With tears streaming down his face, Jason Kelce officially called it a career Monday morning, March 4th, 2024. He gave so much to the game of football and the city during his 13-year career in Philadelphia. While leading his team to its first Super Bowl win in 52 years, he was a 6x All-Pro and 7x Pro Bowler, created a top sports podcast, started a charity, and recorded two charity Christmas albums. If you’re still in the camp of “The Kelce’s are overrated,” here are 20 times in the documentary Kelce that Jason proves he’s worth the hype.
When he’s reading to his children at bedtime.
Jason: Do you wanna hear a story?
Oh, the places you’ll go.
Congratulations! Today’s your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away.
You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
Oh, the places you’ll go!
There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored .
There are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-set winner of all.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
And where you go, you will top all the rest.
Except when you don’t.
Because sometimes you won’t.
You can get all hung up at a prickle-ly perch.
And your game will fly on,
You’ll be left in a lurch.
You’ll come down from that lurch with an unpleasant bump,
The chances are, then, that you’ll be in slump.
And when you’re in a slump, you’re not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.
I’m afraid sometimes you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win because you’ll play against you.
Be your name Buxbaum, Bixby, or Brayo or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea.
You’re off to great places.
Today is your day. Your mountains are waiting. So get on your way.
When he was humble.
Angelo: Good morning, everybody! Welcome to the WIP Morning Show. We are broadcasting live. Right here in this seat between me and Al is the most popular and beloved Philadelphia sports figure, Mr. Jason Kelce.
[fan on the radio] Uh, Jason, you have no idea what you mean to this city, man. You embody this city perfectly. Jason, we love you here in Philadelphia.
Jason: Thank you Josh, I appreciate it.
Angelo: I got to tell you, the outpouring of love today, I’ve been doing this 33 years, Jason, nothing’s close, nothing’s close.
Jason: We’re not screening these, are we?
Angelo: No we’re not – they’re in order. I am sitting next to my favorite Eagle in my lifetime. I can die happy because you and your teammates won us a Super Bowl. It’s the greatest thrill I ever had as a fan ever!
Jason: I snapped the ball. Nick Foles won that Super Bowl.
When he hyped up an entire city in a bedazzled suit.
Jason: I want to take a second to talk to you about underdogs.
No one wanted us.
No one liked this team.
No analysts liked this team to win the Super Bowl. And nobody likes our fans.
You’re a bunch of underdogs.
You know what “underdogs” is?
It’s a hungry dog. Hungry dogs run faster.
When Jason shared what the best thing a human can give to another human.
Angelo: What does it mean to look out and know you changed all of those lives? Just in that one moment?
Jason: I didn’t think about whether it would be well-received, but at every meaningful part of my life, where I’ve questioned my own self-worth, I’ve had people to reaffirm me, whether it’s my parents, whether it’s my family members or like this whole city. They’ve been there.
I think the best thing a human being can give another human being is belief.
When he was looking for his Super Bowl Ring.
Jason: If I was a Super Bowl ring, where would I be?
Jason: No, not there.
Jason: This is how I look. I just kind of like, start moving stuff, and then usually something will just remind me. Oh, okay!
Jason: That didn’t work right there, but usually that’s how it works.
[Kylie laughing]
Jason: Alright.
Kylie: He reads the defense very, very well and calls protections very effectively. So he’ll go out there and see everything on a football field, but he cannot find his keys if they’re in his pockets.
Jason: Probably in a pocket in one of the pants upstairs.
Jason: No dice.
Jason: This is what it’s supposed to be in.
Jason: This is the box they give you so you’re not doing this. It has the confetti from the game, but not the ring.
When he spoke about his wife. She’s a NATIONAL TREASURE.
Kylie: He won’t let me lie about this. We met on Tinder. Jason, 27. None of the pictures showed Eagles football, but my friends and I, we were like, “This guy looks kind of familiar.” And we find on Google images him and we’re like, “Okay, so it can’t be him. It’s a catfish.” So when he said, “Oh, come meet us at this bar,” my friend was like, “It’s either going to be him or it’s going to be someone who is pretending to be him. Hilarious either way.”
Jason: But right away, as soon as she walks through the door, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Very much like that love at first sight.
When you realize Jason Kelce is actually a stand-up guy.
Kylie: I didn’t tell anyone who I was dating. The last thing I wanted to be like, “I think I’m falling for this guy,” and then have him say, “Oh, I got like six other girls waiting.” Which is like the stereotype of a football player. Now that we’ve been together as long as we have, it’s entertaining that there was any hesitation at all, just knowing him, the way he is. Our dynamic made it so that it was not that I was in a relationship with a professional athlete. It was very much that I was in a relationship with Jason, whose profession is football.
When he never gave up.
Jason: I didn’t get the scholarship. It was very much something that. I took very personal.
Ed: My words to him were “if you want to play football at that level, you’ll get there. It just may not be as easy as it was for other people.”
When you realized Jason Kelce was a modern-day Rudy.
