Eagles All-Pro and future Hall of Fame center Jason Kelce is contemplating retirement and talked about his difficult decision on Friday.
"I'm in the midst of thinking about that right now," Kelce told Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie on the 94WIP Midday Show. "I try and let the emotions fade from the season. It was an emotional year. We started off so rough, finished really strong and obviously the playoff game went really poorly. I think the biggest thing for me right is to step away and let all that calm down. Right after the game, I was like 'is that really going to be my last game in the NFL?'. Unless you win the Super Bowl, they are all going to end on a bad note.
"The competitive side of me really wants to keep playing, there is no question about that. It is getting harder every single year and the league has changed so much. I probably wouldn't be able to play this long if Wednesday's weren't significantly scaled down, if we were hitting every single day. That's why a lot of these guys are going to play for much longer than guys have ever played. We will see. To answer your question, I want to, but I have to make sure it's the smart thing to do and I that I still can do that and be a good teammate, good leader and good player. As long as I can do all three of those, I'm definitely coming back."
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The 34-year-old is coming off of another dominant season where he anchored one of the NFL's top offensive lines and rushing attacks, reaching his fifth Pro Bowl and named to his fourth All-Pro first-team.
"I sent him two kegs of beer yesterday," Sirianni joked on January 20th. "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 as a football player, like he makes us go as a team. As long as Jason wants to play. I think in the middle of the year I said, 'You got five more years in you?' We laughed about it."