Almost every kid growing up dreams of becoming a professional athlete. Sure, some lean more towards artistic or scientific pursuits, but even they secretly imagine being cheered on by a sea of fans. The reality, though, is that only a lucky few people pursue that dream, even fewer make it, and only a handful ever get to the top of the game and stay there for years. Former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce was one of them.
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Picked in the 6th round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Eagles, Kelce dedicated his entire 13-year-long career to the franchise. Along the way, he was selected to 7 Pro Bowls and named first-team All-Pro 6 times. Suffice to say, he not only saw the top of the mountain, he stayed there for a long time.
Of course, climbing that high and then some takes a serious toll on your body, especially in a sport like football. A delight to be around, as his teammates often attest, Kelce played at center, one of the most demanding positions. He always put his team first, which meant playing through injuries for years.
Speaking to Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson on the Roommate Show recently, Kelce revealed that fitness and pain were the real reasons he had to hang up his cleats.
“My knees,” Jason answered after Hart asked him how he knew his time was up.
The former NFL star then recalled asking Charles Barkley the same question, “‘When people that aren’t good start beating you [you know you’re done],'” Barkley had told him, a line Kelce repeated with a chuckle.
“It hadn’t manifested that much yet. I always wanted to stop before it really started going downhill. I didn’t want to be somebody that was really trying to hang on to every last second in the NFL. I did not want to be that person,” Kelce continued.
Kelce also talked about how, in his last few years, he started noticing a decline in his performance.
“And I could feel myself over the last 2 to 3 years starting to deteriorate. And it just gets to a point where it’s really hard to get to game day … When you are young, you love coming into practice. You love going into the weight room … at the end of my career, all of it was just so exhausting to try and get to game day,” he candidly shared.
Asserting that he still loved ‘game day’, Kelce noted that as an athlete, he could always find a way to get himself pumped, but he was constantly aware that his time was running out.
“I knew that eventually there as all this other stuff that was going to catch up and it was starting to catch up. And I was like, ‘this is the time. I am out,'” Kelce stated.
Well, NFL can be a particularly cruel sport that can take long term tolls on the body and Kelce had a tougher job that most. Having to block players like Dexter Lawrence, Leonard Williams, Chris Jones, Donald Payne and Jonathan Allen was never going to be easy in his late 30s. Thankfully, he left the game before the game left him.
