He was a superstar athlete in a megabucks game. As one of the best centers of his time, Jason Kelce was hugely sought after, both as a player and as a brand endorser. Which means he made tons of money, especially in his final years.
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And nobody will grudge him a penny of it. Anyone will agree that he put in the hard yards and deserved every penny he earned. Anyone, that is, except Jason himself! He believes he was overpaid since he was only doing what he loved. He was playing the sport he loved from childhood, something that had started as just pure fun.
Now, in retirement, Jason feels the same way about his new career in media. In fact, he’s making even more through media deals than he did as a football player, where every snap meant putting his body on the line. But that’s no longer the case, and to him, it almost feels like “stealing money”.
That phrase came from Charles Barkley, who built a massive media career after his Hall of Fame NBA run. He joked that working in sports media is one of the easiest ways for former athletes to cash in — and Jason couldn’t agree more.
“Hey, you ain’t lying, stealing money is a great way to describe it,” Jason said. “It’s fun, it’s a lot of fun. I get paid to just talk about something I love and to do it with a lot of like-minded people.”
Elaborating on why he feels media work is literally a steal, Jason pointed out how much easier media work is compared to playing in the NFL — especially executing the grueling Tush Push for the Eagles. Yet, despite the physical toll of football, he’s now earning even more just from his podcast alone, not to mention other media ventures he’s taken on.
“I mean it’s crazy when you really think about it. I spent 13 years doing plays like the Tush Push and beating the crap out of my body. And I mean even that I felt like I was getting overpaid to do. I was getting overpaid to play a game that I did voluntarily as a child and I got to do that for 13 years in an incredible city,” he added.
Jason made more than $85 million from his 13 years in the league. While in his final year, he made more than $14 million as the highest-paid center in the NFL in 2023. Per Spotrac, this was nearly seven times the average salary of a center in 2024, $2,394,058.
What makes the future HOFer even more grateful is not just the extra money, but the opportunity to work alongside other big names.
“Now I get paid more money to just talk about it, which is insane to me. Like it keeps changing, but it’s awesome, I work with a lot of great people whether it’s with the podcast with my brother, The Late Night Show, with NFL Films. ESPN obviously has set me up fantastically and been great for launching this next part of my career, so I am very blessed to be able to work with all these fine people,” elaborated Kelce.
With his wife, Kylie, entering the podcasting world as well, it appears the Kelce family has figured out how to rake in the moolah just from podcasting. And why not? They have a wide following, spanning sports, pop culture, and the city of Philadelphia.
Although many Philly fans would love to see Jason back in the Lincoln Financial Field as a coach, that idea appears to be far-fetched, since he would simply make more from just talking about the game. And he is taking strides in improving himself in that craft too.
“I just look forward to getting better at it just like that’s one of the things I do enjoy the most is there’s feedback and you want to improve and you want to do as good of a job as possible for the people that are tuning in and uh I’m looking forward to continuing that journey,” said Kelce.
Given Jason’s track record of getting consistently better at whatever he’s doing, we can be sure that in future, even more networks would be chasing him, hoping to bank on his likeness and his exceptional skills to tailgate with any NFL fanbase.
