Before Jason Kelce Apologized for Secretariat Steroids Rant, Retired Legend Candidly Revealed Barry Bonds’ Fandom Despite Colored Past

We didn’t know Jason Kelce was so passionate about horse racing, till now! The retired Eagles center gained a lot of traction in a few hours after he started a debate about the greatest racehorse in history, Secretariat, or the Big Red. Kelce had a few doubts about the horse winning the American Triple Crown and associated steroid use as a factor behind the win.

The 7x Pro Bowler had some data to back it up in the beginning, but as people became apprehensive about his post on X, he slowly started to back out. Kelce clarified that he wasn’t undermining what the horse accomplished. He was just trying to point out the commonplace. Moreover, his rant revealed info about the San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds, who is somehow connected to all this.

Jason Kelce reveals secrets about Big Red

Per the Super Bowl winner’s post on X, it was highly probable that the most prolific racehorse in history might have been fed steroids. Kelce supported his claims by pointing out the horse’s immaculate physique and an “enlarged heart” at the time of its death. Also, rampant steroid use was also a thing of the past. But a reply from a fan made Kelce re-think his choice of words as he drew a horse racing comparison with MLB.

A person pointed out that the thoroughbred’s competition might also have been doping and the horse still won by a huge margin. To this, Kelce replied by saying, “I agree, that’s why I said the horses’ accomplishments are still Valid. We all know Bonds Juiced, he’s still the greatest hitter of all time in my opinion. He also did it against a large amount of players who were also juiced.”

Kelce wasn’t trying to prove anything necessarily but thought that this information was something everyone was aware of. He apologized to people for causing a ruckus later. However, the former Eagles player drawing a parallel to Barry Bonds is an interesting take and deserves to be looked at.

The Secretariat flourished, but Barry Bonds didn’t

On April 13, 2011, Barry Bonds was found guilty of obstruction of justice and was linked to using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) and steroids. The home run king fell short of becoming a Hall of Famer after this information was made public. Barry Bonds, along with Roger Clemens appeared on the ballot in 2012.

What’s interesting about Bonds is that he got 61.8% votes in favor when he started out, and gradually got the numbers to 75%, which is the minimum requirement to make a case for the Hall of Fame. A report from CBS suggested that Bonds started using PEDs in 1999 when he didn’t get as much attention as his peers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire, despite Bonds being a superior, all-rounder, and a natural athlete.

However, as Kelce said Bonds was competing against people who were also doping at the time. Though it doesn’t really make a case for steroid use in professional sports, it does paint a picture of how normalized PED and steroid use were in the early eras of sports.