Chiefs and Eagles Frustrations, Philip Rivers Returns and Kelce Hygiene | EP 169

0:00Did you look at your Spotify? I don't know how to do it. Where is it at? You go to Spotify and I'm pretty sure it just. Oh, it's time for your 2025 wrapped. 13 ,388 minutes. 254 genres. That's a lot of genres. That's way more than a lot of people for sure. My top genre is doo-wop. It's going to tell you your average age. Age. Don't take this personally. Oh my God. What is it? That's embarrassing. What is it? 83. 83. Nice. That's pretty good.

0:37Welcome back to New Heights. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, a Wondery show brought to you by Yeti. And that's not me. We're talking about the Yeti coolers, the Yeti drinks, the Yeti everything. Ooh, that New Heights green. Ooh, how about it? I love that. We're your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey. This is my big brother, Jason Kelsey out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Shout out to the Heights and shout out to the Cincinnati Bearcats headed to the Liberty Bowl. versus the Naval Academy. Good old-fashioned Liberty Bowl. Birmingham, Alabama. Is it still in Birmingham, Alabama? I don't think so. No, it moved?

1:10The Liberty Bowl for me was in Memphis, Tennessee. No, that was the Belk Bowl. That was in Charlotte. Really? Yeah. So the Liberty Bowl moved to Memphis. It was at UAB Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama when I played in it. There you go. Right? Or am I thinking of a different Bowl? I think you're thinking of the Papa John's Bowl. I am thinking of the PapaJohns.com Bowl. All right. Sorry, Liberty Bowl. Let's go, Cats, baby. Finish this year off right. Subscribe on YouTube, Wondry Plus, wherever you get your podcasts, and follow the show on all social media. Add New Heights Show with one S for fun clips throughout the week.

1:40Jason, please, this is where you tell everyone what we're going to talk about. Well, 92 %ers, we've got an incredibly depressing football portion of this great episode. We're going to recap the Chiefs-Saxons game, as well as the loss of the Eagles in overtime to the Chargers. but we will get into a lot more NFL discussions that will hopefully be more joyous. We're going to get into all that in a minute, but first we're always going to start with a little bit of that new news. New news is brought to you by American Express. Biggest piece of new news is Travis has been the chief's nominee for Walter Payton man of the year.

2:17This is your third nominee. How many times you've been nominated for three or four, three or four. In particular, you're nominated for your work with Operation Breakthrough. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Walter Payton, Man of the Year, it's kind of all-encompassing. It's turned into one of the greatest honors you can receive in the NFL. A lot of it comes down to charitable work and community work, but it also comes down to how you are as a player and the values and everything that you kind of exude as an NFL player to your teammates and city. And, you know, it's named after the late, great Walter Payton.

2:55His family is still involved in giving out this award. So it is an incredible honor to be nominated for it. Trav, what are your thoughts? Obviously, you've been nominated before. Yeah. I mean, I was nominated last year, maybe not the year before that, but a year or two prior to that one. Obviously, you don't do the work and you're not who you are to the community and to the teams for the award. You know, you're not doing this in hopes that you one day could be it. So it's I just do it because I love seeing these kids have something that they wouldn't have otherwise. I love doing it to support, you know, what Operation Breakthrough means to this community.

3:34And I love doing things with my foundational team because my foundation team is amazing and they find ways to give back to the community. And they find events that bring the community closer together. And it's just an honor. And it's obviously representing a whole lot more people than just myself. I think the Chiefs community outreach is second to absolutely none. And that shows in how many Walter Payton man of the years we've had in Kansas City and the tradition that that Lamar Hunt embedded in this organization back in the 60s and 70s of how, you know, he was going to make sure that the fans that are showing up in the community that's showing up is going to, you know, see us give back to them.

4:16for how much they show up for us on Sundays, man. And it's just an absolute honor to represent this organization, to represent my foundation, and even more so to represent Operation Breakthrough and all the kids and all the amazing things that they're doing over there. Well, congratulations, Trav. I mean, listen, I think you do so much for that community in Kansas City. And really, I mean, Philadelphia community, you've been involved with the Eagles Autism Challenge. You do so much surrounding the NFL and the landscape and supporting the fans and different communities that the teams are in. So back in Cleveland, couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

4:48Well done. Thank you, man. And thank you to all the 92 percenters who shared their Spotify wrapped because we were the number one sports podcast on Spotify of the 2025 year. Obviously, a lot of familiar faces up there. Incredible podcasts up here. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. Bustin' with the boys made the list. We got our guy Pat McAfee. Pat McAfee, part of my take. A bunch of friends on there that are all well-deserving of it. But thank you guys for posting all that and tuning in week in, week out. We also heard from a bunch of 92 %ers who got their YouTube recap, but wanted to specifically shout out Rachel, who was in our top 0.1 % of viewers.

