Hope you enjoy retirement!” the onlooker said.

Under his breath, Kelce uttered, “I’m gonna try.”