Jason Kelce Uncomfortable with Swirling Super Bowl Expectations
PHILADELPHIA – Super Bowl expectations are swirling around the Eagles.
In the NFC, the possibly cannot be dismissed, even with the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams residing in the conference because, well, there is such a thing as a Super Bowl hangover and maybe it takes more than a few aspirins for the Rams to make it go away.
For those thinking of a February in Arizona – and wouldn’t that just beat a February in Minnesota where the Eagles won it all in 2018? – Jason Kelce has a message, one not only for fans but one he hopes his team hears, too.
When asked a rather innocuous question about how much more comfortable he believes head coach Nick Sirianni is entering his second year, Kelce steered in a different direction.
“I don’t like comfort,” said the veteran Eagles center. “I think comfort is a (bleeping) terrible place to be if you’re in this league. I know everybody expects us to be Super Bowl champions in Philadelphia right now, and I think that can definitely happen, but it’s not going to happen being comfortable, I can guarantee you that.
“It’s going to happen respecting your opponents. It’s going to happen respecting the game, and understanding if you don’t go out there and (bleeping) work every single day, if you don’t go out there and have the mindset that there are things we need to work on and improve on every single day, you don’t get to that mindset by being comfortable. So I hope he’s not comfortable. I hope he’s very uncomfortable.”
Yes, there were a pair of uncharacteristic f-bombs dropped by Kelce.
He’s right, though, expectations are high for this team after an offseason that could land GM Howie Roseman another executive of the year award depending on the outcome.
Kelce said that when expectations are high, you tend to let things slide a little bit.
“When you win, it’s like, ‘ah, you know, was that a bad play?” he said. “Those 50-50 (things)...it goes a little bit by the wayside. I think when you’re expected to do well, organizationally, player-wise, team-wise, coaching-wise, all of those little things start to be like, ‘ah, you know, we’ll get that fixed.’”
When expectations are low, it’s different.
“It’s like, ‘we gotta fix everything right (bleeping) now, otherwise we’re getting fired, otherwise people are going to be out on the streets,’” he said.
That’s where the Eagles’ many veterans come into play, players such as Kelce, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Lane Johnson, Darius Slay, and others.
“I think we got enough older guys around this building,” said Kelce. “I think we got enough … (other people) to understand that expectations are just that – they’re (bleeping) nothing. We gotta go out there and play. We gotta go out there, and the moment you’re comfortable in this league, somebody is coming for you.
We gotta (be like) Mr. T in Rocky III. He’s going to be hunting us every single week. And we haven’t won (bleeping) nothing yet, so we’re not even the champion. So we better work our (butts) off.”
You can count on one hand the number of times Kelce dropped f-bombs in his press conference. He had at least four of them in two answers.
He was sending a message to his teammates that they better not buy into what they’re hearing or reading because he was asked if he had been that direct about it within the locker room.
“Uh, probably not that much, not that specifically,” he said. “But I’ve been probably saying some semblance to that to guys and people throughout the offseason. I haven’t been that direct about it, so maybe a video clip will come out, and they’ll see that.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