5:31That's pretty crazy. Rachel said, safe to say I look forward to Wednesdays as she posted a picture of her literally being top 0.1 % of viewers. That's awesome. Shout out to Rachel. Well done. It was awesome seeing a bunch of people posting, you know, where they're at in the percentages and how many minutes. I don't know if that was on YouTube or if that was a Spotify thing, but the end of the year recaps. Did you look at your Spotify? I don't know how to do it. Where is it at? You go to Spotify and I'm pretty sure it's just free. free Spotify ad. It's fine with it. I'm cool with it. Is it in? Where is it at?

6:06It should be in home. Oh, it's time for your 2025 wrapped. All right. We're ready for you. Swipe up. You listened 13 ,388 minutes. 254 genres. That's a lot of genres. That's way more than a lot of people for sure. My top genre is doo-wop. Oh, you're seeing me and you are. What was your? It's going to tell you your average age. Ooh. So doo-wop is more because I sing a lot of doo-wop songs to Finny. For some reason, she stops crying when I sing like Fleetwoods and some of the doo-wop music from back in the day. Okay. Then obviously, I've always been an outlaw country guy. Synth pop, big synth pop.

6:51Children's music. Yep, this is all adding up. Beach music. All right, here we go. Age. Don't take this personally. Oh, my God. What is it? That's embarrassing. What is it? 83. 83. Nice. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I'm older than dad. I was 68. Yeah. I'm right underneath dad. That's hilarious. Nice. Well, it's always fun to see what your average age is compared to your Spotify and the songs you're listening to. That wraps up new news brought to you by American Express. Let's get to some fan mentions. We got a fun basket weave mention from EAW7354, the official way to hold garagers. The old double hand.

7:38I just want to be like, that's not a basket weaving style technique, right? The basket weaving is hand over hand. Or is that basket weaving? I didn't write basket weave in here. Have you ever held a beer by two hands? I don't think I've ever done that. Not crossed like that. I kind of want to try it. Ball security. Beer security. Beer security. Man, that sounds like a TV show. By the way, I do want to point out, outside of the doo-wop album, because I play that every night when I'm singing to Finney. Second album. Tate Tate? You know it. That was number one for me. Damn it. I don't have any. Kids are singing to see.

8:18I can't sing Tate songs. I'm not that. Dad, you're really off pitch here. You can sing along. You can sing along. They're catchy. They are. All right. Bold topics to wrap up week 14. Let's start with Sunday night football. Chiefs 10, Texans 20. Trav, I'll let you take it away, brother. Yeah, man. It's been a tough fucking go around for the past two days. It's just, you put in all this fucking work in hopes that it pays off. And right now, it's just for whatever fucking reason, man. It's little things. It's, I don't know, discipline. I feel like I've always had the answers in years past, and this year I just can't find them.

9:01And I keep thinking if I show up to work and I put in the work and I fix the issues through my practice habits and through perfecting the game plan and my fundamentals and what I'm being taught and go out there and try and play my ass off for my guys next to me, it's all going to come together like it has in years past, and this year is just not, man. And not to say that I won't keep doing that. It's all that I can do. It's all that I'm going to always show up to work and fucking give it my all. And if there's a game to be played, I'm going to fucking make it the most important game of the world.

9:37Yeah. But obviously looking at the playoffs, this is a tough reality to be in, especially with, I don't know, just how we've always found a way in years past. So it's a shitty fucking feeling, especially dropping the fucking ball late in the game like that when we were on our last fucking chance to make something shake. It's a shitty feeling, man. I hear you. You put in all this work to be there for your guys, and I just wasn't that. I do got to point out. I think that that catch would have been a pretty damn impressive catch. That was a tough one. I mean, you're running all the way over here, and you're trying to reach back.

10:18I know you always hold yourself to a high standard, but that would have been a tough catch. I'll say this. Again, it's another game that was right there, right? And we knew going into it the Texans had a great defense. We knew Chiefs had a great defense. And it was going to come down to the team that made the few mistakes. And at the end of the day, with the drop passes and things at the end of the game, even throughout the game, there were multiple times where you guys had the opportunities. And it's just like, it's just been a very weird year for the Chiefs. And you guys have been in, I mean, what is it, seven straight?

