Travis Kelce, 34, and his brother, Jason, 36, took to the latest episode of their New Heights podcast to dish about the 2024 People’s Choice Awards. During the episode, the two NFL stars poked fun at Travis’ nomination for Athlete of the Year, a category in which Simone Biles is also nominated. Jason, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, even expressed his astonishment that the gymnast was nominated but that her husband, Jonathan Owens, wasn’t.
Although Jonathan, 28, plays for the Green Bay Packers, he was not listed under the 2024 Athlete of The Year nomination alongside his wife. “How is Simone Biles on this but her boyfriend [sic] isn’t?” Jason quipped in the clip. At that point, Travis even joked that he wasn’t sure how he made the list either. “How am I on this?” he laughed. Later, Taylor Swift‘s boyfriend seemingly shaded Jonathan for not making the cut. “Owens? Played some good ball over there, I guess,” Travis said.
Soon after the episode aired, some listeners took to social media to react. “Shade? He laughed at his brother’s joke and then compliment [sic] Simone’s husband and the rest of the Packers,” one of Jonathan’s fans wrote. Also in the comments of the YouTube video, many of Travis’ fans gushed over the episode. “I appreciate your guys’ emotional intelligence and passion so much. It’s so rare where emotions are welcome to be expressed!” a fan wrote.
Jason and Travis’ remarks about Simone and her husband come less than one month after Jonathan went viral for claiming he was the “catch” in their romance. “I always say that the men are the catch,” he said during an episode of The Pivot podcast. He even went on to admit that he “was fighting” against being able “to commit” at the start of their relationship. “But you know, it happens when you least expect it,” he said. “When we hung out, we just hit it off instantly. Laughed the whole night.”
Jonathan received backlash for the remark, and he took to Instagram on December 21, 2023, to express that the online reactions didn’t faze him. “Unbothered Just know we locked in over here,” he captioned a photo of himself with Simone from their wedding day. Despite his caption, fans weren’t convinced. “So unbothered you had to make a post?” one follower asked, while another added, “Clearly bothered but that is why you are NOT the catch.”