Kelce, who had been considering retiring from the NFL, said he would play a 13th season with the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles captain Jason Kelce is returning to the team for a 13th season, just a few weeks after the team’s Super Bowl loss.
The 35-year-old announced his return in a (lightly) NSFW tweet on Monday morning.
“I have put much thought into whether it makes sense to play another season,” Jason, who recently welcomed a third child with wife Kylie, wrote. “After talking it over with my wife and many other friends and family, I have decided to return for another year.”
“Thank you to all my supporters and detractors for fueling me, I ain’t f—king done yet!” he added.
Despite his desire to return, Jason cannot officially re-sign with the Eagles until Wednesday, when the new league year begins, ESPN reported.
According to the outlet, Jason had been considering retirement for a few seasons, but had followed the advice of his former offensive lines coach, Howard Mudd, who told him, “When in doubt, don’t.”
During his career with the Eagles, Jason has been a critical player in the team’s success, winning the 2018 Super Bowl and helping them make it to Super Bowl LVII this year, where they lost to Jason’s brother, Travis Kelce, and the Kansas City Chiefs.
The pair opened up about the game on their New Heights podcast a few days later, where Jason also talked about the difficulty of deciding on retirement.
“I do know it was a lot of fun this year. I had an amazing team and time doing this show with my brother, so we’ll see,” Jason said at the time when asked if he would come back to the Eagles. “I’m gonna let the batteries recharge. I’m exhausted, man. It’s a long season, mentally, physically, emotionally drained, and I’m gonna let all that kinda recover before we decide on that.”
Both Jason and Travis agreed the night was made even more special thanks to the attention that was being paid to their mom, Donna Kelce.
“The moment I saw mom is when I got really emotional because man, it was so awesome,” Jason said as he teared up. “It was awesome that she was on top of the world for a week.”
“She was the heavyweight champ, man,” 33-year-old Travis added. “She was on top of it, and she shined the whole time, man. That was the coolest part. Mom, you killed it. Dad, you’ve been killing it.”
