Jason Kelce joined Jeffrey Lurie in the room at the NFL Owner’s Meetings this week where the tush push was adjudicated on, and now, thanks to the result, he can be hailed as the man that saved the play!
Even if, as he admitted to Joe DeCamara and Jody Mac on Friday, he felt like he didn’t belong.
“We went in there, and it’s a wild experience; I didn’t know what to expect, because I’ve never been in one of those meetings, but I’m in a room full of like all these owners and billionaires, and you're seeing the legislative process in the NFL take place,” Kelce said. “It was awesome just to see how the proposals work and Roger’s leading everything, and I really enjoyed it – but it was surreal to even be in that room, like I was in some like very inner sanctum. I don't know if the Illuminati is real, but I feel like that room is probably as close to me. It was wild.”
As Jason joined Joe, Jody, and Devan Kaney on the kickoff to Memorial Day weekend, he explained just how hard Mr. Lurie went to save the Eagles’ bread-and-butter play.
Oh, and on that player safety tip, Kelce reassured that the tush push and its effects on those involved was NOT part of what led to him deciding to retire.
“It came up, and it happened the last meeting, and that's why I was there. It felt like numerous coaches and owners at the previous meeting had alluded to me stepping away from the game because of what the play was doing to my body, and I had numerous media things where I was relenting running the play, and I think that the main reason I was there was to really dispel that stuff,” Kelce said. “Like, I think a lot of that stuff gets said in jest, right? That’s why I was there, to kind of tell them, listen, it’s a grueling play, there’s a lot of energy expenditure, and it’s so impactful, but there’s no momentum buildup, so it ends up just really being like energy exertion and pushing; it's not high impact. This isn't a play that you're going to see these large injuries on, in my opinion, because it's just not what it is.”
Listen to Kelce’s entire visit with the 94WIP Morning Show above!