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FIGHTING BACK TEARS — At its core, football is a sport of modern-day gladiators, where warriors enter a controlled battlefield for a game characterized by violence.
But that doesn't leave the sport without its emotion. On Monday afternoon, the sport's emotion was on center stage when Philadelphia Eagles star center Jason Kelce announced his retirement.
Kelce made the emotional announcement after 13 seasons in the NFL, including six postseason appearances and two Super Bowl trips with the Philadelphia Eagles. A former sixth-round pick in 2011, Kelce, 36, made seven Pro Bowl appearances; was named first-team All-Pro six times, including 2023; and became the only center since the NFL-AFL merger to win a Super Bowl and make first-team All-Pro six times in a single city.
His brother Travis, the Kansas City Chiefs star tight end, joined Kelce, his wife Kylie and parents Ed and Donna at his announcement, wearing sunglasses in the team's darkened auditorium as both brothers fought back their emotions during a 45-minute retirement speech.
His parents were at the center of his announcement, with Jason Kelce saying he got his "toughness, aggression and lunch-pail mentality from my father."
"And from my mother," Kelce added, "I learned the all-too important lesson of never letting anyone tell you what you can't do."
The most emotional moment of Jason Kelce's retirement speech was talking about his brother, @tkelce. 😭
— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) March 4, 2024
"I won't forget falling short to the Chiefs & the conflicted feelings of immense heartbreak… & the amount of pride I had that my brother had climbed the mountain top again." pic.twitter.com/m48fZMHbR7
But at the heart was his brother Travis, who sat in the front row wearing sunglasses of the Eagles' auditorium during his brother's 45-minute announcement as both siblings fought back tears on several occasions.
"This is where it's goin to go off the rails," Jason Kelce struggled. "I won't forget falling short to the Chiefs and the conflicted feelings of immense heartbreak I had selfishly for myself and for my teammates, and at the same time the amount of pride I had that my brother had climbed the mountain top once again. We have a small family ... It was really my brother and I our whole lives. We did almost everything together: competed, fought, laughed, cried, and learned from each other. We invented games, imagined ourselves as star players, and we envisioned making the winning plays day after day, winning countless Super Bowls in our minds before ever leaving the house."
Kelce is the fifth center in NFL history to earn at least six All-Pro honors. Each of the other four — Jim Otto, Bulldog Turner, Dermontti Dawson and Jim Ringo — are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, according to ESPN.
