NFL brothers Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce share a close relationship both on and off the field

Brothers Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce are on their way to becoming NFL legends: Travis is a record-breaking tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and Jason is the fan-favorite center of the Philadelphia Eagles.

However, their combined success has created some issues for their parents — such as what team to root for when they face off against each other and how to make it to two playoff games in one day. Travis and Jason’s mother, Donna Kelce, figured out the latter in 2022 when she traveled 1,300 miles in one day to see both her sons play in their NFL Wild Card games.

The brothers faced off in the Super Bowl for the first time when the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs played each other on Feb. 12, 2023. Travis and the Chiefs ultimately defeated Jason and the Eagles 38-35 in the historic match-up. As soon as the game ended, Jason gave his little brother a hug and the two seemingly shared a few encouraging words.

Later, Travis got emotional when speaking to the press about his brother following the win. “There’s nothing you can really say to a loved one in a situation like that,” he said while fighting back tears. “You joke around all the time and say you want to beat your brother on the biggest stage, but it’s a weird feeling.” He added, “There’s nothing I can say to him other than I love him and he played a hell of a year, a hell of a season.”

From their childhood in Ohio to their decade (and counting) in the NFL together, here’s everything to know about Jason and Travis Kelce.

Jason and Travis are nearly two years apart

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There are exactly 23 months between Jason and Travis Kelce: Jason was born on Nov. 5, 1987, and Travis arrived on Oct. 5, 1989. The two grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where their father Ed worked in steel and their mother Donna worked in banking, according to Sports Illustrated. Raising two boys so close in age wasn’t always easy, Donna revealed in an interview with FOX 4 Kansas City.

“It’s a lot of broken windows, a lot of, you know, crashes, a lot of fighting … and Travis was always the one that was the instigator because he wanted his brother’s attention,” she shared.

Jason echoed similar sentiments about what it was like growing up with his younger brother Travis. “Two-year age difference, so growing up, in typical younger brother fashion, Travis found all the other ways to get the upper hand — and that was the most annoying thing ever,” Jason said in an interview with NFL Films in 2018.

Besides annoying each other, their close age gap also led to a natural competition developing between the two. “They were very, very competitive from a very early age,” Donna told FOX 4 Kansas City.

“There were a lot of fights,” she elaborated to Sports Illustrated in 2020. “There were a lot of punches thrown. It all just stemmed from somebody being better than the other one, and the other one not being able to deal with it.”

But the competitiveness between the brothers wasn’t all bad, according to Travis. “I think the competitiveness that we had growing up is very big on why we’re even in the NFL in the first place,” he told NFL Films.

They were both kicked out of preschool

During an episode of New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, Jason and Travis revealed that they were both kicked out of preschool.

Jason explained that he was involved in an incident while “playing at a cafeteria table” with another student. “For some reason, we were stabbing each other with sporks and I hit him hard enough right in the forehead,” he recalled. “I just remember the next day his dad had him under his arm and he had four little spork dots.”

Meanwhile, Travis said he was asked not to return to preschool after refusing to share a checkers set.

“I kept winning and the teacher told me, you know Travis, you have to share and I was like, that’s not how it rolls,” Travis said, adding that he then “threw the chair I was sitting in at her.”

They played football together at the University of Cincinnati

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The Kelce brothers played multiple sports in high school: They both played football and baseball, and Jason played hockey in the winters while Travis played basketball. But when it came to college, Jason attended the University of Cincinnati and walked on to their football team as a linebacker before becoming an offensive lineman, Sports Illustrated reported.

Two years later, despite having multiple scholarship offers for football, Travis decided to follow his brother and play at Cincinnati. “Being two years behind him, I’ve naturally always kind of followed his footsteps,” he said in an interview with NFL Films. “Being on his team, knowing that he’s already going through this system — it just made the most sense.”

But Travis’ college football career was almost cut short when, after his freshman year in 2009, he failed a drug test. It resulted in him having his scholarship revoked and being kicked off the football team — until Jason stepped in. Jason had Travis move in with him and some other teammates — “So I could keep an eye on him,” Jason told the Philadelphia Inquirer — and also spoke to the head coach about letting Travis back on the team. His big-brother efforts worked.

“I’ve never really asked how he got me back on the team,” Travis said to Sports Illustrated. “That was my brother just being a big brother, looking out for me every step of the way and fighting for the success story.”