Jason Kelce is fully beating around the bush when it comes to questions about his future in the NFL.
“I don’t even know what involves my future, whether it’s playing football or not,” Kelce, 36, told reporters on Wednesday, January 17, according to a video posted to X. “I have no idea. We’ll figure it out.”
The Philadelphia Eagles center stated that he doesn’t “want to address any of this stuff right now,” but made it clear that he doesn’t “like to live in absolutes in general.”
The athlete further explained that the offseason will allow him more time to dissect what went wrong in the Eagles’ final games of the 2023–2024 season. (The Eagles were knocked out of the playoffs on Monday, January 15, after they lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32 to 9. The team went 1-6 in the second half of the season.)
Jason Kelce on his future.
“I don’t like to live in absolutes in general.” #Eagles pic.twitter.com/fBbHVvz2jm
— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrCBS) January 17, 2024
“It’s hard to make those shifts a lot of times in season,” he continued, according to CBS Sports. “It can be done, we didn’t get it done. I feel confident those shifts can be made.”
One thing that’s still unclear, however, is if Kelce will be a part of those shifts.
“I’ll always wanna be involved in the game,” he continued. “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.”
Kelce added, “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.”
Reports about Kelce’s retirement broke on Tuesday, January 16, one day after the Eagles’ loss. NFL insider Adam Schefter reported at the time that Kelce had announced his retirement in the Eagles’ locker room the night before, but on his podcast with brother Travis Kelce, he denied making anything official.
“I didn’t announce what I was doing on purpose … but people can kind of feel body language and stuff,” Jason explained. “I just don’t think you’re in the position after a game like that to really make that decision, I just don’t. There’s too much emotion in the moment, there’s too much going down in the moment to really fully grasp that decision.”
Jason said that when it’s time to “officially announce what’s happening in the future,” he plans to do it “in a way that’s definitive and pays respect to a lot of people.”
On Monday, cameras caught Jason sitting on the sidelines with tears in his eyes after the game came to an end.
When questioned about Kelce’s future on the Eagles, the team’s head coach Nick Sirianni steered clear of offering any updates.
“Obviously, we’re not there at that position yet to talk about that. He’s special and I love him. He’s one of the most special guys I’ve been around,” he told reporters on Monday. “He’s always got a place here and [I] always want him to play. We’ll see what happens as time progresses.”
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