Jason Kelce has announced his retirement from football in an emotional press conference.
The Philadelphia Eagles legend burst into tears before he even started speaking and then finally ended months of speculation as he ended his career on Monday after 13 years in the NFL.
Kelce announced the decision with his brother Travis, wife Kylie and parents Ed and Donna in attendance at the Eagles’ team facility. Footage showed Travis crying as he watched.
The 36-year-old told the story of his football career, from playing at Cleveland Heights high school to the University of Cincinnati and then being drafted by the Eagles.
An emotional Kelce struggled to get his words out – regularly pausing for long periods and his voice breaking as he tried to hold back the tears.
Jason Kelce has announced his retirement from football in an emotional press conference
Travis was brought to tears as he watched his brother speak, sat alongside their parents
The Kelce brothers are two of the NFL’s biggest stars thanks to their New Heights podcast
Jason, 36, pictured alongside his wife, Kylie, and their three young children
Speculation first emerged that Kelce would hang up his cleats when the Eagles were eliminated from the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January.
However, he refused to announce a definitive decision on his future in the weeks that followed, instead supporting brother Travis throughout the postseason as the Kansas City Chiefs eventually won the Super Bowl.
Kelce came close to retiring this time last year but decided to stay on for another season after struggling to walk away – a process that was captured on film in his hit Amazon Prime documentary.
Kelce was drafted by the Eagles in 2011 and has enjoyed a sensational 13-year career in Philadelphia.
A seven-time Pro Bowl selection, the center won the Super Bowl with the Eagles in 2018 when they beat the New England Patriots in Minnesota.
The center, who hosts the ultra-successful ‘New Heights’ podcast with his brother Travis and filled in on Amazon’s Thursday Night Football broadcast during his bye week this season, looks destined for a career in broadcasting if he wants it.
He’s already met with executives from Fox and ESPN, according to Front Office Sports, as he used Super Bowl week in Las Vegas to ‘make the rounds’ with networks.
Kelce celebrates winning the Super Bowl with the Eagles in 2018
The Sun also reported that there was already a ‘scramble’ among several broadcasters to win Kelce’s services – and that he could make up to $5million per year for his football analysis.
Despite the lucrative offers seemingly waiting for Kelce, he recently admitted to being anxious about what life after football might look like.
‘It’s exciting to think about possibilities, it’s exciting to be able to lose weight, feel good and not have to physically fight for my life every day,’ Kelce, 36, said. ‘It’s also daunting. It’s anxiety. At the end of the day, it’s the unknown.
‘People ask if you get nervous for games but the only games I get nervous for are the first time – you don’t know what is in store. Ironically it makes you play better, it makes your senses alive. But that is kind of where it is at when you start thinking about retirement.
‘It is exciting, the possibilities. All of us were fortunate, we can go in a lot of different areas. But that is also very nerve-wracking, you don’t know what you are going to like until you are doing it. You don’t know what you are going get fulfilment in until you are doing it, you don’t know what you are going to be great at until you are doing it.
‘All that stuff is also in the back of your head. No matter how you handle it, no matter who you are, how well prepared you are to enter the next stage, everybody goes through a level of depression, really.
‘The end of one of the things you love most in your life is there and you are going to have to come to grips with that.
‘You might be struggling and you don’t know it. I feel like you might be struggling in football but you get that win, that little shot, dopamine, like “I got it”. I’m a big ‘hit’ guy.’
More to follow.