No question, the big NFL game each week on Monday night draws a huge number of eyeballs, and though it's not quite as big as its Sunday morning counterparts, the ESPN pregame show attracts serious attention, too. If, for no other reason, because we all want to see what sort of get-up former Eagles star Jason Kelce has working this week.
Here in Week 11, for the considerably unattractive Cowboys-Texans game--which looked to be a powerhouse matchup before the season--Kelce unveiled a look that evoked both Luddite farmer and cartoon bear.
Kelce was on the "Monday Night Countdown" set with Scott Ven Pelt, and fellow former NFL players Ryan Clark and Marcus Spears, this week in Dallas, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a bolo tie and suspenders over a denim-ish blue shirt. If there had been "Monday Night Football" on the American frontier in the mid-1800s, Kelce would have fit right in.
Immediately, the wisenheimer reactions came in.
The Total Sports Pro account on Twitter/X came up with the comparison between Kelce and the Smokey the Bear, the cartoon who warns of the dangers of forest fires.
The "MadHatterCommander" account wondered why Kelce was looking like a traditionally dressed Amish man.
"Wonder Monkey" had Kelce ready to hit the trail, prospecting for gold.
It was all too much for Spears, who took in Kelce's outfit and began feeling the sleeve of his shirt and pointed to his tie.
"Jean material. What do you call these things?" Informed it is a bolo tie, Spears said, "Is that yours, did you own that before you got here?"
Kelce said he did not own it previously, but got it as he was coming off the airplane. "I appreciate you ingratiating yourself in the Texas culture,' said Spears, who had played for the Cowboys for eight seasons, from 2005-12.
When Kelce offered up a history lesson, noting that the Stetson company, which invented the cowboy had, was based in Philadelphia, Van Pelt could only say, "The things you learn."
