Jason Kelce announces NFL retirement after 13-year Eagles career
Jason Kelce is calling it a career.
The veteran Eagles center, who’s spent his entire 13-season career in Philadelphia, is retiring from the NFL, he announced on Monday in an emotional, tearful press conference .
“It took a lot of hard work and determination getting here. I have been the underdog my entire career, and I mean this when I say this, I wish I still was,” Kelce said.
Kelce shared anecdotes from his youth football days, college career and his run with the Eagles, regularly stopping as he became overwhelmed with emotion.
He also paid tribute to Eagles fans, thanking them for allowing him to represent the city.
“No one celebrates their own like the city of Philadelphia,” Kelce said. “Athletes become demigods in this city.”
Kelce, 36, shared earlier Monday that he reached a decision about his playing future in a post on X.
“No Keg videos this year, I have come to a decision and will address it at a press conference this afternoon,” he wrote.
Kelce was referring to the March 2022 video of him announcing his return to the Eagles on a one-year deal which began with him filling up a cup of beer from a keg.
A sixth-round pick (No. 191 overall) by the Eagles in the 2011 NFL Draft out of Cincinnati, Jason has six All-Pro selections and seven Pro Bowls under his belt.
He won Super Bowl LII in 2018 with the Eagles and helped Philadelphia reach the Super Bowl in February 2023, when he faced Travis and the Chiefs in a 38-35 loss in Glendale, Ariz.
Kelce holds the franchise record for most consecutive starts at 157, having not missed a game since 2014.
Kelce’s brother Travis, the star Chiefs tight end, was in the front row for the press conference and also cried.
After his roughly 45-minute monologue was done, Kelce hugged Travis, his parents Donna and Ed and kissed his wife Kylie.
Prior to the announcement, the father off three spent time with Travis in Philadelphia.
The brothers attended a fundraiser to raise money for cancer survivors after a young man named Brendan McDermott, 38, passed away on May 31 after losing his battle to colorectal cancer, and met with firefighters and other first responders.
Kelce, who played on a one-year deal in 2023 and could have became a free agent next week, was the focus of retirement speculation following Philadelphia’s stunning first-round playoff ouster in January, a crushing 32-9 loss to the Buccaneers in the wild-card round.
It came after the Eagles lost six of their final seven games following a 10-1 start.
Kelce reportedly told his teammates in the locker room after Philadelphia’s wild-card loss that he is retiring.
Afterward, the All-Pro center repeatedly said he would announce his decision when the time is right.
Travis weighed in on his brother’s future during last month’s Super Bowl festivities in Las Vegas — where Kansas City became repeat champions in a 25-22 win against the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11.
“I’ll tell you what, I think it’s still up in the air whether or not he’s going to continue to play football,” he told 11-year-old reporter Jeremiah Fennell.
When asked if his older brother would play in the Eagles’ international game in Brazil next season, Travis replied, “I think he’s got some football left in him.”
A week later, the brothers were celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win with Travis’ girlfriend, Taylor Swift in Las Vegas.
Jason has been open about the toll football has taken on his body toward the end of his career, and how his wife Kylie Kelce has been supportive of every step of the way.
The couple, who tied the knot in April 2018, share three daughters, Wyatt, 4, Elliotte, 2, and Bennett, who turned one in February 2023.