10:48This was the first time in, what, nine seasons you guys aren't going to win the AFC West or whatever it is since 2015. You know, I think sometimes the ball just doesn't fall your way. And you guys have had the epitome of that this year. Yeah, I don't know. I know it's frustrating. I know that, you know, it's the competitor you are and, you know, how badly you want it, how badly Pat wants it, the work you guys put in. So I feel for you for sure. and I know that that game in particular was a frustrating one because of what it meant. It's frustrating, but we got four games left and it'll put my fucking heart on the line for these guys because they deserve that.

11:29Chiefs Kingdom, you guys deserve that and we're going to keep this thing fucking rolling, man. What is the mindset? You guys just one game at a time, just got the Chargers this week? Yeah, I mean, obviously we don't necessarily control our own destiny at this point. Like I said, we need some things to happen outside of us winning all our games. So that's all you can do, man. You got the Chargers coming in, and you just get after them. I just feel like if you guys get the 10-7 this year in the AFC, that'll sneak in at a wild card. But one game at a time. Yep. Four games left. What do the Chiefs have to get fixed the most?

12:05What are you guys the most focused on? Critical situations towards the end of the game, showing up. I mean, obviously, drop passes. Yeah, drops are the things that stood out to me watching it. Missed blocks in key situations that could spark big runs, spark big plays, and scoring touchdowns. You got to score touchdowns in this league, man. And field goals aren't going to cut it. I think it's just details on all phases, even though I thought our defense fucking showed up and played a hell of a game against the Texans this week. Chris Jones, my God. He was showing his heart, man. That's for sure.

12:41Spags was dialing up all these blitzes. I mean, it was a fun game to watch from the defense for sure. They were doing everything they could. And shout out to the Texans, man. They made plays when they needed to. They got good players over there, man. That defense is freaking – it's the best in the NFL right now. Yeah. D 'Amico Ryan's – dude, every single person on that staff I've played with in Philly, it's kind of amazing considering how they all have like – and a lot of them weren't even there together. Like D 'Amico's the head coach. Matt Burke's the D.C. Corey Unlin's in the backfield. Billy Davis, who was the DC when Chip was here, is the linebackers coach.

13:16I mean, whenever I'm at a Houston, I'm like, God dang, this is like former Philadelphia right here. But yeah, they're rolling on defense, man. Those guys are doing a great job coaching those guys up, and they have great players. I do got to shout out Esa Pole. Played good, man. The biggest thing I was worried about was the offensive line. And he played against who I think is one of the best players in the NFL and has been for a while, the Neo Hunter. And he held his own, more than held his own. No, he came in and, yeah, I was extremely proud of him, happy as hell for him. And I'll tell you, man, you want to talk about a guy that was just fucking happy to play ball, man.

13:53Yeah. Out there, high energy, no matter what the situation was, seemed like he was ready to fucking get after it. That's awesome. A guy like that who's just kind of itching at the bit to be able to get out there and show the world what he's got, man. The big athletic guy, man. And happy as hell for him. Just wish we could have got the win for him. We got the Chargers this week, obviously, coming off a win against the Eagles that we're about to get into, man. A team we know, a team that knows us, and they're rolling too. Hardball's got them playing their best fucking ball, and Herbert's playing lights out.

14:27And, yeah, we're going to have our hands full, man. Let's go ahead and get to this Eagles-Chargers game, though, on a little Monday night out there in Los Angeles. Jason, you kind of summed up the game by tweeting FML, if you want to tell everybody why you tweeted that. It was just a frustrating game to watch as an Eagles fan. We just continually kept kicking ourselves in the foot. I mean, it was turnovers, penalty down low, takes us off the two-yard line. I mean, it was just one thing after the other. Very frustrating game. It felt like there was more to be had. It did feel like we were starting to click.

15:05And then every second we got into the red zone, turnover. over. Every single time we got a chance to get a touchdown, we get knocked back and kick a field goal. We missed a field goal. It's just not too much different than the Chiefs game. It's like, man, we had our opportunities more than our opportunities. We did a lot of really good things in the game against a really good team, against a really good defense. The Chargers defense is one of the better units in the NFL. Statistically and personnel-wise, one of my favorite defensive players in the league and derwin james over there uh love watching that guy every chance i get to see him play so yeah just a really frustrating game and it ended in a very frustrating fashion where we're putting together a great drive playing outstanding ball and over time driving the length of the field and then uh the interception to lose just it was just a gut wrenching way to to end that one and you know we needed to get some momentum back and unfortunately a very sloppy game again leaves the Eagles in another week of frustration.

