Jason Kelce is the latest celebrity to get the look-alike contest treatment.
Dozens of bearded individuals gathered at Rittenhouse Square Park in Philadelphia with hopes of being crowned Kelce’s doppelganger on Saturday, December 14. The former Philadelphia Eagles center, 37, acknowledged the event in a subtle way via social media.
Shortly after the contest, Kelce changed his X profile picture to a snap of one of the event’s competitors. Though the individual that Kelce picked to honor shares a strong resemblance, and landed in the top three look-alikes, a man named Paul Crossley earned the most applause from the crowds of fans.
“I’m Jason Kelce,” Crossley quipped after his victory in a social media clip from the Philadelphia sports blog Crossing Board. In addition to sharing similar features to Kelce, Crossley channeled the athlete in a hoodie, baseball cap and jeans.
Crossley told local news outlet NBC10 Philadelphia there was some “very tough competition” at Saturday’s contest. “A lot of guys looked exactly like me, to be honest out here, so it was kind of freaky,” he shared. “But everyone came up and had a good time and here we are. We all pulled together, all of us Jasons and they were great. They were great competitors.”
Philadelphia has been the home of other recent celebrity look-alike competitions, including ones for Pennsylvania native Miles Teller and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.
While Crossley may have been crowned as Kelce’s unofficially twin, fans previously pointed out the similarities between Kelce and multiple characters from the Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
“There’s a tweet about me that a bunch of you might have seen. About a million of you actually,” Jason said on a December 2023 episode of his and brother Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, referring to a viral tweet comparing him to Rudolph’s Sam the Snowman.
“I’ve always gotten I look like Yukon Cornelius. That’s the one that everyone’s always [says],” he added. “And it’s from the exact same movie so I was shocked when this picked up so much steam because I’ve always gotten that one.”
Jason argued that their dad, Ed Kelce, looked more like Sam the Snowman more than him, which Travis, 35, agreed with “one thousand percent.”
Jason isn’t the only member of his family to get look-alike comparisons. Earlier this month, Kylie Kelce joked that she was “slightly offended” online fans think her and Jason’s 3-year-old daughter, Ellie, looks like Travis. (The couple, who wed in 2018, also share daughters Wyatt, 5, and Bennett, 21 months, and are currently expecting their fourth child.)
“I was blonde, I had one dimple. I very much feel like Ellie could pass for looking like mom,” Kylie, 32, said in a December 4 teaser for her new podcast, “Not Gonna Lie.” She added: “If we could hop off the whole ‘Ellie looks like Travis’ train, that would be greatly appreciated because that’s the only one I have any chance of having any claim to when it comes to looking alike.”