The incredible streak Jason Kelce refuses to talk about
The incredible streak Jason Kelce refuses to talk about originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Jason Kelce isn’t superstitious. But he still didn’t want to talk about it.
"I'll answer any other questions,” Kelce said this week.
The Eagles legend on Sunday at MetLife Stadium will start his 145th consecutive regular season NFL game. That will make it the longest streak for any player in Eagles history, moving past Jon Runyan’s streak of 144 straight starts in the early 2000s.
On Thursday night, Runyan, now the NFL’s vice president of policy and rules administration, reached out to Kelce to congratulate him. And in typical Kelce fashion, he humbly told Runyan that Runyan’s overall streak of 192 games, which includes his time with the Titans, was even more impressive.
Runyan thanked him but said that 145 starts with one team is impressive too.
“To do any type of streak takes a lot of luck paired with mental toughness to push through injuries that a lot of players would take a week or two off,” Runyan said in an email to NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I know Jason has that mental ability to block that pain and or discomfort out and get out there to help his team win.”
The last time Kelce missed a start was in October of 2014, when he missed four consecutive games following a sports hernia surgery. The last guy not named Jason Kelce to start at center for the Eagles? David Molk started all four that season. Molk retired from the NFL after the 2015 season.
Kelce didn’t want to talk about his streak this week but one of his oldest teammates was happy to.
“He’s just as tough as a shovel. Just a tough dude,” right tackle Lane Johnson said. “I’ve seen him, elbows, braces, knee braces, f—, he’s been nicked up quite a bit in his career. I just think how he takes care of his body is really why he’s played so well so long, longevity.
“I think a lot of it comes down to his demeanor. He doesn’t want to miss time or put a backup in and have that affect the team. I feel like he really takes that to heart.”
It became clear how important this streak had become in Week 18 of the 2021 season. With nothing left to play for as the Eagles got ready for their playoff game against the Bucs, Kelce played the first snap of that game to extend the streak before Nick Sirianni pulled him.
But for the most part, Kelce just doesn’t leave the field. In his five starts this season, he has played all 373 offensive snaps.
And over the course of his 144-game streak, Kelce has played 8,726 of a possible 8,964 snaps. That means he’s been on the field for 97.34% of the Eagles’ offensive snaps for the better part of a decade.
“That’s big. That’s big. That’s big,” quarterback Jalen Hurts said. “I haven’t even really thought about that, hadn’t heard about that. But he shows up and he does what needs to be done to be ready to play. He’s a mentally tough person.”
In addition to Kelce’s streak being the longest in Eagles history, it’s also the longest in the NFL by a center since Casey Wiegmann from 2001-11.
And Kelce will play in his 182nd regular season game on Sunday. He’s fourth in Eagles history in games behind just David Akers (188), Brian Dawkins (183) and Brandon Graham (183). Graham will pass Dawkins on Sunday and Kelce is right behind them.
This is Year 14 in the NFL for Kelce and it might be his last. It’s strange to think about another guy lining up at that position for the Eagles.
“The consistency and the high level of play,” Sirianni said. “I mean, this game, obviously there is a ton of wear and tear on these guys' bodies, and the fact that he's done it for so long so consistently at a very high level, man, it's a special thing.
“Consistency as a player, consistency with his health. That takes a lot of work, too, just making sure that he's ready to go each and every week. So, hats off to him, hats off to our trainers and staff that help him do that. Just really impressive.”
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