The Josh Innes Show - A Big Night For The Kelce Grift

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Tonight, Taylor Swift will break the internet by appearing on the "New Heights" Podcast. I don't dislike her. I actually respect and admire her for building herself into the superstar she is. Good for her. I really, really dislike the Kelce Family Grift. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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18 plus subscription required TNCs apply. It is a gigantic day because we are just hours away from the drop of the New Heights podcast in which Taylor Swift will divulge all the information about her new album to Jason Kelsey and Travis Kelsey. And there are thoughts that the internet may break. There are thoughts that like servers are going to shut down, sites are going to crash. This is a very big day for Taylor Swift. It's a very big day for females with arrested development.

And this is a very big day for people. And it's a big day for the Kelsey's because they can continue their grift. That's the most important thing here. They can continue their Taylor Swift grift. And they've done a very good job with it. Like, in a way, you've got to give them credit. Because I hate them. And I think a lot of people find these Kelsey people to be annoying.

And I think anybody with a brain sees through exactly what it is they're doing. And some people don't mind it as much as others do. But let me play some commercials here. Then let's dig into the Kelsey, Taylor Swift, Grift. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the Go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30. for two people and up to $60 for a group of five.

Buy your online go pass ahead of the show at go-transit.com slash tickets. Long-bendy Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going. Keep the fun going. Now you could say, Josh, you're just a bitter human and some people may hear me say these things and say, oh, aren't you the guy in Philly that did whatever with Jason Kelsey? Yes, but that has no impact on how I feel about

the Kelsey's. And this is about that once every two months that it's a state of my feelings about the Kelsey's show. And the way I feel about the Kelsey's today, today is one of those days that I hate them more than usual. I don't hate Taylor Swift. In fact, I have nothing against Taylor Swift. I don't think Taylor Swift is some sort of evil entity. Her music is very white bread and vanilla. Her audience is young children up to arrested development 40-something-year-old women, right? Like, I don't fault her for having an audience. She clearly works hard at it. She clearly has made a name for herself. She clearly has become one of the biggest stars on the planet. She's a hardworking person. I don't fault people for being famous, right? Like,

I don't look at people and go, oh, I hate Taylor Swift because she's famous. or her success is ill-begotten. I feel none of that because her success, like, it's not her fault that she makes shit that wacky women want to listen to, right? So there's a lot of shit that's not for me, a lot of shit that I don't like, but I respect the fact that there's an audience for it. You know, there are a lot of radio shows that I don't like and I think are terrible, but there's an audience for it, and I can respect that there's an audience for it.

So this is not an anti-Taylor Swift take because I can see why her fans would be going bat-shit crazy today wanting to know details about her next album. Cool, right? I'm all for that. And as we've talked about before, I have been to a Taylor Swift show before she was playing all the football stadiums consistently. I saw her in the second row at the Toyota Center in Houston. It was a lovely time. So I have nothing against her. And in the right light, I think she's an extremely cute person, right? my issue is that the Kelsey's are involved in a gigantic grift and that's what I don't like because I do feel that their successes outside of football of course their successes outside of football are ill-begotten let's start here I do not believe that Travis Kelsey like completely hates Taylor Swift or doesn't like Taylor Swift I believe that he

genuinely enjoys Taylor Swift and perhaps they are truly in love like he said in GQ and maybe that's the case. But what I think has happened here is my man has gotten himself so deep in this world that he'll never be able to get out of it whether or not he's genuinely in love with Taylor Swift or not, right? I think he got himself into a spot where hey, this chick's kind of hot, kind of cute, whatever, let's go out, whatever. And then he started seeing kind of the reaction he's gotten and what it's done for his personal brand and it's like well this is certainly nice then his brother jumps in on the grift then his brother's wife jumps in on the grift and then his mom bruce valanche jumps in on the grift and the kelsey family is all part of this giant grift

where they are suckling off the taylor swift teat now you may not care about that it may not impact your life you may say hey they're just opportunistic josh why do you hate them so much And that would be a very fair question. I just find them to be uninteresting, loathsome people who have ill-begotten fortune, and it's because of the fact that one of them is banging the biggest star on the planet. They are not interesting people. The mom is not interesting. What she do?

She shit out two kids. There are people that shit out ten kids. Like, who cares? You shit out ten kids. They're good football players. Cool. You know, the wife, the wife is not interesting. But because of her ties to Taylor Swift now, it's, she's very popular and has a big podcast.

One of the things I hate is when you'll see stories and it's like, I don't even know her name, whatever Kelsey she is, you know, wife Kelsey has a bigger podcast than Joe Rogan. And it's like, well, no, she doesn't. Like, that's absurd. But whatever. Then, of course, now I will give them some credit for taking advantage of this relationship and having, hey, look, Taylor's doing them a solid. All right. Taylor is doing them like Taylor is basically propping them up here because now this podcast is going to have the biggest audience. You could argue this might be the most listened to episode of a podcast ever. Certainly for them it's going to be. There will never be one that's bigger than this. This may go down as one of the most listened to podcast episodes in the history of podcasting, which means it's going to be one of the biggest episodes of any sort of entertainment ever. And it's going to belong to travel. and Jason Kelsey, two doofuses, and that part of it annoys me, right? There's a lot of doofuses.

I just, I don't like these guys. I find them to be annoying. I find them to be untalented outside of football. Then you start reading some of the comments from Travis, Kelsey, and GQ, where he's on the cover of GQ, and they're calling them America's sweetheart. Some of the shit in here is so pretentious and so, like, this is one of my favorites, right? Kelsey's receiving yardage and touchdown totals dipped for a second straight year in 2024, and he was all but a non-factor in Kansas City Super Bowl loss to the Eagles,

which I know because I bet on this guy week in, week out, and he has bent me over week in and week out. The titan's abundance of extracurricular activities from hosting his New Heights podcast to appearing in everything from commercials to movies to game shows admittedly affected his focus. Quote, when a Super Bowl is the only goal, it's the only goal. It's every goal. I think it might have slipped or I might have slipped a little bit because I did have a little bit more focus on trying to set myself up, which, okay, fair thing to say.

