YouTube Approached Jason Kelce for Chiefs Game, ESPN Said No

ESPN continues to enforce its policy of not lending talents to streamers for NFL games this season.

YouTube approached Jason Kelce to be part of its coverage for the Chargers-Chiefs game in Brazil, which airs next Friday on its streaming platform, but the idea was turned down by ESPN, sources told Front Office Sports.

An ESPN spokesperson declined to comment. A YouTube spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Kelce was a natural target for YouTube. He is a YouTube TV pitchman and his brother Travis is a star tight end on the Chiefs. The brothers host the New Heights podcast, which does monster numbers on YouTube. 

However, as FOS previously reported, ESPN instituted a policy several months back that its broadcasters would not be permitted to appear on YouTube or Netflix games. 

Netflix has a Christmas NFL doubleheader again this season. Last year, Mina Kimes and Laura Rutledge were part of its studio show. Fox, which last year lent Greg Olsen to Netflix as a color commentator, is also not expected to allow its talents to work with the streamers this year. 

ESPN and Fox pay their NFL broadcasters a lot of money for exclusivity and want to protect their investments. The Athletic reported that Kelce is on a three-year, $24 million deal with ESPN for Monday Night Countdown. It has been speculated that tech companies like YouTube—backed by Google—and Netflix will seek to add more NFL games in future years and legacy networks don’t want to help them gain a foothold. 

One source told FOS that ESPN established this policy before YouTube inquired, and that Kelce was not singled out. 

YouTube’s broadcast crew includes Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner (who work for NFL Network), with Stacey Dales and the influencer Deestroying on sideline duty. The studio crew is comprised of Kay Adams, Cam Newton, Derek Carr, Tyrann Mathieu, and Brandon Marshall. Creator IShowSpeed will host an altcast of the game. 

NBC is producing YouTube’s game. Netflix’s doubleheader will be produced by CBS, as was also the case last year.