Ever since Jason Kelce did both the obvious and the unthinkable, retiring after 13 glorious, successful-beyond-reasonable-expectations, beer-soaked NFL seasons, his legend has only grown. Legend, in this case, isn’t overstated. Kelce became a one-person category, the rare center who was famous and relatable and yet never acted like a celebrity. He sang. He chugged. He pancake-blocked. And, through all that and much more, he fashioned one of the most fascinating legacies in sports.
To that end, having amassed tons of Kelce reporting over the years, it seemed prudent to look back—at the man; never a myth, forever a legend. This is Jason Kelce, in all his distinct glory.
Consider the best centers in NFL history. A Jim Otto. A Chuck Bednarik. A Mel Hein or a Dwight Stephenson. A Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawsonor Randy Cross. There’s a Ringo in that group (Otto, Green Bay Packers), a four-time Super Bowl champion (Webster) and more than a dozen Hall of Famers. But how many of the best-ever centers also commanded entire locker rooms, even above superstars who made more money and endorsed more products and couldn’t chug a beer to save their lives? None. Not in the way that Kelce did.
Kelce was the wheel around which every other spoke in the Philadelphia Eagles locker room rotated. This sentiment became so obvious that when a young quarterback was navigating the treacherous route from doubted prospect to locker room linchpin, he decided the best way to elevate both his leadership style and impact was to study the center everyone else looked toward. So Jalen Hurts decided to (1) befriend Kelce, (2) learn from him, while studying him up close and (3) apply those lessons in a leadership handoff of sorts.
The Eagles don’t reach Super Bowl LVII if Kelce doesn’t aid in Hurts’s development. Not even the on-field variety, although Kelce certainly helped there, too. Kelce, Hurts told in 2023, is “a special guy, a special leader. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with—at any position. Maybe the best leader. Smart. Football intelligence. Fundamentals. Knows how to maneuver and play.”
The funny part is, when the Eagles drafted Hurts in 2020, the quarterback “didn’t know anything about [Kelce].” But after only a few seasons together, Hurts said that Kelce supported and endorsed him “before anybody else did.”
That’s Kelce’s legacy: stamping imprints, on a franchise, its locker rooms, teammates and much more.
