CELEBRITY
Jason Kelce, Wife Kylie Score Big Win Amid Retirement Rumors
Jason Kelce and his wife Kylie Kelce have had a surge in their social media presence as rumors continue to swirl about his playing future.
The 36-year-old may have played his last NFL game on Monday, January 15, when his Philadelphia Eagles lost their playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
He was seen in tears after the loss and reportedly told his teammates that he planned to retire, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
Other than to say that he was the only reliable source to listen to about his playing future, Jason Kelce has not confirmed nor denied anything about his retirement.
“I just don’t think you’re in the position after a game like that to really make that decision, I just don’t. There’s too much emotion in the moment to fully really grasp that decision,” he said during a recent episode of the New Heights podcast he co-hosts with his brother, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Since that game, Jason Kelce has added an average of 1,859 new followers a day on X, formerly Twitter, and had a 141 percent jump in the past 30 days, bringing his total number of fans to almost 446,000. The numbers are based on statistics from social analytics company, Social Blade.
Things have fared even better for him on Instagram, where he has gained 248,550 followers in the past month, and the majority of those have come since the retirement rumors went into overdrive.
As for his wife, Kylie—who regularly posts about their family life, including their two children—she started 2024 with a little over 1 million Instagram followers, but now has 1.2 million accounts following her on the social media platform.
She has managed to gain an average of almost 6,000 new followers every day in January, with 125,336 of those coming since January 15 alone.
What likely helped boost the couple’s profiles was the fact Travis Kelce is dating superstar singer Taylor Swift and they joined her in watching him play against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
Jason Kelce managed to briefly snare the limelight from the “Bad Blood” singer when he ripped off his shirt and jumped into the crowd to celebrate his brother scoring the first of his two touchdowns for the game.
He tore off his T-shirt and leapt from their suite at Highmark Stadium into the stands as Swift laughed and hid her face with her hands. Once he climbed back into the suite, Jason Kelce kept his shirt off and went viral for swigging Bud Light behind Swift, who was celebrating the game.
Her fans, the Swifties, have taken Jason Kelce under their wing and shared an outpouring of grief when they saw him crying after the Eagles’ loss.
“I am crying over a 36-year-old football player crying, how did this happen?” wrote one person on X.
A second posted: “Six months ago, I gave zero f**** about football and now I’m crying about Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s brother possibly playing his last game.”