ESPN decides against punishing Jason Kelce for smashing fan’s phone over derogatory remark

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: ESPN executives have reportedly decided not to penalize former NFL player and network analyst Jason Kelce for slamming a fan's phone to the ground during an altercation on Saturday, November 2.

Jason smashed the cell phone of a student who used a homophobic slur toward Travis Kelce outside Beaver Stadium during the network's College GameDay program.

The former Philadelphia Eagles center then repeatedly yelled back the same derogatory remarks, sparking a police probe that is still going on.

ESPN decides to not punish Jason Kelce

Front Office Sports reported that ESPN's executives do not intend to take further steps against their new NFL commentator, suggesting that Jason Kelce will escape internal punishment at the network, per Daily Mail.

According to David Rumsey of Front Office Sports, Jason is expected to delve into more details about the matter on his podcast 'New Heights' with brother Travis, which airs on Wednesday.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Penn State police are looking into the incident. According to the criminal logs, an officer "observed a visitor damaging personal property".

Other high-profile ESPN personalities who got suspended in the past

Other prominent ESPN figures, such as Colin Cowherd, Bill Simmons, and Jemele Hill, have already faced suspensions for various kinds of remarks and behaviors aired on ESPN television and social media.

ESPN suspended Bill Simmons, one of the network's most popular and vocal personalities, for three weeks in 2014 for calling out disgraced NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on his weekly 'Grantland.com' podcast and branding him "a liar", per Entertainment Weekly.

Following Simmons, ESPN removed radio presenter Colin Cowherd from the air in 2015 for making derogatory comments against Dominican baseball players in the major leagues.

An ESPN statement read: "Colin Cowherd’s comments over the past two days do not reflect the values of ESPN or our employees. Colin will no longer appear on ESPN," per USA Today.

Furthermore, ESPN suspended broadcaster Jemele Hill for two weeks in 2017 due to "a second violation of our social media guidelines".

According to a statement from ESPN, Hill "previously acknowledged letting her colleagues and company down with an impulsive tweet".

"In the aftermath, all employees were reminded of how individual tweets may reflect negatively on ESPN and that such actions would have consequences. Hence this decision," the statement added, per CNN.

However, the network decided not to take any action against the former Philadelphia Eagles star who later apologized to viewers for "falling short" of his usual norms of "common decency and respect".

Internet divided over ESPN's apparent decision to not discipline Jason Kelce

Several social media users defended the network's decision while claiming Jason "did the right thing" but some voiced their disapproval over the decision.

One user wrote, "Why does he have to address it? He did the right thing."

"Good. Society needs to stop enabling harassment and poor behavior by kids who lack common sense," another fan wrote.

One remarked, "He did nothing wrong. I believed he showed restraint. Anyone else would have done much worse. Family first!"

"He literally did nothing wrong. People can't behave however they want without consequences," said one.

Jason's apology before the Chiefs vs Bucs game infuriated several social media users, including Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. Some of them attacked ESPN, accusing the network of orchestrating the incident.

One detractor wrote, "Does ESPN allow every employee to walk around with a 12 pack of beer when on the clock? They won’t discipline him because he’s too much of a revenue stream for them."

Another added, "But they fired RG3 for defending a school that thought they were unfairly left out of the college playoffs. Voicing opinions bad, stealing and breaking someone's property apparently fine."

"He destroyed someone else’s property and he should be held liable for the damages he caused," remarked one.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.