Jason Kelce may have had a team at his back, but this decision was truly his.
The former Philadelphia Eagles player announced his retirement from the NFL on March 4 in an emotional press conference, marking an end to his 13 seasons on the team and in the league. Now, Jason is sharing who played the biggest role in making the decision.
“Me—and I think that’s how I knew,” he told Travis Kelce on the March 6 episode of their New Heights podcast. “Like in previous years I’d reach out to other guys, ‘Hey, how do you know when you wanna stop playing? What do you think?’ And the reality was it was more firm than it’d ever been this year, that I don’t think physically I can compete at the level that I want to anymore, and really compete the way I want to.”
He explained, “My elbow, my knees, it’s just gotten to the point where the deterioration and recovery from that deterioration—it hasn’t really manifested on game day yet, but I know it’s gonna start doing that and I’d rather not—I’m hard on myself, and if I go out there and I’m not the player that I wanna be, it’ll crush me.”
But despite the emotions he expressed during his announcement, the 36-year-old knows it was the right play.