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When Jason Kelce announced his retirement, the Eagles released a video showing Kelce thanking the team’s employees for their years of hard work. A close look at that video revealed something unusual: Kelce’s ankles were taped, as they would be for a game. It turns out that the ankle tape reflected a special relationship between Kelce and a coach on the team.
Eagles coach Joe O’Pella wrote on social media that he had been taping Kelce’s ankles every game for years. But O’Pella missed the last game of Kelce’s career, the playoff loss in Tampa, because he was undergoing chemotherapy. Kelce then asked O’Pella to be the last person to tape his ankles as an Eagle, and to do so before his retirement speech.
“You all know the on-field accomplishments, and many of the off-field ones as well, but what this man has meant to me and now my family over the last decade is almost indescribable,” O’Pella wrote. “In what would be his last season, when I was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo radiation and chemotherapy, he offered me his house on the coast if I needed to get away and offered to pay for catering to help my wife and me. and he randomly called me when I was home, too sick to come because of chemo, just to check on him and chat about random things. That’s who he is as a person. I taped this guy’s ankles and thumbs every day for 13 seasons, and when he played his last game in Tampa, I again couldn’t be there because of the cancer. And when he told me that he was retiring and I expressed my regret that I wasn’t the last person to record it, he offered to let me record it for his retirement press conference. That is what it is. And I hope these stories can contribute to an already incredible legacy.”
In the video of Kelce addressing Eagles employees, he expresses his gratitude.
“Thank you so much for everything that everyone here does and means to this organization, to the players,” Kelce said. “It has been an honor to work with all of you.”
The feeling is clearly mutual.