Jason Kelce enjoyed a night out with brother Travis Kelce just one day after announcing his retirement from the Philadelphia Eagles.
Jason, 36, and Travis, 34, were both honored by the Cleveland Cavaliers during the team’s Tuesday, March 5, game against the Boston Celtics at Ohio’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The duo, who grew up in Cleveland Heights, both sported custom Cavaliers jerseys for the event, which featured their last name and respective NFL numbers. Travis kept the rest of his ensemble simple with an all-black ensemble, while Jason opted for a pair of jeans with a green coat and NBA All-Star hat.
Before the game began, the brothers received a standing ovation as they took center court where Jason was gifted a framed No. 62 Jersey in honor of his retirement from the NFL. Travis held the frame up in celebration as Jason showed off a yellow Cleveland Heights T-shirt from his childhood to the crowd. The Cavaliers also paid tribute to the pair by passing out limited-edition “Kelce Brothers” bobbleheads to the audience.
“Congrats on an incredible career to Celevalnd Heights legend, Jason Kelce!,” the official Cavaliers Instagram captioned a video from the event, adding the hashtag, “Let Em Know.” In a second post with photos from the game, the team wrote, “CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, REPRESENTTTTT.”
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The showering of “rocking hardware” didn’t stop there. While sitting courtside, Jason was also gifted a custom crystal-encrusted basketball as well as a Luchador mask that resembled the one he sported while celebrating Travis’ Super Bowl LVIII win in Las Vegas last month.
Jason announced he was officially stepping down from the NFL on Monday, March 4, after 13 years playing as a center for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“So, this all brings us here to today. Where I announce that I am retiring from the NFL after 13 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles,” Jason said during a 40-minute press conference. “And today I must admit, I am officially overrated. Vastly overrated. It took a lot of hard work and determination getting here. I have been the underdog my entire career, and I mean this when I say it, I wish I still was. Few things give me such joy as proving someone wrong.”
Both Kelces played college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats. Jason was selected by the Eagles during the 2011 draft, while Travis joined the league as a tightened for the Chiefs in 2013. During Jason’s emotional speech on Monday, Travis — who was in attendance with parents Donna and Ed Kelce and Jason’s wife, Kylie Kelce — could be seen getting emotional as Jason paid tribute to the brothers’ bond over the years.
“We have a small family. No cousins, one aunt, one uncle. It was really my brother and I our whole lives. We did almost everything together — competed, fought, laughed, cried and learned from each other,” he said. “We invented games, imagined ourselves as star players of that time. We’d envision making the winning plays day after day on Coleridge Road. We won countless Super Bowls in our minds before ever leaving the house. And when we weren’t playing, we were at the other one’s games, butt seated in a lawn chair or bench, Capri Sun that mom had packed, cheering during the game and waiting outside afterward to celebrate a victory together or offer encouragement after a defeat.”
He continued, “There is no chance I’d be here without the bond Travis and I share. It made me stronger, tougher, smarter, and it taught me the values of cooperation, loyalty, patience and understanding. It’s only too poetic I found my career being fulfilled in the City of Brotherly Love. I knew that relationship all too well.”
Speculation around Jason’s future in football began in January after the Eagles lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ending their 2023-2024 season and knocking them out of hte playoffs. Reports surfaced that Jason told his teammates he was retiring, which he later addressed on his and Travis’ “New Heights” podcast.
“I didn’t announce what I was doing on purpose … but people can kind of feel body language and stuff,” Jason explained. “I just don’t think you’re in the position after a game like that to really make that decision, I just don’t. There’s too much emotion in the moment, there’s too much going down in the moment to really fully grasp that decision.”
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He added that it was important he retired on his “own terms,” and that it occurred in a way that is “definitive and pays respect to a lot of people and individuals that have meant a lot to me and what has led to the career that I’ve had.”
At the time, Travis — who went on to win this year’s Super Bowl after defeating the Eagles last year — admitted that it was “tough” to see his brother’s season end the way it did.
“I think everybody in the football world felt this one,” he said. “Clearly a lot of emotion at the end of this game for you guys, but I can attest for it because I was feeling it. I know Kylie, mom, dad, everybody that was at the game was feeling it.”
