On March 4, Jason Kelce, the elder brother of Kansas City Chiefs standout Travis Kelce and a six-time first-team All-Pro center for the Philadelphia Eagles, declared his retirement from the National Football League.
Jason Kelce gave an incredibly passionate and moving speech during the live news conference. ESPN insider Field Yates called it “the greatest retirement speech I’ve ever seen,” and many others in Philadelphia would certainly agree.
He devoted an entire chunk of it to the KC organization and his younger brother Travis.
In between sobs, Jason said, “I won’t forget falling short to the Chiefs,” alluding to the Eagles’ 2022–2023 Super Bowl defeat. He started this section of the address, but had to pause briefly due to overwhelming emotion, acknowledging that the news conference “could run off the rails” in the coming minutes.
After some time, the elder of the two Kelce brothers set out on his own: “I have mixed feelings about losing to the Chiefs and feeling so heartbroken for myself and my teammates, but also feeling proud of my brother for reaching the summit once more.”
The speech continued, “We have a small family – no cousins, one aunt, and one uncle.” Actually, it was my brother and I all our lives. We engaged in nearly every activity together, including rivalry, conflict, laughter, tears, and mutual learning. We created games and thought of ourselves as the best gamers of the era. We imagined ourselves on Coleridge Road, day in and day out, making the winning moves. Before we even left the house, we had won innumerable Super Bowls in our imaginations.
“And when we weren’t playing, we were at our brothers’ games — sitting on a bench or lawn chair with a Capri Sun that our mother had put in our hands — applauding during the match and staying outside to celebrate wins with each other or offer support after losses.” Without the relationship Travis and I have, there’s no way I would be here. It improved my strength, toughness, and intelligence and taught me the importance of patience, teamwork, loyalty, and understanding.
Throughout his moving retirement speech, Jason Kelce shed a few tears, and he wasn’t the only one feeling moved. Travis Kelce, the younger brother, was seen sobbing in a video that went viral and was posted on X by Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.
The Eagles reporter described the exchange between Jason and his family as “a nice moment” and said that “looking toward [his family] constantly throughout the speech” was the press conference’s main theme. Within two and a half hours, this video has had over 775K views and 26K likes.
“Jason Kelce discussing his connection with Travis and the Chiefs’ Super Bowl defeat.” One KC fan said, “The amount of respect I feel for this man—wow, I wasn’t intending on crying this morning, but here we are.” “Jason Kelce, congratulations on all of your accomplishments.”
“Congratulations on your retirement @JasonKelce!” wrote a another Chiefs fan. To suggest that you are the Chiefs Kingdom’s most adored non-Chiefs player would be an understatement! NFL fans everywhere will miss you, and we can’t wait to see you in Canton wearing your golden jacket!
The Chiefs Focus story concluded by saying, “The second hardest thing I’ve observed in all my years around the NFL was the Jason Kelce retirement presser.”
