Jason Kelce, the Philadelphia Eagles centre, has hinted at his plans after potential retirement from the NFL.
Despite rumours of his career coming to an end after the Eagles season was ended by defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round, he has not completely ruled out a return and has indicated a desire to stay in the game.
I don’t even know what involves my future, whether it’s playing football or not,” Kelce told reporters.
The 36-year-old, who has been with the Eagles since being drafted by the franchise in 2011, is considering his options which could include another season, moving into coaching or a TV role. He made his analyst debut on Amazon Prime earlier this season.
“I have no idea. We’ll figure it out. I don’t wanna address any of this stuff right now. I don’t like to live in absolutes in general.
Reporting after the Eagles defeat suggested he had already told teammates he was calling it a day, but after initial playing down the talk during a chat with his brother Travis on the ‘New Heights’ podcast, it’s clear there is a decision to make.
‘It’s hard to make those shifts a lot of times in season. It can be done, we didn’t get it done. I feel confident those shifts can be made.
“I’ll always wanna be involved in the game. It’s a hard thing to step away from, completely, I’m imagining.
“I still want – there’s a lot of things I still want to learn about football. I still want to figure out what we can do to figure out what happened these last six, seven weeks. I know a lot about my little pocket of football, but I’d love to know more about the collective whole. That’s something I’d love to get a better grasp on in the future.”
Following Jason’s admission, Travis followed up by telling reporters ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs Divisional play-off mach with the Buffalo Bills that his brother isn’t done with football yet, saying: “It came out that he retired, and he really didn’t say any of that.”
“It’s been cool to see everybody appreciate who he’s been over the years this past week, but I think the big guy still got some football left if he wants it.”
