Despite not actually winning the Super Bowl this year, it’s hard to find someone who had a better time celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ overtime victory in Las Vegas than Jason Kelce.
By now, videos of the Philadelphia Eagles center dancing around the Chiefs’ afterparty in a luchador mask he found have spread far and wide. They even made their way back to the mask’s rightful owner — and Kelce is on a mission to make sure the iconic item is returned safely.
After detailing how he discovered the mask on the latest episode of his podcast New Heights, Kelce was notified the mask actually belongs to Dallas eighth grader Elijah Smith, and promised he would get it back to him.
Operation “Get Elijah His Mask Back” is underway! I appreciate everyone bringing this to my attention, and look forward to uniting Elijah with his mask once again. Your mask indeed brings great fortune, I owe you big time, sorry it was commandeered https://t.co/HHazKInFRi
— Jason Kelce (@JasonKelce) February 16, 2024
The Smith family told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that Elijah’s mask has made it to four Super Bowls (and counting), has been autographed by Chiefs players and has a certain lucky quality to it:
The family hopes to get the mask back, but if not they are just grateful they got to be there.
“He was happy. He was excited. There was so much celebrating going on and dancing. And you couldn’t help but be excited,” said mom Sarah Smith. “I asked him when we got to the room, ‘Wait, he has your mask?’ And he’s like ‘Yea’ and I said ‘Are you upset?’ And he just wasn’t upset, he was a little bummed because it’s his autographed mask with Trent McDuffie, that was upsetting, but at the end of the day we were all celebrating a Super Bowl win.”
There’s just one thing that would make it even better. “It would be pretty cool if he autographed it and sent it back,” Elijah said.
Considering Kelce saw Elijah’s comments, here’s hoping there’s an extra surprise or two inside the package once the mask makes its way home.
