Shaquille O’Neal comes clean to Travis Kelce about his ‘Black Kelce’ nickname

On Tuesday, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal revealed to NFL star Travis Kelce that he once gave himself the nickname “Black Kelce.” Shaq had previously mentioned on the Inside the NFL panel that if he ever played football, that would be his chosen name. During their conversation, he offered a more in-depth explanation of the nickname.

During an appearance on the ‘New Heights’ podcast with Travis and Jason Kelce, O’Neal was asked by the latter about the reasoning behind his nickname.

“You were on Inside the NFL, and you said if you played in the NFL, you would be known as Black Kelce,” he remarked. (From 36:35 onwards)

Shaq then came clean to Travis Kelce about his 'Black Kelce' nickname, explaining how he initially started his career as a football player and played in the same position as him.

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"A lot of people don't know this, that when I was coming up, football was my sport. I was football all the way, and I was really good. I used to tell people, Too Tall Jones was my father. And I played nose guard on defense and tight end on offense," he explained.

O'Neal continued to explain how he loved playing football but was forced to leave the sport after sustaining a knee injury that kept him out of action for eight weeks. He also added that he was urged to focus on basketball by his father, which killed his aspirations of being a football player.

Shaquille O'Neal reveals his favorite Taylor Swift song to her boyfriend, Travis Kelce

During their recent podcast linkup, Shaquille O'Neal, alongside the Kelce brothers, were seen discussing various topics from basketball to football. He also spoke about music taste, with them as he revealed his favorite Taylor Swift song to Travis Kelce.

O'Neal was seen playing Taylor Swift's 'I Knew You Were Trouble' during the podcast, as he claimed it was his favorite song by the artist. Swift's boyfriend then revealed she had recently acquired the rights back to her music, including for this track.

"Shout out to Taytay ... just got that song back too. She bought all her music back so it’s finally hers," he said.

In 2019, Taylor Swift's master recordings were sold to Scooter Braun by Scott Borchetta. Despite her efforts to buy the recordings back in 2020, she was unable to do so without signing an NDA. However, on May 30, it was announced that Swift had bought all her Master recordings and now owns her music.

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About the author

Arian Kashyap

Arian Kashyap is a basketball journalist at Sportskeeda with over two years of experience at Essentially Sports and Spice Bite and a Bachelor's in Physical Education and Sports Sciences.

Arian's favorite team is the Miami Heat and it’s mainly down to Dwyane Wade being his favorite player of all time. Arian loved how explosive Wade was as a player and he had all the attributes, whether that be shooting, defending or passing. Arian really liked how he won titles both with and without a dynasty behind him.

Arian has also worked with Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools and was the manager for a Delhi-based women’s team called Garwhal Untied. Garwhal won the Delhi league and were runners-up during his tenure.

Arian has judged essay writing competitions for the Commonwealth Students Welfare Group of India in 2023 and was a part of the U-14 team for the Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools academy that qualified for the AIFF Round in 2023.

When not working or watching sports, Arian likes riding his motorcycle and reading.

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