Jason Kelce Apologizes to Bears Fans After Repeated 'We' Slip on ESPN
- 🔑 On ESPN’s September 28, 2026 broadcast of the Eagles-Bears game, analyst and former Eagles center Jason Kelce repeatedly referred to Philadelphia as “we” while discussing the team; co-host Pat McAfee called it out on air, and Kelce apologized, saying “Sorry, Bears fans.”
- Kelce’s first slip came before kickoff during Monday Night Countdown, when he told Eagles coach Nick Sirianni that quarterback Jalen Hurts was “playing awesome for us,” immediately correcting himself to “for the Eagles” and noting he needed to stay an “unbiased media member.”
- At halftime, discussing Philadelphia’s first-half performance, Kelce said “We played really well offensively. We had opportunities. We shot ourselves in the foot,” prompting McAfee’s on-air callout: “A lot of ‘we’ talk out of Jason for Philly.”
- Kelce retired from the Eagles in March 2024 after 13 seasons at center, joined ESPN as an analyst roughly two months later, and has treated the recurring “we” habit as a lighthearted, self-acknowledged side effect of that quick transition rather than a real controversy.
- The broadcast moment came during a Week 3 Monday Night Football game the Bears won 27-7 over the Eagles at Soldier Field, with Chicago’s Case Keenum throwing for 247 yards and two touchdowns. No odds, point spreads, or win-probability figures are used anywhere in this piece.
Jason Kelce apologized to Chicago Bears fans on ESPN’s broadcast coverage of the Eagles-Bears game on September 28, 2026, after he repeatedly slipped into calling his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles, “we.” The moment came during ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown desk coverage of Philadelphia’s 27-7 loss at Soldier Field, when co-host Pat McAfee called out the bias on air and Kelce immediately owned up to it.
What happened during ESPN’s Eagles-Bears broadcast?
Jason Kelce, the retired Eagles center now working as an ESPN analyst, referred to the Philadelphia Eagles as “we” twice during ESPN’s coverage of Philadelphia’s September 28, 2026 game against the Chicago Bears, and apologized on air once a co-host pointed it out. The first slip came before kickoff, the second at halftime, both during the Monday Night Countdown desk segments rather than the in-game play-by-play booth. Neither moment held up the broadcast for more than a few seconds — it was a quick, good-natured exchange, not a tense one.
What exactly did Kelce say before kickoff?
Before the game, Kelce told Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni that quarterback Jalen Hurts was “playing awesome for us” — then immediately caught himself. “He’s playing awesome for us — for the Eagles. Should say that. Unbiased media member,” Kelce said, correcting course on his own without anyone else pointing it out.
What did Kelce say at halftime that drew the callout?
At halftime, breaking down Philadelphia’s uneven first-half performance, Kelce again described the Eagles as “we.” “We played really well offensively. We had opportunities. We shot ourselves in the foot,” he said. This time, McAfee jumped in: “A lot of ‘we’ talk out of Jason for Philly.” McAfee then added, half-joking, that if he were speaking for the Bears, he’d be plenty pumped with how Chicago’s offense was moving the ball.
How did Kelce apologize?
Kelce apologized directly on air, telling viewers, “Sorry, Bears fans,” as soon as McAfee flagged the pattern. It was a light moment rather than a defensive one — Kelce laughed it off along with his co-hosts, and the broadcast moved on to the second-half breakdown without further comment on it.
Why does Kelce keep slipping into “we” when talking about the Eagles?
Kelce spent his entire 13-season NFL career at center for the Eagles before retiring in March 2024, and he joined ESPN as an analyst only about two months later. That quick turnaround from locker room to broadcast booth has made fully dropping first-person-plural habits a recurring, low-stakes challenge for him on air, and it’s one he’s acknowledged himself in the past rather than something that’s drawn any real criticism. It’s a familiar wrinkle for former players-turned-analysts generally, not unique to Kelce.
What was the final score of the game that sparked the moment?
The Bears beat the Eagles 27-7 at Soldier Field in a Week 3 Monday Night Football matchup, with Chicago quarterback Case Keenum throwing for 247 yards and two touchdowns in his first start since December 2023. The broadcast moment happened around a lopsided game that also saw Eagles starter Jalen Hurts briefly leave for a concussion evaluation before returning before halftime. For the full breakdown of how Chicago pulled off the win, see our recap of the Eagles-Bears Monday Night Football game .
It was a small, human moment in an otherwise rough night for Philadelphia — a reminder that thirteen years of saying “we” about one team doesn’t disappear the moment someone hands you a headset, and that Bears fans got their on-air apology before the final whistle even blew.
How we verified this
The core sequence of events — Kelce referring to the Eagles as “we” both before kickoff and at halftime, Pat McAfee’s on-air callout, and Kelce’s apology — was checked against three independently-styled national sports and entertainment-news reports plus a Philadelphia newspaper’s own broadcast recap, all of which describe the same sequence consistently.
The exact apology wording carries minor variance between sources. Two of the reports checked render it as the short “Sorry, Bears fans,” while one renders it as the fuller “Sorry, sorry. I forget. Sorry, Bears fans.” This piece uses the shorter, more widely corroborated version, which also matched the Philadelphia newspaper’s account; a full ESPN broadcast clip would be the strongest way to confirm the complete line word for word.
The specific broadcast segment — ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown pregame and halftime desk coverage, rather than in-game play-by-play commentary — was confirmed by two independent reports, including the Philadelphia newspaper’s own broadcast column, so this piece states it specifically rather than hedging to a generic “broadcast coverage” description.
The underlying game result (Bears 27, Eagles 7, Week 3, Soldier Field, September 28, 2026) was checked against official game data and a national sports network’s box score, and is consistent with this site’s own separate recap of the game.
No betting odds, spreads, or win-probability models appear anywhere on this page.