16:12And listen, if we take care of business and don't have these mistakes, it's going in a different direction and we're rolling. So it was a frustrating game. You mentioned that last turnover that kind of sealed it, but eight combined turnovers. Dude, it was nuts. It was like the ball was in butter. I don't even know, like, what. It's insane. There's a few bun stats. I mean, on the one play, obviously, the interception from Jalen, they pick it up, we force a fumble, Jalen recovers it, and then while he's still trying to get control of that thing, he fumbles it. It was just a comedy of turnovers all game long.

16:51There were a lot of what-the-fuck plays, and Hurts actually became the first player since 1978 with two turnovers on the same play, which tells you how rare that shit is when it happens. But six in the second quarter alone is fucking ridiculous. Yeah, it was a horrendous game of ball security, which is not. Jalen, I know the last couple of weeks have been rough for him. This is one of the things he's done well his whole career, is taking care of the football. And it's unfortunately been too out of, I guess, character or not common games from him and from our team that have really cost us. I mean, this offense has been so stagnant in the three and outs, and it's struggled to get anything going the last couple weeks.

17:43This team, well, the defense is great. The defense was phenomenal. This game, outside of the Bears game, and maybe one other one against the Giants, they've been great all season. Offensively, they're looking for who they are, it looks like. They're looking for that identity, right? And there's so many good pieces. And, you know, all these plays are great individual plays for this guy, this guy, this guy, and this guy. And it's just, you know, who are we and what are we going to be about? And throughout Jalen's tenure, and I think what lends itself to the best for this team, is, man, we got to attack the line of scrimmage with one of the best running backs in the game and just repeatedly stick to that and then take our shots down the field.

18:25It doesn't need to be this kind of crazy, outlandish thing. And I know everybody's talking about the scheme and whatnot. There were plays in this game to be had. There were opportunities. Guys were open. I thought that, quite frankly, we had a really good game offensively. Yeah, I thought you guys did. Outside of the turnovers. Obviously, the turnovers are crazy. I think that there's some positive things moving forward. First of all, the defense is still playing out of their mind. But listen, if that run game keep going like that, you know, you got stretch working. You can do a lot of things off of stretch.

18:58You got split zone, attacking the line of scrimmage. I know everybody talks about under center versus gun. I really just think about it like just build a wall. Get running off the ball and make those guys stop that. In order to stop that, you got to commit to the line of scrimmage. And then that opens things behind them. And, you know, they're a good team as well. Jesse Minner did some things that threw us off on plays here and there. That's going to happen. I thought it was overall there's a lot of positive to take away from the game. In a game that looks really negative because of the extremely bad plays that happened, there were some good things, in my opinion, on that tape.

19:37I thought the guys ran block better than they have in a while. I thought the tight ends did a pretty darn good job in this game for the most part. And, yeah, I mean, uncharacteristic game for Jalen. He cleans that up. Full confidence he will. And the defense keeps playing like this. I know that's a lot of ifs and buts and candies and nuts. But, you know, yeah. I hear you, Coach Kels. Does getting Lane Johnson back soon help? Yes, of course it does. Why is that even a question? Hopefully you guys can get him back. Hopefully Land is not too banged up. Then he can keep things rolling. I know he got a little banged up and came out for a quick second.

20:20He had a calf injury. I think that's what it was. But he came back in late, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe just keep it moving to positivity, Rabbit. So this has been a thing with the offensive line for a while now? No. This is the first time it showed up. I thought it was Landon because it feels like Landon's sense of humor. Landon said it wasn't him. I have no idea where this fucking rabbit came from. There you go. It showed up today, and the offensive lineman stressed to me that they are not sad. They just wanted good vibes, Bunny. This is from Ashley Sullivan. I would assume a reporter out there in the Philly area.

20:54At the end of the week, this positivity rabbit showed up in the locker room. And obviously, this is kind of like somebody trying to – it's a lot of negativity in Philadelphia. And before the game for an 8-4 team that's first in their division and certainly looking like they're going to be in the playoffs, I think the team was trying to make a statement like, hey, we're all in on this together. We feel like we're still the real deal. Yeah. if i'm being honest i don't really like the rabbit i think it's kind of like it's a little hokey but listen if they like it who the fuck i'm not i don't really give a fuck that much but you got to go back it up you go out there and you turn the wall over a bunch and largely you're the reason that you lose the game rabbits gotta fucking eat carrots get the fuck out of here get the antics out of here i hear you bad vibe the bad it didn't work what did they say about it so it showed up today in the offensive line stressed to me they are not sad they just wanted good vibes bunny so you're asking brandon should they ditch the rabbit or double down with more rabbits just put more rabbits in what do you which way do you go with this you're saying get rid of it i think they tried it it didn't work you got to ditch the rab i mean the whole thing's got to go it's got to go yeah i kind of agree or do you double down it's a good question do you add you do put different holiday mascots in there do you get a leprechaun do you get i mean the More rabbits is funny.

