PHILADELPHIA -- Jason Kelce is bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That's a given.
The Philadelphia Eagles center was selected as a First-Team All-Pro for the sixth time in his magnificent career this week, becoming the only center since the merger to earn six First-Team All-Pro selections and a Super Bowl title. Kelce is a First-Team All-Pro at his position for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, just the fifth center in NFL history with that many All-Pro selections.
The other four (Jim Otto, Bulldog Turner, Dermotti Dawson, Jim Ringo) are in the Hall of Fame. Of the 54 players in NFL history that have earned six or more First-Team All-Pro selections, all of them are in the Hall of Fame (Aaron Donald, Zack Martin, and Bobby Wagner are still active). Kelce will be next when he actually does decide to retire.
At 36 years old, Monday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be the last dance for Kelce. The Eagles legend isn't even thinking about his future, nor retiring at the top of his game.
"I think it's been natural the last three seasons for that for me," Kelce said Friday. "Whenever you're older in your career, you never know when that's going to be.
"I try to remind guys and my dad has told me this from the moment I started playing football – you step off the curb one day and that could be the end of your career. So you try to approach every game with that mindset, but obviously the closer and the older you get to that being a realization, puts it out in front maybe a little bit more.
"But obviously that's not the main thing. The main thing is going out there and battling with each of the guys in this locker room."
Kelce is still having an excellent season regardless of how the Eagles have played of late. He has allowed just one sack and 12 pressures on the season, with a pressure rate per dropback of 1.9%. This coming off a career year, allowing zero sacks, eight pressures, and a 1.3% pressure rate allowed per dropback.
Aging like fine wine, Kelce just keeps getting better. There's no reason for Kelce to think about his future at this stage of the game.
"Obviously it's always nice to be honored and shown that type of respect, no matter how many times you got it before," Kelce said. "But at the end of the day, I don't think it has any effect on my future.
"The reality is you just go about your work and anything that happens outside of that shouldn't weigh in on anything you're doing or anything that's taking place."
