Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce announces retirement

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jason Kelce needed only seconds to burst into tears.

Kelce’s eyes flooded each time he relayed a story about backyard football games with his brother, the love he felt from his parents and the devotion of his coaches — even a band teacher — that shaped him along way. But it was his career with the Philadelphia Eagles that choked up Kelce the most. The Super Bowl. The parade. His beloved offensive line coach.

All of the memories, the wins, the brotherhood — both with his fellow Eagles players and younger brother Travis, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs — consumed Kelce to the point where he needed about 45 minutes to reach the inevitable conclusion that everyone inside a crowded auditorium knew was coming from the moment a news conference was announced.

It was time to retire.

The 36-year-old Kelce officially called it quits Monday at the Eagles’ NovaCare Complex, ending a 13-year career spent entirely with Philadelphia in which he became not only one of the great centers of his era who played a key role in the franchise’s lone Super Bowl championship but a beloved Philly personality and popular podcast host.

“Let’s see how long this lasts,” said Kelce, wearing a sleeveless Eagles T-shirt, before he burst into tears and needed several moments to compose himself at the news conference attended by his parents, Ed and Donna, wife Kylie and Travis, who was wearing sunglasses inside the auditorium. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni sat behind reporters.

“I have been the underdog my entire career,” Kelce said. “And I mean it when I say it, I wish I still was.”

With Travis in the house, Kelce naturally had to pay homage to Taylor Swift, his brother’s girlfriend.

“It’s only too poetic I found my career being fulfilled in the city of brotherly love, I knew that relationship all too well,” Kelce said in a nod to Swift’s song “All Too Well.” He also referenced lyrics to Swift’s “Wildest Dreams.”

Kelce was a sixth-round pick out of Cincinnati in the 2011 draft. The burly, bushy-haired and bearded Kelce has been a stalwart of the offensive line since he was drafted and as an Iron Man after he missed most of the 2012 season with a partially torn MCL and torn