Jason Kelce was reportedly fatigued both mentally and physically throughout the season with the Philadelphia Eagles center said to be expected to retire this year.
Kelce, 36, reportedly told his Eagles teammates that he is retiring after Philadelphia was eliminated from the NFL playoffs by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Monday night.
The center, a father-of-three, strongly considered retiring at the end of last season but decided to return after the Eagles’ Super Bowl loss to his brother Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs.
However, Kelce is said to now be set to bring the curtain down on a remarkable 13-year career in the NFL after reportedly struggling to bounce back following games this season.
Earlier in the season, Kelce admitted that returning to practice on Wednesdays – an NFL player’s equivalent of a Monday – was becoming harder and harder, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Marcus Hayes.
Jason Kelce was reportedly struggling mentally and physically throughout the season
The Eagles center admitted that returning to practice on Wednesdays was becoming harder
‘I don’t know. I do know — I mean, Wednesdays,’ Kelce told Hayes when asked if it would be his final season. ‘The Wednesdays are getting harder. Really, that’s the only thing.’
He added: ‘You’re sore Monday, you’re off Tuesday, but Wednesday … I’m just having a hard time getting going again on Wednesdays. Getting the juice, you know?’
But the aches and pains are said to not be the only things wearing down the future Hall of Famer with the report adding that Kelce also ‘seemed mentally fatigued’.
It appears that Kelce was also concerned over the impact of CTE, the brain disease many NFL stars have been diagnosed with post-mortem, especially veterans playing late into their careers.
He reportedly struggled to remember the date of a teammate’s injury and quipped that it was ‘the CTE creeping in’.
Kelce previously expressed his concerns about the impacts of CTE during his Amazon Prime documentary last year.
‘There have been little things that are not big things yet but are going to turn into big things the longer I play,’ he said.
‘Not to dress like an elephant in the NFL room, but I am fearful about what the impacts of playing football are going to mean long-term. I have two girls and … some people end up getting CTE and some guys live long, healthy lives.
‘I have no idea what’s going to happen with that because I’ve thought about this,’ he said, thinking of the amount of physical impacts in the game and if ‘it might come back to bite me.’
The future Hall of Famer is pictured with Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts (left)
Kelce was famously beaten by brother Travis as the Eagles met the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII
Kelce pictured with wife Kylie and their three daughters Wyatt, Elliotte and Bennett
Kelce had deliberated retiring at the end of last season and filmed his struggle to make a decision which later became a hit Prime documentary.
Eventually he decided to play on and signed a one-year contract with the Eagles for this season, but was due to become a free agent in March.
But this time it appears he’s walking away for good and Kelce looked overcome by emotion in the final few seconds of his team’s dreadful 32-9 loss to Bucs.
The Super Bowl winner, six-time All-Pro and future Hall-of-Fame inductee, turned and hugged the offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland as the clock ticked towards zero.
Jason, the older brother of Kansas City Chiefs star Travis, then had an emotional but brief reunion with his family on the field – his father, Ed, and wife Kylie were cheering him on from the front row of the stands.
He gave them both a wave as he made his way from the field and was filmed tearing up on his long and lonely walk back to the locker room.
Kelce politely refused to talk to media in the locker room after the game – he usually speaks whether the Eagles win or lose – and made his way out of the stadium for what seems to be the last time in his career.
It appears to be a sad ending to a career that will see him go down as one of the greats of the game.
The center won the Super Bowl in 2018 and last season was famously beaten by his brother as the Eagles met the Chiefs in the NFL’s showpiece game.
Kelce walked over to see his wife, Kylie, and father, Ed, in emotional scenes in Tampa Bay
Kelce politely refused to speak to the media afterwards, a duty he normally fulfils post-game
Kelce was drafted by the Eagles in 2011 after playing college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats and has spent his entire career in Philadelphia.
In the build-up to the Bucs game, he accepted that his future was going to be a talking point as the NFL season hit the home stretch.
‘I think it’s been natural the last three seasons for that for me,’ Kelce said Friday.
‘Whenever you’re older in your career, you never know when that’s going to be.
‘I try to remind guys and my dad has told me this from the moment I started playing football – you step off the curb one day and that could be the end of your career.
‘So you try to approach every game with that mindset, but obviously the closer and the older you get to that being a realization, puts it out in front maybe a little bit more.
‘But obviously that’s not the main thing. The main thing is going out there and battling with each of the guys in this locker room.’
