Jason Kelce’s beloved Philadelphia Eagles are headed into another Super Bowl matchup against his brother’s Kansas City Chiefs — but he doesn’t feel like he’s missing out.
“I wouldn’t say I have FOMO (fear of missing out),” Kelce tells TODAY.com. “I mean, obviously, when you’re a former player, you think that there’s always a part of you that wants to be out on the field. You think that there’s always a part that’s going to want to play.”
He continues, “But the reality is, I’m very happy with the decision I made still. For me, I was done playing football for a number of reasons.”
When the former Eagles center announced he was retiring from the NFL in March 2024, Kelce says he “knew back then that this was something that could happen” — a missed opportunity to face his brother, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, again in football’s biggest game.
The Kelce brothers battled head-to-head — or helmet-to-helmet — in Super Bowl 57 in February 2023, which resulted in a nail-biting 38-35 win for the Chiefs. That was the first time in NFL history that two brothers played on opposing Super Bowl teams.
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Though this year’s Super Bowl is a chance for Philadelphia’s redemption, Kelce says he’s “at peace” letting his former teammates take the lead.
In terms of his predictions for Sunday, Kelce says he “can see it going a number of ways.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be high-scoring, but I could be wrong,” he says. “I think both these defenses are really good.”
He continues, “I think the closer the score is, I get nervous, as an Eagles fan, about Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and what they can do with the game on the line, and how many times they’ve been in that position.”
However, Kelce adds that Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has also held his own in high-pressure scenarios throughout his career. “It’s the Super Bowl, any team can win any given year,” he says.
In preparation for Sunday’s game, Kelce says he’s already arrived in New Orleans. His parents, Ed and Donna Kelce, set to arrive this week.
Aside from “eating beignets on Bourbon Street,” Kelce shares that the family doesn’t have any set plans ahead of the Super Bowl, which they will all attend together.
“Trav is going to be focused on winning this game, so I’m going to see him very sparingly,” Kelce says of his brother. “They’re pretty much all business for this week.”
But Kelce hasn’t been the only burly, bearded man on Bourbon Street. A bunch of Jason Kelce doppelgängers filled the New Orleans streets this week in a contest with Marriott.
“A bunch of super fans were trying to find the real Jason Kelce with a bunch of Jason Kelce look-alikes out and about,” he says, adding about 25 doppelgängers were “running rampant” for a while.
The winners who could find the real Kelce among the look-alikes won a free night in the Courtyard Super Bowl Sleepover Suite inside the Caesars Superdome, and, naturally, were able to spend some time with the former NFL star himself.
“I’ve never seen that many people that look like me — although I am a pretty generic-looking man — I haven’t seen that many compiled into one area,” he says, laughing.
Since leaving the league as a player, Kelce has stayed involved in the game as a broadcaster for ESPN, which he calls a “new experience in the NFL landscape.”
“When you’re a player, you look at everything through the lens of your team and all the film you watch each week is solely for the Philadelphia Eagles,” he explains, adding, “Now, being on the outside of that, is someone who’s supposed to be an expert in the entirety of the NFL.”
“I’ve had to watch more football games than I’ve ever watched in my life,” he says, “which has been fun to experience the entirety of the league this year.”
