Eagles: Jason Kelce's retirement makes playoff loss even more painful
As the clock mercifully hit zero on Monday night's showdown between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, cameras zeroed in on an emotional Jason Kelce. Anybody watching the six-time All-Pro center knew what was up: After years of mulling retirement, this was it. This was Kelce's last game of football. As it often goes […]
As the clock mercifully hit zero on Monday night's showdown between the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, cameras zeroed in on an emotional Jason Kelce.
Anybody watching the six-time All-Pro center knew what was up: After years of mulling retirement, this was it. This was Kelce's last game of football. As it often goes in sports, it wasn't the note he wanted to leave in.
On Tuesday morning, ESPN's Adam Schefter confirmed the news: Kelce informed his teammates in the locker room that he was hanging it up after a Hall of Fame career.
A devastating 32-9 loss to the Bucs in the Wild Card Round wasn't supposed to be the way Kelce and the Eagles went out. It was the final step in a shocking collapse for a team that started the season 10-1 and looked poised to be in the NFC Championship Game fighting for a consecutive trip to the Super Bowl.
Poetically, during Sunday's loss to the Bucs, the Eagles poetically failed to score a two-point conversion on the inevitable, earth-turning, physics-defying Tush Push, a play centering around Kelce himself that's led to the NFL considering banning it becase of how effective the Eagles have been with it for well over a year.
And although Kelce's career should and will be celebrated with joy by Eagles fans, right now it's a piece of news that simply makes the team's playoff loss sting even more ahead of the offseason.
Specifically because of this: Even the most diehard fan knows and understands this was the only logical decision Kelce could possibly reach given the circumstances surrounding the team. There's no sense of hope even for the 2024 NFL season as right now even Nick Sirianni is in the hot seat following such an epic collapse.
Benching the defensive coordinator and failing to evolve the offense after Shane Steichen's departure while seemingly losing the locker room late in the season aren't signs of a winning organization. Why would Kelce want to come back for another year of grueling football? What exactly would he be looking forward to with the way this season ended?
