SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. — The line stretched Wednesday afternoon down Landis Avenue as it seemed like everyone in Sea Isle City was waiting to enter the Ocean Drive. For Jason Kelce, that sight — hordes of people waiting to see him tend bar at his fundraiser for the Eagles Autism Foundation — would have felt like a dream a decade ago when he first stumbled into the Shore bar.
Kelce played just two games in 2012 before a knee injury cost him the remainder of his second NFL season. He joined the Eagles a year earlier as a sixth-round pick who walked on in college as a linebacker, moved to the offensive line, earned his scholarship, and worked himself into an NFL lottery ticket. But knee surgery after 18 NFL games made what is now a Hall of Fame-caliber career seem far from certain.
And then he came to Sea Isle. Five months after surgery, Kelce’s trainer suggested that it would be good for his knee if he took part in the Polar Bear Plunge. The Atlantic Ocean in February 2013 would feel like ice water, he told Kelce. So Kelce ran into the frigid water, warmed up at the Ocean Drive, fell in love with Sea Isle, returned to the field that September, and blossomed into an all-time Eagle.
