Philadelphia Eagles Jason Kelce ‘Not Talking About’ Being on Brink of History
PHILADELPHIA – The first question Jason Kelce was asked in the Philadelphia Eagles locker room on Thursday afternoon was about his consecutive games played streak.
“I’m not talking about it,” he said. “It’s too … I’m not superstitious about much, but I’m not talking about that.”
The veteran center is sitting on the brink of Eagles history. On Sunday, he will make his 145th straight start, which would be a new team record. Currently, he is tied with Jon Runyan, who played 144 straight for the Eagles from 2000-08.
Later on in an interview that ran about 10 minutes, Kelce was asked again about it.
“I’m not talking about it,” he said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I won’t know what you’re talking about.”
The streak is the longest by any NFL center since Casey Wiegmann made it to 175 straight from 2001-11 and the second longest active one in the NFL, behind the 147 straight started by Atlanta Falcons offensive tackle Jake Matthews.
Kelce obviously doesn’t want to jinx anything, because it’s not about just setting the record but adding on to it and staying healthy enough to make every regular season start. Again. And Again.
Jason Kelce
John McMullen/Eagles Today
“He’s just tough as a shovel, just a tough dude,” said his longtime teammate Lane Johnson. “I’ve seen him elbows, braces, knee braces, he’s been nicked up quite a bit throughout his career. But how he takes care of his body is really why he’s played so well for so long.
“I think a lot of it just goes down to his demeanor. He doesn’t want to miss time or put a backup in and have that affect a team, so I feel like he really takes that to heart.”
The last time Kelce missed a start was Week 8 in 2014. He returned to the starting lineup on Nov. 2 against the Houston Texans and hasn’t missed a start since.
“That’s big,” said quarterback Jalen Hurts. “I haven’t even really thought about that, didn’t know about that, but he shows up and does what needs to be done to be ready to play. He’s a mentally tough person.”
Kelce, 35, didn’t want to talk about the streak, but he was more than happy to discuss what it takes to be ready to play each and every week for the last eight-plus years.
“I’m just older now, so I gotta do more things now to get ready to play,” he said. “When you’re young, you don’t really gotta do much. You just go out there. Still not a big stretching fan, but now I kind of have to …
“In general, I try to do as little as I can to be at my best. I feel like if I do too much, it’s too much and then I don’t have fun and it’s not too beneficial.”
