On Tuesday, a day after the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Bucs in Tampa in the Wild Card round, Adam Schefter brought word that Jason Kelce was retiring, citing a postgame speech Kelce gave to his teammates in the locker room late Monday night.
However, Kelce pushed back on the finality of that decision on the New Heights podcast with his brother Travis. Jason notes he did address the team and certainly doesn’t deny that retirement is a definite option, but said that’s not a firm choice you can make in that exact moment. That said, as he talks about guys saying they were sorry if that was his last game, he starts defiant, saying “don’t feel sorry for me motherf**ker, I had a f**king…” before trailing off and fighting back tears at the weight of what that decision means.
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— New Heights (@newheightshow) January 17, 2024
Retirement is always a difficult thing to do for professional athletes, because the sport has defined them for, likely, their entire lives to that point. Losing that is incredibly difficult, particularly no longer having a team and a locker room of guys around you. That’s why it’s so difficult to walk away, even for someone like Jason who has made plenty of money and has plenty of opportunities off the field, it’s just never going to be the same and that extremely large piece of your identity is gone. That’s why the final decision will wait a bit so he can take full stock, away from the emotions of that game, and decide if his 13th year will indeed be his last as many expect.