22:17I don't know how much you want to joke around about just... At this point, fucking... A season going the wrong direction right now. Yeah, if I'm losing, not winning, we got to get rid of that shit. That's my... Honestly, if I'm being very brutally honest, I thought it was a surprise to see the rabbit because I'm like... It's a sign of just too much joking around with something that I think is like, actually, you should be really fucking pissed off with the way you're playing. and it's okay to be positive but like you know this is something you do when everything's rolling and you're freaking performing well you don't do antics like this when you've shit the bed for the last couple weeks yeah i hear you well we got a uh monsters fun day football uh do we have is this a jason kelsey monsters inc it is this is pretty cool the what is this esbn does this altcast There's at least a second year.

23:12Last year they did it as Simpsons characters, but somehow they do it with AI or some animation program or whatever, but it mimics the game happening. I think Dan Orlovsky and Mina Kimes, and I forget who else is on the call, maybe Jeremy Fowler. I don't know, but there's a whole other broadcast happening. And they did it this year in the Monsters, Inc. style, and Swag and I did the pregame show for it. Nice. And we were monsters. for the pregame show of the Allcast. And, I mean, I just love the beard. That's great. And then look at the eyebrows. The eyebrows are thick as shit. You already know.

23:51That's not Jason Kelsey unless you throw some thick-ass eyebrows on there. Dude, this would be fun to just wear this as my outfit, though. Just get like a collar with a... On Monday night? You're insane. That's pretty good, though. The Eagles got the Raiders at home next week, though. They do. I know the Raiders had a rough season this year. Obviously, they've already fired Chip Kelly, offensive coordinator. Hasn't gone their way, but it's still the NFL, man. Any team can win any given Sunday. And the Eagles need to get some momentum going. They have to go out there and perform. Yeah. I really feel strongly they need to figure out what the identity is that they want to do.

24:28And I think they were closer to doing that this last week. I think when something's working, I would love to see them just continue to press that. You know what I mean? It feels like a lot of the times they do something that works and then they're on to the next thing that they want to, they went into the game wanting to do. It's like, hold on, hey, if we're doing this really good, if Saquon's rolling with these types of plays, make them defend that. If they can't show that they can defend that, bro, keep taking it. Some of the spread things are interesting. I thought they adjusted well with empty where, you know, when they do those like zero, they know you're in five-man protection.

25:04So they just read the guards, make you hot, and then you got to get rid of the ball. If you want to live in empty, you need to move the back around a lot. Put the back in the backfield, motion him out. Put the back in the backfield, motion him out, bring him back in. Jet a tight end across a formation, act like the tight end's jetting, and then he stops, and then you do like a six-man protection with the tight end. You got to at least mess with the numbers so it's not predictable every time you line up at empty, it's going to be five-man protection. Otherwise, they're just going to sit flat-footed, make you hot, and rally to the ball.

25:37But that's a whole other fucking thing. Big game this week. Obviously, Raiders in the link. They need to go out and put forward a good game. I don't care what the Raiders record is. At this point, the Eagles need to show that they can be a consistent, good football team. Limit the penalties. Run the ball well. Control the line of scrimmage. And take your shots when they're there. It doesn't need to be this air raid high scoring attack with the way this defense is playing. Grind it out. Eventually, the run game gets going the more and more that you pound it on these guys. It really sucks with how good the defense played this last week that we weren't able to get a victory for them.

26:17And really, with how they played the whole season, we can be this type of offense. I really believe that. I hear you. They just got to put it all together, man. There we go. It's the name of the game, baby. All righty. Thanks to our presenting sponsor. That's right. Oh, Yeti. Fuck yeah, I love these things. Who doesn't love a good Yeti? Check these things out, dude. I do a podcast with one and a drink out of one. Check these things out right here. These NFL ramblers that Yeti sent us. Got the Eagles one here. I also got a New Heights green one. Ooh. If you like a little bit of a darker green. It's a good green.