From the Playing Field to Wall Street

In Orchard Park, N.Y., this past January, just as the tight end Travis Kelce caught a touchdown pass to help the Kansas City Chiefs take the lead in a playoff game against the Buffalo Bills, the real action for many fans watching at home was high above the field. There, in a crowded luxury box, Mr. Kelce’s brother, the burly Philadelphia Eagle offensive lineman, Jason Kelce, was dancing shirtless and chugging from a beer, as Travis’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, looked on in a combination of amusement and astonishment.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

That scene spread quickly online — it was even featured on the Hot Topics segment of “The View” — and Jason Kelce has since become something of a social media star. Building on the success of the popular podcast the brothers host and the Campbell’s Soup commercials they have starred in with their mother, he has regularly appeared in ads for hot sauce, charcoal and other consumer products.

But since retiring from the N.F.L. in March, what happens for Jason off-mic and off-camera has become increasingly important. He is one of more than 200 professional athletes who have invested anywhere from $50,000 to half a million dollars in consumer brands like Bazooka, Cholula and Top Golf through a private equity firm called Patricof Co. Since 2019, Mr. Kelce has personally invested in 20 companies, including some of the ones he represents in ads.

That’s why in May, Mr. Kelce, 36, woke before dawn at his home in Philadelphia and flew to Nashville to film a commercial where he played a mock quality control manager for a moonshine brand that Mr. Kelce is an investor in. Wearing an Ole Smoky distillery T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, he tossed jars of moonshine to employees whom he pretended to train. A crew from Shadow Lion, the film company part owned by the retired quarterback Tom Brady, followed Mr. Kelce to a table, where he barked instructions at employees labeling bottles. “Pick up the pace,” he said before leading them in a chant: “Mash, ferment, condense, distill!”

Mr. Kelce gets ready for his close-up on the set in Nashville.Credit…William DeShazer for The New York Times