By the time Jason Kelce retired this spring, after a 13-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles, he had earned status as one of the NFL’s most famous people, owing to a combination of his elite play, his presence as one half of a highly marketable tandem of brothers, and his loving relationship with the fans in a crucible of a sports town.
This is not the sort of thing that happens to offensive linemen. But in Kelce’s last year and a half in the NFL, three things happened. Jason and his wife, Kylie, appeared with their children in a Prime Video documentary that tracked the family during a football season. Jason and brother Travis launched a podcast. And then Travis started dating the most famous woman in the world. When Jason retired in March, he found himself in the unusual position of being considerably more in-demand as a former player than he was as a cornerstone lineman for an NFC East franchise. It has all been an adjustment, albeit a happy one. “We’re just going with it one day at a time,” he says.
One of Kelce’s new hats will be as a Monday Night Countdown panelist for ESPN. Another is as a pitchman for Kingsford, the maker of grilling charcoal. In 2017, the company built one of the NFL ecosystem’s most viral marketing campaigns around former New England Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork wearing a set of grilling overalls (and nothing else). Now the company has crossed the line of scrimmage. Kelce, among his other gigs, will help sell the world on charcoal grilling.
Kelce talked with GQ this month about barbecuing, his memorable trip through the Buffalo tailgating scene last January, the state of his body as he stops playing, and how being himself in 2024 is different than it was from, say, 2011 to early 2023. The discussion is lightly edited for clarity and length.
Yeah, I'm a charcoal griller by preference. I think I've used charcoal the most in my grilling experience. It's what I learned on. And it's what I prefer, partly because of nostalgia. That’s just what I remember doing with my dad. I remember activating the charcoal, getting them ready, getting them white and hot. And I think that it's something that brings you back to the first time you did it. Like there's a process with charcoal that gas doesn't really have, right? And for me, there's more flavor in it. There's more of that process that really makes you feel like it's an active cook rather than just like throwing something on a grill that’s more passive.
One thing I'm trying to get into, I know a lot of people use the offset smokers with charcoal, and then put wood blocks on it to get the smoke with it. I have not personally done that. But I am getting an offset smoker, and I'm looking forward to trying that out. Because I've just got the direct heat on the grill, and I know that in order to get the meat really tender, being able to have the offset and have that smoke and heat creep into it, you can cook it longer and render more of the fat and make it more tender. So I'm looking forward to giving that a go.
Listen, I think everybody should grill however they want to grill. If I'm being honest, I think gas probably has a place if you're trying to go quickly and whatever. But for me, if you're looking for the best flavor, if you're looking for the actual true barbecue atmosphere, feel, and taste, you can't accomplish that with gas. You need the charcoal to be in there to get the true barbecue nature.
You know, there's a time and a place for everything. But certainly my preference and certainly what I think of when I think of tailgating—when I think of an event with people around you, a community-driven thing—I think that always is better with the charcoal and the traditional barbecue style.
I mean, I'd never done it in college. The only other time has been when the Eagles have been eliminated from games already, and I've been in Kansas City for a playoff game at Arrowhead. I've gotten to experience a little bit of tailgating out there. But the Bills one was definitely the most unique. Maybe the first time I was at Arrowhead, it was just as unique. Obviously, Kansas City has a huge barbecue culture, and there were tons of people out there barbecuing and tailgating in Kansas City.
I had never been to Buffalo [as a fan]. I had never experienced a game there. And there's been so much built up for me just in the whole season. That was my first time away and being able to just experience football, not, you know, geared up to get ready to play and try and win the game. I just got to really take in the full atmosphere, and it did not disappoint. And part of it was, to be honest, the Buffalo fans just made it magical. I mean, the entire place, all of the Bills Mafia, the Big Tree Inn [sports bar] where we started the day, walking through the tailgate. The entire thing was just so spectacular.
That’s accurate.
Well, I mean, listen: Everybody exits the league with some type of impediment. I’ve had a twice-reconstructed right knee, a surgery on my hand, my groin. I’ve broken toes. I've had my share of things that have gone wrong, not to mention just the wear and tear of playing 13 years in the NFL. So I'm leaving the game with those scars, but for all intents and purposes, I can play with my kids. I am still able to fully enjoy life, which I consider a blessing whether you played in the NFL or not.
As far as the weight is concerned, I weighed 295 for the majority of my NFL career, and I look forward to losing some of those pounds. I don't want to get too small. I think a lot of guys, especially offensive linemen, they lose too much weight, and then they look like bobbleheads because their neck gets so small, but their head stays the same size. So for me, I feel like for some reason, 250 to 260 feels like I'll be still big and be happy with the way I look without having a six-pack. But I’ll still be able to have that stature a little bit. Right now, I'm about 277. I'm almost 20 pounds down right now. It’s hard to imagine another nearly 20 pounds coming off, being honest with you. But my back already feels better. My knees already feel better. So another 20 pounds hopefully will make that much more adept at playing with my children.
I think at the end of the day, it all comes down to fandom, right? And people are fans of me, my brother, my family. We were very out in the open—between the documentary that my wife and I did with our children, Travis with everything he's doing, and then our podcast that we do together. There's room in there for fans of whatever, right? Whether you're fans of football or fans of families or fans of Taylor Swift, there's a lot of different avenues for people that are fans of anything. And for a large portion of my career, it was just football fans, and that was enough. I'm very happy with being in Philadelphia. Major market, Eagles fans are very diehard, very vocal, and I was afforded a great privilege to play in the city.
Now, no matter where I go, there's going to be fans in one of those categories, and that has undoubtedly taken some getting used to. But again, I consider it all a privilege. Even though early in my career it was mostly big fat hairy guys that were fans of mine, and now it's transitioned to teenage girls, which has been quite a demographic shift. I don't take the position lightly. I think that anybody who's been a fan of anything understands the position of great privilege that that has put me and my family in.
The center is a position where you have to know what you're doing, but more importantly, you have to know the entire structure of the line and the play that's happening. Whether it's a pass play or a run play, it's not as simple as just going out and doing your job. Your job is just as much communicating it to all the other players on the field, including your linemates, setting people up in the right position. So it forces you to look at the game very holistically, and you have to know not just the player across from you, but you have to know formations. You have to know alignments. You have to know coverages. You have to know blitzes. You have to know all of the offensive systems and plays and why they're in.
And I think when you're forced to look at the game that way as a player, it allows you to have more of a holistic view on football in general. And I'm looking forward, very much, to being able to take that frame of reference and that knowledge base and offer that as a reference to viewers and hopefully help educate them. Of course help entertain them. But most importantly, as with any great analyst, it is always about the relatability and the ability that you have to communicate and connect with the viewers that are watching you or listening to you. Maximizing all that at the center position is critical, which is why I think hopefully it’ll help me in this next phase.