Jason Kelce hasn’t announced a final decision whether he plans to retire from the Eagles after 13 seasons. In the meantime, he’s taking meetings for potential TV jobs.

Jason Kelce met with executives at several networks and Amazon at the Super Bowl this week about potential TV jobs next season as he contemplates retirement from the Eagles.
Jason Kelce met with executives at several networks and Amazon at the Super Bowl this week about potential TV jobs next season as he contemplates retirement from the Eagles.Read moreAllie Ippolito

As Jason Kelce considers retirement, he has at least one eye on a future in television.

While in Las Vegas this week ahead of the Super Bowl, the Eagles center met with executives at ESPN about a possible future broadcasting role, according to network sources. Talks were “very preliminary,” sources said, focused on a “big picture” look at the future.

Kelce also met with executives at Amazon and CBS for similar talks this week, according to network sources. Front Office Sports reported Kelce also met with Fox.

The six-time All-Pro hasn’t exactly kept his interest in potentially pursuing a media career a secret. Kelce currently co-hosts the popular New Heights podcast with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and last season served as a guest analyst for Amazon on Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football during a matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears during the Eagles’ bye week. He also joined Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit in the booth during the game.

Kelce has three young children, which would make Amazon’s Thursday night schedule appealing. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has seven children, has spoken about being about to enjoy more family time and coach his kids’ basketball teams thanks to having weekends free. But there could be a lot of change coming to CBS’ pregame show, The NFL Today, with veterans Phil Simms, Boomer Esiason, and Bill Cowher reportedly on contracts that expire following the Super Bowl, according to The Athletic.

There’s also Saturday Night Live, which Kelce told TMZ this week he would “obviously” love to host. When his younger brother hosted the show back in March of last year, Jason still stood out, despite only making a few appearances during the broadcast.

Last year, Kelce was one of 25 current or former players who participated in the NFL’s annual broadcasting and media workshop, the Associated Press reported. During the three-day session, Kelce was asked to call portions of an Indianapolis Colts vs. Minnesota Vikings game from the 2022 season alongside Fox Sports announcer Chris Meyers and try his hand at being a studio analyst, work he found more difficult than he expected going in.

“It’s very hard to do something live, reactive of stimulus that just happened and having something clever and meaningful to say,” Kelce said, adding it’s “a lot easier when you’re sitting on the couch.”

Before he can start a career in broadcasting, Kelce has to figure out if he’s going to retire from the Eagles after 13 seasons. The Inquirer reported last month that Kelce told teammates he plans to retire, but the Birds All-Pro has said he hasn’t made a final decision about his future with the team.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen for me” next year, Kelce told The Inquirer last month when asked about retirement. “But I do know, I still want to be involved in the organization and still want to be a part of it, regardless of what the decision is.”

The looming decision certainly hasn’t prevented Kelce from enjoying his younger brother’s Super Bowl run. His shirtless antics went viral during the Chiefs’ win against the Buffalo Bills during the AFC playoffs, and he spent the past week in Las Vegas hitting the blackjack tables and taunting Hall of Famer Charles Barkley for never winning a championship. He was also spotted at a U2 concert at the Sphere and was caught shouting “Eagles!” during an Adele performance, causing the superstar to shoot back, “You sound drunk and like you’re a football fan.”

Two TV firsts for the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is as good a place as any to roll out new gadgets and graphics. This year’s big game is no different, with CBS set to debut a new view of the field everyone at the network seems excited about.

Get ready for the “Doink Camera.”

CBS is deploying six 4K cameras inside the uprights in the end zone of Allegiant Stadium, which will provide novel angles to view touchdowns, field goals, or another else interesting that happens near the end zone. But what CBS executives are hoping for is a repeat of last year’s Super Bowl, where Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s field goal attempt bounced off the upright.

Longtime CBS producer Jim Rikhoff, who will be working his seventh Super Bowl, said they won’t turn to the cameras just because they have them. Their use will be dictated by whatever happens during the game.

“A lot of the [cameras] we have here are specialized to that one moment,” Rikhoff said during a conference call ahead of the Super Bowl. “But the [cameras] can zoom in and give you stuff down the sidelines, back of the end zone, front of the end zone. … Just like the pylon [cameras], those angles sometimes become the definitive angles on the crucial play of the game.”

This also will be the first time a network is offering an alternate broadcast of the Super Bowl on another channel.

Nickelodeon, which, like CBS, is owned by Paramount Global, will broadcast a slime-heavy broadcast of the Super Bowl with featuring play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle and analyst Nate Burleson. They’ll be joined live during the game by SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Patrick Star (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke).

“I’ve seen some of the augmented reality and the graphics that are being done, and it’s going to blow everybody away,” said CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus. “They’ve transformed Allegiant Stadium into Bikini Bottom.”

Quick hits

    Carl Weathers, the late Rocky star who died unexpectedly last week, is set to appear in a Super Bowl commercial for FanDuel that had to be adjusted at the last minute. Andrew Sneyd, FanDuel’s executive vice president of marketing, told the Hollywood Reporter the original ad wouldn’t have been “appropriate” to air following Weathers’ death.

    Don’t miss the hour-long feature about the groundbreaking NFL studio show The NFL Today that CBS scheduled to air at 1 p.m. Philadelphia time ahead of the Super Bowl. The feature, You Are Looking Live! The Show That Changed Sports Television Forever, featured interviews with surviving cast members Brent Musburger and Jayne Kennedy. CBS even recreated the iconic NFL Today set from 1985.

    Get ready to pay to watch another NFL playoff game next season. Amazon’s Prime Video will exclusively stream one playoff game during wild-card weekend, according to the Wall Street Journal. Last year Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, ponied up $100 million to stream a wild card game, which drew 23 million viewers and set a record for streaming events in the U.S.

    Speaking of streaming, sports leagues don’t appear to be too thrilled with the new sports-centric streaming service being launched by Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, and ESPN later this year. The NFL and NBA weren’t briefed ahead of time about the announcement, according to multiple outlets, causing some tension to surface about the potential impact to media rights deals. TV networks pay billions of dollars to air live sports, and the NBA is currently negotiating its next TV rights deal, which would go into effect the 2025-26 season.

    Former Sixers sharpshooter JJ Redick has “emerged as the favorite” to join ESPN’s NBA Finals announcing crew alongside Mike Breen and Doris Burke, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. Redick would fill the slot vacated by former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers, who left the job just three months into his three-year contract to lead the Milwaukee Bucks.