While the Kelces face off in the Super Bowl, local siblings are quietly competing all the time

By now, you’ve heard that Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce will be playing in the Super Bowl against his brother, Travis, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end — an unprecedented occurrence.

And last season during the Major League Baseball playoffs, when Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola faced his brother, Austin, of the San Diego Padres, it was the first such matchup in history.

But those sibling rivalries aren’t the only ones percolating in the area. Beyond the klieg lights and the hype, you’ll find brothers and sisters quietly competing in multiple arenas.

Kevin Lynch is chief of the LaMott Fire Company in Cheltenham Township. His twin brother, Ken, is chief of the Independent Fire Company in Jenkintown. Both companies are all-volunteer.

Because these are neighboring communities, the 48-year-olds sometimes roll to the same fires.

Boys being boys, competition flares.

“Yeah, we’ve raced to see who gets to a fire first,” Kevin said, smiling.

It started when they were 16-year-old junior firefighters, assistants at a fire scene. When they’d hear an alarm, “we hip-checked each other running out the door of our house to be the first one on the fire truck,” Ken said.

In high school, the two battled each other in color wars. When the Lynches had kids of their own, the cousins would take up their fathers’ red or blue colors and continue the fight.

“It’s just how we are,” Ken explained. “We each believe we’re better than the other.”

The banter continues during training sessions in front of other firefighters, when “we really use a lot of verbal abuse,” Kevin said.

“It’s the best time for us to say things like that,” Ken explained. “We have an audience.”

As coarse as things get, however, when one brother is out in the street directing a fire scene while the other is inside a burning building, the playful dynamic evaporates.

“It’s a feeling of gut-wrenching helplessness,” Ken said, mirth drained from his eyes. “You wait for a word on the radio, or to see his eyes.”

And when you do?

“It’s back to breaking b-s again,” Kevin said.

Unlike the Kelces, who both play offense and never share the field, the Leak sisters have directly engaged during college volleyball games.

“My job was to block her; hers was to block me,” said Autumn Leak, 22, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania whose team lost four games to her sister Audrey’s Yale University team last season.

“We never trash talked, but we never made eye contact, either.”

Growing up in Saddle River, Bergen County, the Leaks’ only common interest was volleyball, said 20-year-old Audrey, a junior.

“I was piano, she was viola,” she added. “I’m medicine, she’s law.”

Growing up, they played volleyball against each other so often that they’d know how to position themselves during games.

“We both learned how to grind to win against each other,” Autumn said.

“But after each game, it was love and photos with our parents,” Audrey said, explaining that their mom and dad would switch off wearing shirts from both schools.

With Autumn graduating this spring, Audrey said “it won’t be as fun” to line up as an attacker with no sister to attack.

“And it’ll be less special to play Penn.”

Often in public settings, siblings will be careful not to insult one another.

But that’s not how the Kents — both attorneys — play it.

“I refer to my brother, Brian, as ‘Hollywood,’ ” said Kevin Kent. “When he’s on a case, he hasn’t met a TV camera or mic he doesn’t like.

“Me, I prefer to keep my clients out of the news.”

Kevin, 48, lives in Havertown and practices commercial litigation for Clark Hill in Center City. Brian, 45, lives in Ambler and represents victims of sex trafficking —including those assaulted by convicted serial child molester Jerry Sandusky — for the firm Laffey Bucci & Kent, also in Center City.

Responding to the Hollywood crack, Brian answered: “I’m on TV because I’m the better-looking one by far.”

Though the two never came up against each other in court, it’s something they contemplate.

“I would absolutely kick Kevin’s a-,” Brian said. “And he would absolutely try to kick mine.”

“We always trash talk about who’s the better lawyer,” Kevin said.

Growing up in Oreland, Montgomery County, the Kents, along with brother Sean, 42, who works in insurance, would “just go at it all the time” in street hockey and basketball, Brian said. “Sibling rivalry created an incredible bond between us.”

The Kents, like the Lynches and the Leaks, grew up as athletic competitors, “the marker of truly engaged sibling relationships that brings fun and satisfaction,” according to Laurie Kramer, a psychology professor at Northeastern University. “Trash talking is common. And people often see siblings as guiding stars, always measuring themselves against the other.”

The Kents listen to the Kelce brothers’ podcast and appreciate that, when the games are over, the NFL brothers remain each other’s biggest fan.

“Kevin is more of a Jason Kelce — reserved and wiser,” Brian said. “I’m a Travis, who’s much wittier.”

But, he added, “like the Kelces, we’re each other’s best friends. Always.”