NFL Week 11: Kelce brothers to play against each other for first time since Super Bowl

CNN
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Week 11 of the NFL season kicked off with the Baltimore Ravens’ dominant Thursday Night Football victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. The divisional win kept the Ravens atop the AFC North, but the bigger storyline of the day was the devastating injury to Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow.

On Sunday, six more divisional matchups will be played across the league. The Week 11 action concludes with the biggest game of the week – a Kelce vs. Kelce Super Bowl rematch.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Kansas City Chiefs, Monday, 8:20 p.m. ET

It’s been a long time coming.

On Monday Night, the Kelce brothers will face off for the first time since their epic “Kelce Bowl” showdown. Jason Kelce’s Philadelphia Eagles will travel to Kansas City to take on Travis Kelce’s Chiefs in one of the most highly-anticipated matchups of the season – a Super Bowl LVII rematch and a potential Super Bowl LVIII preview.

While neither Kelce brother played football last week, the pair still managed to make headlines. Travis traveled to Buenos Aires to attend Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” and Jason was named one of People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive.” The brothers also released a Christmas song, “The Fairytale of Philadelphia,” from “A Philly Special Christmas Special,” a holiday album created to benefit local charities in Philadelphia.

“It’s been a whirlwind. It kind of started last year with the podcast and it’s continually built up more and more from the Super Bowl and my brother’s love life and People magazine,” Jason told reporters.

Travis Kelce flew to Buenos Aires last week to watch Taylor Swift perform.

Ralf Ibing/firo sportphoto/Getty Images

“It’s continued to get more and more and you just kind of take it one day at a time, I think you try and stay grounded with it, you try and be realistic about it and you try to be the same person you are.”

Now with the bye week in the rearview, the pair are ready to direct their attention back to football.

On the most recent episode of the New Heights podcast, the brothers described how it feels to compete against each other.

“I just enjoy being in the NFL with you, let alone when we actually get to share the field,” Travis said. “It brings all of our family, all of our friends, together to watch one game. Outside of the score at the end, I know all the family, and I know I definitely have fun in every single game that we’ve ever played.”

Nine months have passed since they last faced off, in a game that ended in elation for Kansas City and heartbreak for Philadelphia.

The pain of that Super Bowl loss still lingers heading into Monday’s game. Jason, however, isn’t motivated by the past.

“I don’t need the Super Bowl to motivate me to beat my brother, or Andy Reid. I’ve never beat them in my career, so maybe I’m more motivated by that. I don’t buy into Super Bowl revenge games,” he told reporters.

“I think if you look at that outside noise, you’re really doing yourself a disservice. So, the same things that allow us to be successful every week are going to come down to this game. Taking care of the football, being smart, executing in the red zone.”