Travis Kelce still isn’t over Jason Kelce‘s NFL retirement, just like Us.
The brothers shared an emotional moment during the Wednesday, March 6, episode of their “New Heights” podcast while reflecting on Jason’s retirement press conference, which took place one day before they recorded the podcast. Travis, 34, revealed that the twosome hadn’t spoken at length about Jason’s decision before the announcement.
“I wanted to make sure that you didn’t feel any pressure from me to keep going knowing I wanted you to keep going,” Travis explained.
Jason, 36, quipped back, “Why didn’t you tell me this? I would’ve changed my mind,” but Travis brushed off the response.
“You’ve always been a step ahead of me in this game … it’s always been like I’ve had that flotation device right there and to have you out of it, it feels empty,” Travis said, getting choked up as he continued. “And it feels like it’s complete. It was a success.”
Jason encouraged his brother, who paused to gather his emotions. “It was a fun ass journey to watch,” Travis added through tears. “Like I said yesterday, man, I just appreciate you showing me the way and bringing us all along the journey with you.”
Jason, who played center for the Philadelphia Eagles for 13 years, reminded Travis that his message goes both ways. “We showed each other the way,” he said. “Listen, I’m out of playing, but … you know, I’m still going to the games. Like I said, you’ve been playing for a long time on your own and I look forward to being able to appreciate and watch your games more and take in the bigger picture of football and everything it has to offer.”
He continued, “I don’t know, it’s a different chapter and in some ways I’ll be able to experience more things and do things that I’ve never done before, which is exciting.”
Travis teared up once again while celebrating “being the tag team” of the NFL. “Pretty cool s—t,” he remarked. “I didn’t talk to you about it, I let you kinda do your own thing and I couldn’t have been more proud listening to you yesterday. It’s been a lot of emotions, a lot of sad emotions, a lot of excited emotions. … A lot of exciting future things that we have to look forward to.”
Before diving into a recap of Jason’s speech, Travis asked for a box of tissues. “I would be crying more, but I wasted all my tears [already],” Jason teased, adding that he would “probably break down” again at some point.
Jason officially announced on Monday, March 4, that he would not return for another NFL season. Reports initially surfaced in January that he informed fellow Eagles players of his retirement after the team lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ending their playoff run.
The Kelce family, including Travis and Jason’s wife, Kylie Kelce, showed up to support Jason in Philadelphia as he reflected on his NFL lengthy career. At one point during the speech, Travis was seen crying while sitting beside his mom, Donna Kelce.
“This is where it’s gonna go off the rails,” Jason teased on Monday, wiping away his tears with a towel before giving Travis a heartfelt shout-out. “We have a small family … it was really my brother and I our whole lives. We did almost everything together, competed, fought, laughed, cried and learned from each other. We invented games, imagined ourselves as star players of that time. … We won countless Super Bowls in our minds before ever leaving the house.”
He added, “There is no chance I’d be here without the bond Travis and I shared. It made me stronger, tougher, smarter and taught me the values of cooperation, loyalty, patience and understanding. It’s only too poetic [that] I found my career being fulfilled in the city of brotherly love. I knew that relationship all too well.”
