(Reuters) \u2013 Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce announced his retirement on Monday after a 13-year National Football League career during which he established himself as one of the best at his position and endeared himself to the team\u2019s fanbase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelce, the older brother of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, won a Super Bowl in February 2018, earned seven Pro Bowl selections and was named a first-team All Pro six times in an NFL career spent entirely with the Eagles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have been the underdog my entire career and \u2014 I mean this when I say it \u2014 I wish I still was. Few things gave me more joy than proving someone wrong,\u201d an emotional Kelce, 36, said during his retirement news conference in which Travis was among those in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy mother used to tell people and still says to this day, \u2018If you want Jason to do something, all you have to do is tell him he can\u2019t,\u2019 and that was true in more ways than I care to admit. I relish doubters; they fuel the fire within.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelce, selected by Philadelphia in the sixth and penultimate round of the 2011 NFL Draft, owns the Eagles franchise records for consecutive starts (156) and most regular season games played by an offensive lineman (193).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his career, Kelce became one of Philadelphia\u2019s most beloved athletes, a fan favorite at a position that does not typically produce fan favorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Super Bowl championship parade that followed the Eagles\u2019 upset win over the New England Patriots, Kelce whipped the crowd into a frenzy with an impassioned speech about his team\u2019s underdog story that resonated across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor the millions of fans who never had the privilege of meeting Jason, he had such a deep understanding and genuine appreciation for what was important to them,\u201d Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNothing exemplified that better than his Super Bowl parade speech that brought to the surface the emotions that so many of us had been holding inside for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday is a bittersweet day, because it is hard to imagine the Eagles taking the field without Jason Kelce in uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Reuters) \u2013 Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce announced his retirement on Monday after a 13-year National Football League career during which he established himself as one of the best at his position and endeared himself to the team\u2019s fanbase. Kelce, the older brother of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":280461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280462,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280460\/revisions\/280462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/280461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}