What Jason Kelce misses about Eagles, playing in NFL

Longtime Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce officially retired this past March but acknowledged during a Wednesday fundraiser he already misses aspects of being an active NFL player.

“If you ask any former player, the thing they miss most is the locker room,” Kelce explained, according to Chris Franklin of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “They miss their teammates and miss the camaraderie. There are people from different walks of life. It’s really such a good representation of this country, and it’s something that’s really hard to replace after that…I had a [expletive] ton of fun playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. It will be hard to replace that.”

Kelce became a one-time Super Bowl champion featuring only for the Eagles from 2011 through the 2023 season. 

The 36-year-old teased after Philadelphia signed former New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley in free agency that he was “regretting” not being able to open rushing lanes for Barkley during games. Kelce has since agreed to be part of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” programming later this year. 

Franklin is among those who have mentioned that Kelce made appearances at the Eagles’ NovaCare Complex during organized team activities. Some suggested this showed Kelce wasn’t all-in on staying retired through September, but he recently told Alex Kirshner of GQ he’s no longer at his playing weight.

“As far as the weight is concerned, I weighed 295 for the majority of my NFL career, and I look forward to losing some of those pounds,” Kelce said during that conversation. “I don’t want to get too small. I think a lot of guys, especially offensive linemen, they lose too much weight, and then they look like bobbleheads because their neck gets so small, but their head stays the same size. So for me, I feel like for some reason, 250 to 260 feels like I’ll be still big and be happy with the way I look without having a six-pack.”

As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Eagles third among the betting favorites at +700 odds to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LIX. 

While a healthy Kelce could help Philadelphia bounce back from what became a disastrous end to the 2023 campaign, it sounds like he’s committed to discussing games as an analyst rather than participating in them.