Please Don't Troll Jason Kelce (or Anyone) Outside Football Games

There are many cases in which the sight of a celebrity angrily smashing another person’s cellphone on the ground inspires empathy for the person whose phone is being demolished. In the case of Jason Kelce and someone who decided to provoke him on his way to a Penn State game today, however, the situation looks a little different.

You may recall last year when right-wing provocateur Alex Stein took it upon himself to harass the WNBA’s Brittney Griner in an airport. This incident was as pointless as that, and a similar case of someone taking their smartphone and making comments in bad faith to a celebrity to see what happens.

As Penn Live’s Brian Linder reports, Kelce was on his way to the Penn State-Ohio State game when another man walked up to him, began recording, and asked Kelce about his brother’s relationship with Taylor Swift, using a homophobic slur in the process. (I’m not entirely sure why a man dating a woman merits a homophobic slur, but then again, I also don’t make it a practice of seeking out celebrities with the express intent of trolling them.)

In this case, Kelce reacted the way most people would if a stranger walked up to them and insulted a member of their family: he grabbed the phone, smashed it and continued on his way.

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Now, there are some details that haven’t come to the foreground yet — as Linder points out, it’s not entirely clear if Kelce grabbed the right phone or not. And losing one’s temper in public is never a great look. Still, if you’re walking up to a complete stranger with the intention of provoking them, maybe it’s a good time to think about why you’re doing that and whether infuriating someone much larger than you is really a good idea.