ESPN opted not to take action against first-year NFL analyst Jason Kelce following an incident where Kelce slammed a fan’s phone on the ground after an appearance on College GameDay for the Week 10 Penn State-Ohio State matchup. But on Tuesday, it was officially determined that no legal action would be coming Kelce’s way either.
Kelce was, of course, somewhat justified in his decision to slam the phone of the fan in question. That fan had approached Kelce after calling his brother, Travis Kelce, a homophobic slur. But regardless of the context, Kelce broke someone else’s property, which prompted an investigation into the matter from the Penn State police.
The former Philadelphia Eagles’ star later apologized publicly for the incident on Monday Night Countdown. And it seems like this was enough for the fan in question to opt not to come forward to the school police department about the matter.
On Tuesday, Penn State University Police and Public Safety closed their investigation into the incident, according to a spokeswoman from the police department in a statement to TMZ.
In her statement, the spokeswoman detailed how the fan in question was never identified and there were never any formal complaints from anyone regarding the damaged property.
“The individual in the video footage circulating on social media has not been identified, and no one has come forward to University Police with a related complaint about damage to personal property,” the statement read.
It’s obviously up for interpretation why the fan never decided to come forward about their damaged phone. But perhaps whoever was involved realized the part they played in Kelce smashing their phone on the ground.
Regardless, Kelce can now move forward without any possibility of this ugly incident coming back to hurt him legally. And that fits with how most fans and a majority of his colleagues largely understood and justified his position on the matter.
[TMZ]