Kelce understands the 49ers’ trash talk about the Eagles, never took it personally originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
Jason Kelce officially retired from the NFL in March, meaning the former Philadelphia Eagles center will no longer face the 49ers in the NFC.
Now, the All-Pro can look back fondly on his team’s high-stakes — and high-intensity — matchups with San Francisco, along with all the trash talk.
“Certainly [there was bad blood] from the 49ers perspective,” Kelce told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco on the latest “49ers Talk.” [49ers quarterback] Brock Purdy was injured early in the [NFC Championship Game]. They felt they did not receive a fair answer. They certainly looked after us last year. We can both share the pain of losing a Super Bowl.
“I think when you have teams that always play each other and are at the top of their respective conferences, there will be more animosity.”
After the 49ers lost the NFC championship to the Eagles in January 2023, when Purdy went down with a torn UCL, there was no shortage of shade heading towards Philadelphia from San Francisco. In the following weeks, wide receiver Deebo Samuel took direct shots at Eagles cornerback Daniel Bradberry while publicly lamenting the fact that a fully healthy 49ers team couldn’t get a shot at Jalen Hurts and Co.
That only raised the stakes for San Francisco’s Week 13 rematch with Philadelphia, where the 49ers defeated the Eagles 42-19 at Lincoln Financial Field. Afterwards, defensive end Nick Bosa told reporters that the 49ers had provided other teams the “plan” to stop Hurtsand the Eagles’ season went into a tailspin.
Despite all the noise, Kelce told Maiocco that the Eagles simply tried to focus on their own game.
“I think from our perspective, you always try to focus on yourself,” Kelce said. “When you’re focused on yourself, I think you perform better as a player. And I think a lot of those things were — you understand the emotion behind it. They lost their quarterback, they’re excited, they wanted a fair shake in the game.
“So I certainly don’t take any of this personally. Nick Bosa is a tremendous player. I thought we did a great job protecting Jalen in that game. But I think they did a good job on the back end and their defense obviously did tremendous things against Jalen Hurts, but I don’t really get involved with that stuff at this stage of the game.
As Kelce takes the next step in his NFL journey as a commentator for ESPN, he will be watching future 49ers-Eagles games from afar. But he knows this budding rivalry isn’t going away anytime soon.
“The 49ers have probably been the team over the last five to six years that has stayed at the top of the NFC, and it’s been that way since Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch took over, and they have a tremendous team,” Kelce said. . “They have a tremendous defense, they have great players, they have a young defender who shows a lot of promise and plays great football.
“So, yes, I’m sure if the Eagles and 49ers face each other again this year, there will still be some energy left in that game.”
