Getty Jason Kelce is the Eagles' 2021 nominee for the NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
Leave it to Jason Kelce to set the tone for the season. Again. The unapologetic leader of the Philadelphia Eagles put on his trucker’s cap and delivered the NSFW speech that everyone – teammates, coaches, executives, fans, even Swoop — needed to hear.
As expectations keep rising to meteoric levels outside the NovaCare Complex, the Eagles haven’t done anything. They haven’t won a single game. They haven’t even taken a snap. They haven’t done anything. And Kelce sent out an uncomfortable message about the reality of the situation: cancel the Super Bowl parade.
Here it is — unprompted, unscripted, unedited, and in his own words:
“I think when the expectations are high, you tend to let little things go. After a win, the tape gets assessed differently. After a loss, the tape gets critical very much because people start feeling that you have to improve everything when you lose. When you win, it’s like, was that a bad play? It’s 50-50, eh, you go a little bit by the wayside.
“I think that when you’re expected to do well that — organizationally, player-wise, team-wise, coaching-wise — all of those little things get to be like, eh, we’ll get that fixed. Whereas, when the expectation is low, it’s we gotta fix everything right f****** now. Otherwise, we’re getting fired. Otherwise, people are going to be out on the streets.”
Jason Kelce’s legend rising: “The moment you’re comfortable in this league somebody’s coming for ya. We got Mr. T in Rocky 3 hunting us every single week and we haven’t won fucking nothing yet so we’re not even the champion so we better work our asses off.” #Eagles #FlyEaglesFly
Kelce even added a Rocky reference: “So, I think we got enough older guys around this building. I think we got enough … whether it’s executives or coaches or players, to understand that expectations are just that, they’re f****** nothing and we gotta go out there and play. And we gotta go out there and, you know, the moment you’re comfortable in this league somebody’s coming for ya. We got, you know, Mr. T in Rocky 3 hunting us every single week and we haven’t won f****** nothing yet so we’re not even the champion so we better work our a**** off.”
“Expectations are just that – they’re f—ing nothing.”
More of Jason Kelce, coming in hot.
When asked if he had shared the above message with his teammates, Kelce smirked: “I haven’t been that direct about it. Maybe a video clip will come out and they’ll see that.”
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Jalen Hurts: ‘Uncomfortable to be Comfortable’
The question that sparked Kelce’s NSFW rant about expectations was in reference to whether he thought Jalen Hurts looked more comfortable. This is the quarterback’s second full season in Nick Sirianni’s offense, the first time he’s enjoyed back-to-back years in the same system since high school.
Jalen Hurts on expectations: “That means nothing. Expectations are just something you haven’t done yet. We just gotta attack every day, nothing else matters but us — not anything that anybody says, writes, or whatever is out there.” #Eagles #FlyEaglesFly
Comfortability is a good thing, right? Wrong.
“I think you have to be uncomfortable to be comfortable,” Hurts told reporters. “I haven’t seen whatever [Kelce] said, but it’s just a lot of rat poison in short. It’s all external factors that we don’t want to pertain ourselves to or be involved with, you know what I mean?
“It all comes back to pushing ourselves every day in practice, doing the little things we need to do to maximize the days and win the days, and to get better you have to push yourself so that brings uncomfort so when you build an environment of being uncomfortable — challenging, tough culture, and accountability from teammate to teammate, brother to brother, we get better.”
Darius Slay Addresses Being Team Captain
Darius Slay was voted one of seven team captains by his teammates last week. It marked the first time in his 10-year career that the four-time Pro Bowler had earned such an honor. Slay — a guy who doubles as the happy-go-lucky class clown — got emotional when he found out.
“Never been a captain before, I was like ‘yeah man,’ had me a little teary eyed for a minute, I ain’t gonna lie,” Slay told reporters. “I was in the huddle like ‘oh snap’ but it’s a blessing, man. To be honored like that, I appreciate that from my teammates because I honestly go out there and go hard every day. Compete every day, try and be the best version of me every day — and them guys let me know that they see that, you know, that means a lot to me.”
🗣️ Captain @bigplay24slay