Opportunities came up where I was excited to venture into a new world of acting and being an entertainer. Sir, that's like Dan Patrick saying he's an actor because he's appeared in Adam Sandler movies, friend. You are not an actor. Like, oh, God, that just oozes douche. Like, well, I was kind of distracted from playing football because, you know, I was getting into this new world of being an actor and an entertainer. You are not an actor and you are not entertaining. You are a football player who is fucking the biggest entertainer on the planet. That is what you are.

There is nothing wrong with that. That is not a crime to say that people know you or you have a bigger audience because of the fact that you are fucking the biggest star on the planet. But the idea like calling yourself an actor or saying that you are focusing on your acting and being an entertainer is maybe the most. pretentious, lack of self-awareness, dushy thing somebody could say. You are a dupus football player who a couple of years ago was doing reality dating shows, and now you're dating the biggest star on the planet, and now you're an actor. Now you're a thesbian. Now you're in commercials.

Now I'm an entertainer. Quote, my work ethic is such that I have so much pride in how I do things that I never won a product to tail off, and I feel that the past two years haven't been to my standard. So you're essentially saying that you fucked your team for two years so you could go out and make Hallmark movies and commercials with your girlfriend and your mom. Like, if I'm his teammate, and listen, this guy has earned the reputation of being a good player. He is a good football player and was a good football player. I don't know that he is a good football player anymore. It is possible that he just fucking sucks and that he was cooked.

Like, that's the other part of it. It is very possible that this guy was just cooked the last years and he is dunzo like i don't know what's going to change like what exactly about you is going to change now you got the taste of the sweet life you're an actor now you're an entertainer now who are we to buy that you're just going to magically become uh Travis Kelsey of five years ago it is very possible that you're just old and you're not good at football anymore and you're still and your abilities have diminished and your talents have eroded and it's very easy to now say well I was distracted because I was making major motion pictures you sound like my fucking dad when he calls himself an actor well you know i was in uh the the iron claw josh i get that you're in

it for two seconds i love you and it's cool as shit that you were but it's not like your fucking richard gear here dad and when i see people who are not actors like uh Travis kelsey saying well you know i had to you know work on my acting and being an entertainer and that was the reason why your football numbers dropped i don't buy that like i get that you were distracted and your jet setting and all that, but on the football field, that shouldn't be impacting what you do as a player. What's impacting you as a player is you're just not good at football anymore. And perhaps what we're witnessing here is finally the death of the Kansas City Chiefs. It may just be the end of the road for them.

Let's see what some of the other comments. At one point in his career, he cried and begged to play for the Browns because he's a Browns fan. That's fun. He cares deeply about how he's viewed. you can't block it out Kelsey said if someone says something that they don't like about you you have to be able to understand how you are portraying yourself for them to say that I'm a guy who doesn't want anything or anyone to say anything negative about me some people don't give a fuck I'm someone who does care yes no duh the Kelsey's are two of the most care about what people have to say about them ever look at his brother his brother cares way too much about what people say he admires Taylor Swift for how relatable she is Kelsey insists his relationship with Swift is organic behind the scenes. We're just two people that are in love. My God, barf! But there's one big reason he's able to sustain such a relationship which draws so much or so many cameras. Swift knows exactly what it's like to be in the public eye at all times.

I hadn't experienced somebody in the same shoes as me, having to partner who understands the scrutiny, understands the ups and downs of being in front of millions. Yes and no. You were in front of people who cared about one thing and that was football. Like, to put yourself in the same category as Taylor Swift, who is in front of billions of people, not the millions of people who watch the NFL, and I'm not downplaying the fact that you're in front of a lot of people and you have to deal with a ton of scrutiny before you met her, but now you've thrown yourself into this world of this extreme scrutiny. You are not Taylor Swift.

You are in her orbit now. Therefore, you're getting this. If you ever break up, those people will not give a shit about you. they will actually it will get worse they will torture you if you guys ever break up i just find you annoying and i find your brother annoying and your grift and i it is a grift it is no doubt a grift your the the wife is not interesting the mom is not interesting that they're all making money suckling off this taylor swift teat and i get it's one of those things where you know that you're rationally annoyed by something that other people are not and most people would look at

you like bro like why do you hate this situation so much i just find them to be scared I find this whole thing to be a giant grift and a giant scam. That's what annoys me about it. Like, their podcast is nothing special, but, oh, the guy's dating Taylor Swift, so they have a billion listens, right? And I'm not jealous. I mean, look, everybody's jealous of people and envy more so. Like, yes, you'd love to have a billion dollars or a $100 million podcast deal.

I'm also a realist who knows that I'm never going to have a hundred million podcast deal. So that's not something I strive for. Like, I don't sit here every day and go, man, I sure would love to have a hundred million dollar podcast deal and I'm jealous that other people do it. Look, I get why they have their audience and why they make money doing this. I also understand that they are grifters. Maybe if you want to argue that Travis isn't a grifter, maybe he's legitimately in love

with Taylor Swift, I can entertain that. Maybe he is. Jason Kelsey is a grifter. Whatever the wife's name is, she's a grifter. The mom is a grifter. They are 100% in on the grift. I will give the benefit of the doubt to Travis and say, he's not, but I think the other ones are.

Anyway, more to come.