More than two months after Jason Kelce gave that now-famous and impassioned vulgarity-filled speech on the steps of the art museum, the emotions that led to it haven't dissipated.
On Tuesday, the Philadelphia folk hero got choked up trying to explain the impetus of his words for the first time since he spoke them.
"I found myself literally [after] the Vikings game in the shower, like," Kelce said before pausing.
He choked back tears for a full five seconds.
"Goddamnit," he said under his breath, cleared his throat. Another three seconds passed.
"You get pretty emotional, you're crying," said Kelce, recomposed. "And all of that, after the Super Bowl, after the game is finally over, I'm running on the field and I still can't believe it happened. And it all hits you all at once. I think that's what the whole speech was. It was the culminating of all the stories I'm thinking about at night, I can't go to sleep, of how I got there. Then you start thinking about how everybody else got there. Then you start thinking about how the city got there."
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Kelce said he didn't know how much his speech would resonate with fans and that's not why he gave it anyway. He delivered his speech because in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, he began thinking about all the adversity he had overcome. He didn't get a scholarship coming out of high school, needed to prove himself at a new position, and not long ago even questioned his own ability to still play at a high level.
Then he realized it wasn't just him. He thought about all of his teammates and what they went through. Then he thought about the city's waiting to get a Super Bowl.
The epic speech was born.
"The whole speech was a realization of myself, realizing that I'm not the only person that's been through something," Kelce said. "I'm not the only person that's had to go through [something]. Literally everybody has had something that they've overcome. Everybody's pushed through. Everybody's persevered through some sort of adversity and that was kind of the mantra the whole season. We had so much adversity, injuries, all these things happening. It just seemed like nothing could stop us."
Since the Super Bowl and the speech, Kelce has become a wanted man. Everyone wants a photo and everyone tries to get a mic in his hand. A lot of people expect Kelce to be a great speaker, but what he said at the art museum that day had been building for years. He won't always have that magic.
While Kelce has spoken to some of the other local teams and his face appeared on beer cans with proceeds going to charity, Kelce has turned down most offers. Because of added fame, Kelce said just going out for breakfast is more difficult these days; and we all know what happens when Kelce doesn't eat breakfast.
He understands the new level of fame, though. It comes with the territory of helping the city achieve its dream. There are too many stories to list of fans telling him how much it meant to them and he understands the Eagles are glue for families in the region. He remembered one teammate walking up to him at the parade after a fan poured the ashes of their grandfather into his hands. The teammate didn't know what to do and Kelce didn't have any answers either.
"It's one of those things for the first seven years," Kelce said, "that's all anybody ever talked about when they came up and talked to you as an Eagle. They were like, ‘Just get us one. We've been waiting forever.'"
That's pretty emotional stuff. You'll forgive Kelce for getting choked up.
