When former teammates of Jason and Travis Kelce told a major sports publication that they were “absolute pigs” in college, the Kelces could have taken offense. They could have denied what was said, or even complained of defamation. Instead, they cheerfully acknowledged that everything in the article was true. It was an impressive act of self-acceptance, transparency, and emotional intelligence–one every high-profile leader can learn from.

The Kelce family is considered football royalty these days. Jason plays center for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Travis plays tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. The brothers faced each other at the 2023 Super Bowl, which the Chiefs won, and Travis and his team returned to win it a second time in a row this year.

Public interest in both Kelces is intense, especially since Travis started dating Taylor Swift. So it’s no surprise that the New York Times sports news site The Athletic published an account of Jason and Travis Kelce’s time at the University of Cincinnati. In the piece, former teammates and coaches described the pair back then and most especially the disgustingly foul house they shared with some other players. One remembered it as a “real life Animal House.” They talked about how bad the place smelled. They recounted how Travis was kicked off the team for a season because he failed a drug test for marijuana–and went right on smoking throughout his suspension.

In short, The Athletic told the kind of raunchy college stories most of us don’t want to remember–let alone read on a popular news site. But this is where the Kelce brothers are different from most of us. Instead of trying to minimize how badly they behaved back then, or give excuses, or try to avoid the subject, they cheerfully admitted just how awful they’d once been. And they did it without apology.

“The Athletic had a great fucking article,” Travis said on the brothers’ New Heights podcast, when a fan wrote in to ask about it.

“It really made us sound like degenerates,” Jason said.

“What college footbal player isn’t?” Travis countered. “If you’re not, you’re doing college wrong.”

The brothers went on to discuss a large garbage can they had in the middle of their living room. The article described it as piled high with empty pizza boxes, but Travis set the record straight. “This was more than pizza boxes. It was everything. You name it–cans, pizza, beer leftovers, and we didn’t have a lid. It just stunk up the entire fucking place. It was actually useful. It was exactly what we needed because we were a bunch of filthy animals and the trash was piling up.”