Connor: I first met Jason in college. He was a walk-on on the football team at Cincinnati, and I remember just being like, “Who is this walk-on that looks like Rudy?” He had elbow pads, forearm pads, and he had a lot of tape.
Jason: All of the kids that get scholarships, especially the higher recruited guys, they’re going to be given the opportunities first. So you’re going to have to go above and beyond to prove that you’re worthy of getting a chance.
Connor: I just have it cemented in my memory, him running like Rudy. Balls to the wall and trying to destroy someone, like tackle him.
Jason: That’s something that has fueled me. Continuing having to prove yourself, you know, that’s been my career every step of the way.
When he continued to persevere through adversity.
Jason: You know, drafted in the sixth round, not a lot of sixth round picks pan out. There was a lot of doubt on whether I can play at the next level. And, you know, I really don’t look at it now mad about it. I’m, you know, “_____ thank you.”
When he gave his little brother a hard time for missing his flight.
Travis: One day I want to make the healthiest non-GMO garden in all of Philadelphia.
Jason: This is the garden. Right now, it’s a weed garden. We’re going to work on getting the weeds under control today. I’ll say this is half punishment for Travis. Travis is supposed to be graduating from Cincinnati this weekend….
Travis: Dude you just gonna throw me under the bus like that right now?
Jason: …and he missed his flight.
Travis: I didn’t miss it. They —
Jason: Took him 12 years to graduate.
Travis: Everyone’s missed a flight before.
When he blocked for Travis.
Jason: All of a sudden, he commits to Cincinnati. In the second year, we’re actually kinda playing together. He does a couple wildcat formations where he’s the quarterback and I block for him.
Travis: The excitement of sharing the field with my brother. Man, that was one of the coolest moments.
Ed: Travis’ first touchdown. We have a picture of him as he’s running, he’s got the ball. And his hand is on his brother’s hip, who is paving the way in front of him. And that is the coolest picture I will ever have.
When Jason put his neck on the line.
And I knew my brother had gone to the coaches and said, “You know, if you give him a second chance, he won’t screw it up.” It kind of put his word on the line.
Jason: The only thing I did was the same thing my parents did, in a time of adversity that my brother had, my job is to be there to fulfill that same belief and confidence in him. That’s my role.
Travis: So it was a very weird feeling for me when I won the Super Bowl. It was because that’s when it started to like, really click for me. Um, that was a moment you don’t make ‘em proud and then when you do, it’s the best ___ ever.
So, I owe a lot, if not all of it, to the big bear. Without that big guy, I don’t know. I don’t know where, what I would be doing.
During the course of the documentary, when they showed his incredible blocks again and again and again.
When he rushed off the field to go watch his brother play.
Jason: I gotta go, guys. I gotta go, I’m sorry. I’m gone. I’m gone. I got a Chiefs game to watch.
Whenever he hugs his mom.
When he’s congratulating his brother’s biggest win after the biggest loss of his life.
Travis: I love you, big guy.
Jason: I love you too, go celebrate.
When he’s packing up to go to the hospital.
Jason: Should I bring a fan?
Kylie: No you should not bring a fan to the hospital.
Jason: It’s that little one you got me, the travel fan.
Kylie: The one that goes to training camp?
Jason: Yeah.
Kylie: Yeah, if you bring a fan to the hospital, I will personally kick you out.
Jason: Just trying to be comfortable. I mean, you might need it.
Kylie: Jason, I cannot begin to tell you how little empathy I have for you in this situation.
Jason: No, no it’s for you. I am bringing a fan for you.
Kylie: Jason, do not bring a fan to the hospital.
Jason: **grabs fan
Kylie: Jason, I’m not kidding.
Whenever his brother spoke about playing on the same field.
Travis – Having the year that we had to go through everything leading up to this moment. I screwed up a few years of my life not being able to play on the field with you. Um then meeting you at the mountaintop, brother. It was um, we were on top of that thing together, man. It’s such a hard feeling to juggle. Back of my mind, I wanted all the success and all the happiness, and all this. Bit.I was really—I was just trying to find Jason. Finally met my brother up there, that I’ve been chasing my whole life. The crazy part is that I would never be playing this d*** game if it wasn’t for you.
Jason – Stop. It was —
Travis – Nah this, it’s the truth, man.
Jason – The moment I saw Mom is when I got really emotional because y’know, she was on top of the world for a week.
Travis – She was the heavyweight champ, man.
When he explains his love for the game and the fear of facing life after football.
Jason: Every logical thing is telling me I should stop playing football. I tear my body apart. Like, what is the purpose for any of this stuff? For, like, a game. But that jolt you get, every day fighting. Every day you’re trying to win the rep in the weight room. Win the play on the field. So much of this competitive fire, fighting for your worth, and it’s hard, it’s really hard to do that. But man, it keeps you alive. Keeps the juices going. And uh, you know that guys that — you know, that’s what I’ve been worried about is sitting at home and not having that. I have no doubt I can be a loving father. I have no doubt that I can be successful. But where am I going to get that? Where am I gonna — Well, I’m gonna be the best in the world at what I do. And not because of anything other than, “I go out there and earned it.”
