Though retired NFL star Jason Kelce is less physically active these days, he’s almost 20 pounds lighter than he was when he played for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I weighed 295 for the majority of my NFL career,” Kelce — who bowed out in March after 13 years with the team — told GQ Sports in an interview published Wednesday, adding that he’s looking forward to “losing some of those pounds.”
Though the once-athlete, 36, doesn’t “want to get too small,” he’s already down to 277.
“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,” he revealed. “But I’ll still be able to have that stature a little bit.”
The former offensive lineman said “it’s hard to imagine another nearly 20 pounds coming off” but admitted that his back and knees “already feel better.”
“So another 20 pounds hopefully will make that much more adept at playing with my children,” he shared.
According to Kelce, “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,” he told the outlet.
“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.”
Though Kelce has been a household name for over a decade, he skyrocketed to global fame after three major things happened in the last year and a half of his football career: he and his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, launched a podcast; Jason and his wife, Kylie Kelce, appeared with their children in a Prime Video documentary; and Travis began dating Taylor Swift.
“We’re just going with it one day at a time,” Jason said of his newfound notoriety.
“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?,” he explained.
“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,” he noted.
But now, “no matter where” Jason goes, he finds “fans in one of those categories,” which “has undoubtedly taken some getting used to.”
Still, he considers it “all a privilege” and doesn’t “take the position lightly.”