Jason Kelce confirmed his return to the Philadelphia Eagles for the upcoming season, putting a stop to rumors of his retirement that had been circulating following the thrilling triumph of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 2024: I’m not giving up just yet; I have some football moves left in me.
“I think I’ll have an answer in the next couple weeks,” the beloved Philadelphia Eagles center said.
“I think if I still want to play, I’m going to play,” Kelce said. “I think right now we’re not far enough away from the last game. It’s emotional, it’s a long season, the end of the season quite frankly, awful. So I’m just going to take some time, rest, recoup and then figure it out.”
Kelce played his last game of the season on January 15 when the Eagles were eliminated from the NFL playoffs in a 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As the clock ticked down at the end of the game, television cameras caught Kelce holding back tears and sharing an emotional embrace with his longtime offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.
The 13-year veteran then jogged towards the stands to look for his family, sharing another emotional hug with his wife Kylie and a handshake with his father Ed Kelce, who traveled to Florida to be there for the game.
Kelce declined to speak with the media after the game, meanwhile players, pundits and the league itself posted tributes to him on social media with the assumption he had just played his final NFL game.
Both the NFL and ESPN reported that Kelce told his Eagles teammates after the game that he planned to retire.
However, nearly a month since then, Kelce has repeatedly indicated he might not be ready to hang it up after all.
Last week on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast, Kelce said the idea of retirement is “exciting” but also “daunting.”
“It is exciting to think about possibilities — it is exciting to be able to lose weight, feel good, and not physically fight for my life every day,” he said. “I think it is also daunting. It is anxiety and at the end of the day, it is the unknown.”
Kelce has been open about his thoughts towards retirement in recent years, most prominently during a wrenching scene in his Kelce documentary on Prime Video last fall.
“It’s getting harder and harder to play,” Jason said in one poignant scene. “There have been little things that are not big things yet but are going to turn into big things the longer I play.”
Kelce has spent the last month in the stands with his family and Travis’ girlfriend Taylor Swift, cheering on his brother as the Chiefs went on to win back-to-back Super Bowl championships on Sunday.
On an episode of the brothers’ New Heights podcast, Kelce said that when it comes to his retirement, he’s doing his best not to factor in the chance to win another Super Bowl with the Eagles.
“I want the decision of whether I am going to play to be based on whether I want to do it,” he told his brother Travis. “Selfishly, I need to decide, can I commit? Can I mentally be there? Do I want to endure that again? Winning helps that, but you try to not factor that into the decision.”