On Thursday, April 11, 2024, the lower hallways of the Lindner Center felt a little different. Bearcats football players went through their normal routine in position rooms, watching film, learning from missed assignments, and diving deeper into the playbook.

In the offensive line room, Coach Nic Cardwell stood at the front gesturing toward the board. He was picking on sophomore Evan Tengesdahl for a missed assignment; the normal procession for a film study. Veteran tackle John Williams, sitting at the front, turned around to look at the back of the room, toward the entrance.

All of a sudden it was as if he had seen a ghost. Center Gavin Gerhardt noticed and turned around himself. Six-time All-Pro, 7x Pro Bowler, and Super Bowl Champion Jason Kelce had passed through the doorway.

“We all slowly turned around, we went, ‘Oh my God,’” Gerhardt told Bearcat Journal. “I was speechless.”

Cardwell, knowing it was a shot in the dark, sent a text to Kelce beforehand asking him if he could talk to his players for a few minutes in the midst of his packed schedule. Kelce obliged, and shortly after entering the room joined in on the film session critiquing Tengesdahl’s technical ability and form.

Eventually, knowing the wealth of knowledge Kelce contained, Cardwell asked him to step to the front of the room and field questions from his players. Gerhardt and others were starstruck, and finding the perfect question for a guy like Jason felt like an impossible task. Fortunately, the boisterous Philip Wilder broke the silence and started the string of questions.

That last-second text turned into a 45-minute meeting. Kelce was gone for so long staffers from Wave Media and Cincinnati Athletics were searching for him around the building, trying to keep him on schedule for the night’s proceedings.

“Not halfway through it, I was like, ‘Hey guys, he probably has other engagements to get to. So only a couple more questions.’ Jason looked at me and said, ‘Listen, this is your meeting. I got nothing for another 30 minutes if you don’t mind.’ [It was] priceless. I was like, ‘You can keep going.’

“He wasn’t in a hurry and it wasn’t like one of those deals where he just checked in the box and left. It was an opportunity for him to pour into our guys.”

“I just tried to soak in as much information as I could from him and him telling stories and what he does when he gets to the line of scrimmage,”Gerhardt said. “How he identifies the safeties and the nickels… How he looks at everything, it’s a lot more complex.”(Photo: Cincinnati Athletics)

Down the hall, Cincinnati’s tight ends were getting a similar experience with Travis Kelce. They didn’t exactly get 45 minutes, but Travis’ impact was similar to that of Jason according to Coach Josh Stepp and tight end Joe Royer.

“It was incredible,” Stepp told Bearcat Journal. “The first two minutes is just the aw factor and I was like, ‘Yeah, Travis Kelce is standing in our room.’”

“We didn’t talk much about schematics in our meeting,” Cincinnati tight end Joe Royer said. “He just talked to us about what it takes to be a successful tight end. Because as a tight end, it’s a very difficult job because you have to be able to block the Nick Bosa’s and Joey Bosa’s of the NFL. Then you have to be able to run routes on Sauce Gardner and Kyle Hamilton, like great safeties and cornerbacks.”

It wasn’t the first time the duo had been back speaking to players. Both have made occasional visits to campus and instilled players with great wisdom from their long careers. However, both have had a constant presence on the screen in each respective room, with a litany of notes taken on the technique and prowess of each sure-fire Hall-of-Famer during film sessions.

Joe Royer has a special respect for Travis Kelce because of the similarity of their games. Royer, a Cincinnati native, is known for his receiving ability and says he watches Kelce more than any other tight end.

“I think a big part of my game and what I’m best at is receiving,” Royer told Bearcat Journal. “Travis is arguably the greatest receiving tight end of all time and greatest tight end of all time, period. I think he’s better than some wide receivers in the NFL.”

Coach Stepp said each summer he and his graduate assistant coaches spend time breaking down Travis Kelce’s film, taking whatever they can and teaching it to their players.

“I think it’s his position flexibility,” Stepp said about what makes Travis Kelce special. “I mean, he’s able to get out on the perimeter and can be your lead receiver on a Sunday, catching 12 or 15 passes and having over 150 yards receiving. He can also get in the box, set the edge in the run game, and cut off the backside in the run game. He can just do so many different things.”

Coach Cardwell can look at the Kelce brothers in a unique light, however. The former walk-on center who eventually converted to tight end knows the ins and outs of each position, holding a special appreciation for each player.

However, when asked which one he is more enamored with, he didn’t have trouble taking a side.

“I would have to say Jason, and not because I’m an O-line guy, but because I first was at center when I went to Appalachian State as a walk-on,” Cardwell said.

“When you see what Travis does, I mean, there’s some God-given talent there. Obviously, when you look at Jason, there’s some God-given talent, but there’s a lot of thinking that goes into [the center position], and trying to get everybody on the same page. The center position is so much like a coach on the field.”

While his admiration of Jason is in large part the technical aspect of the center and offensive line positions, Cardwell can’t help but relate to Travis as well. However, it has nothing to do with a certain position or playing style.

During his time at Appalachian State Cardwell injured his neck badly. No doctor would clear him to play and the inevitable reality that his football career may be ever was close to setting in. He and his family decided to take a trip to Nebraska to see a doctor who helped with postural restoration. After having his neck shortened, Cardwell was cleared to play, and when it was all said and done he would be a part of three FCS Championship App State teams.

When confronted with the realization his career could possibly be over, he did everything in his power to play another day, just like Travis Kelce did at Cincinnati.

“I think for anybody, whether it’s Travis or anybody that’s having the thing that you love the most taken away from you, it causes you to put a lot of things in perspective,” Cardwell said. “So when that happened to me, it made me want it even more. It made me want to play even more.(Photo: Cincinnati Athletics)
“I remember just wanting to go through hell with the guys next to me because I felt like I was part of the team… I learned a lot about myself in those moments, and you learn a lot about yourself whenever you get kicked off the team. You have to reevaluate [what your values are] some of the things you really want to accomplish, and how can I change myself and who I am so I can be a better teammate or a better player.”

Stepp and Cardwell continually reiterated their appreciation for the Kelce brothers’ perseverance. Both coaches feel extremely lucky to be able to preach each brother’s story to their players. Jason’s journey as a walk-on and Travis’s redemption arc are constant reminders of what Cincinnati football wants to be about.

“I tell our guys all the time, there are a lot of people in life who were set up for success, and found a way to fail, and a lot of people in life who were set up for failure and found a way to succeed,” Cardwell said. “It’s all about your mindset and what you’re willing to do to achieve your goals.”

“We talk about the tradition of excellence that UC has in the tight-end position,” Stepp said. “We talk about the standard of excellence that those guys have set and we have to live up to that every Saturday.”