Longtime Eagles center Jason Kelce returning next season after Nick Sirianni’s keg gift
It took a pair of kegs to persuade him, but Jason Kelce is headed back to the Philadelphia Eagles next season.
The veteran center and the Eagles announced his decision on Thursday afternoon in a video, which showed Kelce drinking from one of the two kegs that coach Nick Sirianni had sent him as a gift.
“I’m definitely not retiring from playing with the Philadelphia Eagles. I’m having way too much fun doing that,” Kelce said.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) March 10, 2022
Kelce has spent 11 seasons with the Eagles, who selected him in the sixth round of the 2011 draft. The five-time Pro Bowler has been the Eagles’ team captain four times, and currently holds an impressive streak of 122 consecutive regular-season games played. Kelce, 34, is set to make $1.5 million next season.
Shortly after the Eagles were eliminated from the playoffs earlier this year, Sirianni actually sent Kelce a pair of kegs as a sort of bribe to try to get him to return — as many had speculated that Kelce would retire at the end of the season.
“I sent him two kegs of beer yesterday,” Sirianni said in January, via NBC Sports. “You know what, he’s awesome and I’ve told him how much we want him back. He’s an unbelievable leader. Everything you hear about — if you don’t know Jason Kelce personally, everything you hear about him is as advertised. He’s awesome, he’s a great leader, he’s a great player.
“He’s the backbone of this team, he’s so smart of a football player, like he makes us go as a team. … As long as he wants to go, we want him to go. And I’ll be trying to convince him every single day that I can, to come back and play, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Clearly, Sirianni’s efforts worked.
