Former Eagles Superstar Doesn't Regret Retirement

Jason Kelce isn't rethinking his decision to walk away from football after the Eagles Super Bowl win.

Feb 2, 2025; Orlando, FL, USA; Jason Kelce on the ESPN postseason countdown set during the 2025 Pro Bowl Games at Camping World Stadium. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Future Hall of Fame center Jason Kelce isn’t rethinking his decision to walk away from the game even with the hindsight og the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX win.

“I try not to think about it in terms of like, ‘Oh, if I just would have done that a year, I would have been able to win the Super Bowl’ because who knows what would have happened and who else would have been there and what guys would have been acquired and all these other things,” Kelce told SiriusXM’s Damon Amendolara at the Ed Block Courage Awards. “So for me, I'm very happy with what I left when I was there."

Always a cerebral player Kelce understands it’s not linear in football and his return would have affected many other avenues for Philadelphia.

"I mean, call it butterfly effect, whatever, but there's more, and it's not even just me and Cam Jurgens,” Kelce said. “You know, there's Mekhi Becton, there's a lot of decisions that get made that ultimately come down to… guys stepping away, coaches moving on.

“There's a lot of different varying factors. And what I do know is that the group that remained with the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the season was the best team in the NFL.”

Had Kelce remained, Jurgens would have stayed at right guard, and the massive Becton never steps in at RG to help provide the physical presence that helped define the Eagles' historic running game with Saquon Barkley.

Kelce was content to watch things from the sideline with the understanding he was a foundational piece of the culture that helped the Eagles build what was the second Super Bowl championship team in franchise history.

“I don't know that they would go to the Super Bowl if I come back another year," Kelce admitted. “There's a lot of things that happened throughout the course of the season, and I think this team turned into the best version of itself, with the guys that they had and it ended up being a damn good team.

"And I'm very happy for them, but I don't regret ever…deciding to hang it up and deciding to retire because, at that point in my life, I was done doing it.”

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