SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. — Some athletes answer questions. Jason Kelce delivers lectures worthy of a college-level course. The topic of that course, loosely speaking, is the relationship between the people who root for Philadelphia’s sports teams and the people who play for Philadelphia’s sports teams.
Class is in session whenever someone asks him about his relationship to Eagles fans and to the city as a whole. Or whenever someone asks him about an athlete or athletes who have failed to connect with or faced the ire of the market’s fans and media. Or whenever he does what he did Wednesday: spend the day here, appearing on WIP 94.1 FM in the morning before guest-bartending at the Ocean Drive in the late afternoon to raise money for autism research.
He has spoken with passion about his belief that, in the NFL, nothing — no long-term aim, no player evaluation, no higher draft pick, nothing — should take precedence over winning football games. He called out Ben Simmons for his “lack of accountability, lack of owning up to mistakes. … Just play better, man. This city will love you.” Once in a great while — at, say, a Super Bowl parade — he has used visual aids to help him make his point. He’ll don a particularly ostentatious Mummers costume (as opposed to all the modest and tasteful Mummers costumes). He’ll chug a big can of beer to remind everyone he likes to have a good time. He doesn’t mind if the beer is cheap, which only enhances his man-of-the-people persona.
