Jason Kelce’s career is likely headed for the Hall of Fame. It started with him asking for a scholarship.

During a seminal stage of his football development, Kelce took a risk and asserted his value, then backed up his words of his worth.

Jason Kelce moved to the offensive line at the University of Cincinnati after starting his time as a line backer and defensive end.Read moreBrett Hansbauer / Brett Hansbauer

by Matt Breen

Published Feb. 6, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Jason Kelce had yet to see the field in college when he left the weight room at the University of Cincinnati near the end of his first year on campus. He redshirted his freshman season, hoping his work on the practice field would be enough to impress the coaches who urged him to enroll without a scholarship and walk on to the team.

But the coaching staff left for bigger jobs and their replacements were outside the weight room, waiting to ask Kelce if he would try a new position. He would be a better fit, they said, as an offensive lineman, a position he never played in high school where he was a standout — but undersized — linebacker.

Kelce is now preparing for his second Super Bowl and writing the final chapters of a career that will have him remembered as one of the Eagles’ all-time finest linemen. But back then he was just a 19-year-old with student debt and nothing to lose. Sure, he told his new coaches, but where’s my scholarship?

“He’s pretty blunt and to the point,” said Brian Kelly, who was hired to coach the Bearcats after three seasons at Central Michigan. “We responded with ‘You’re right. We have to put you on scholarship.’”

A career that should end with Kelce in the Hall of Fame started with him asking for a scholarship. Perhaps Kelce never dresses like a Mummer and delivers an iconic speech at the Art Museum if the conversation about trying a new position goes a different way.

“I think that’s been Jason Kelce. He’s always bet on himself in everything he’s done throughout his career,” said Kelly, now the LSU coach. “It’s the way that he plays the game. I think he thinks that he’s technically better than the guy that he played against. He’s not necessarily physically bigger but he beats them with the way that he thinks and the way that he executes. Clearly, his way of being successful is the way that he thinks. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s taken that way of thinking throughout his entire career.”

Unheralded start

Kelce captained the Cleveland Heights football team as a senior, racking up 105 tackles and capturing the league’s defensive MVP award. But that wasn’t enough for a Division I program to offer Kelce a scholarship. He was 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, seeming to be a better fit for Division II.

“He was a heck of a player,” said former Cleveland Heights coach Mike Jones. “But he was a tweener back then.”

Kelce opted against his Division II scholarship offers and decided to bet on himself. Cincinnati offensive coordinator Don Treadwell kept visiting Cleveland Heights, telling Kelce he wanted him on campus even though he didn’t have a scholarship to give him and was unsure what position he would play. Now one of the best offensive lineman of his era, Kelce started college as a walk-on without a position.

“I knew Jason was going to work his tail off,” Jones said. “Jason was the type of young man who would do whatever a coach wanted him to do. I knew once he got on campus and they saw his motor and saw how passionate he was about playing football, I knew he would get a scholarship. I told Coach Treadwell, ‘It won’t take long. You guys will figure it out.’”

Changing positions

Kelce spent his first season on Cincinnati’s scout team before head coach Mark Dantonio left for the Michigan State job, taking Treadwell with him. The coaches who thought they saw something in an overlooked kid from Cleveland Heights were gone. A few months later, he was playing a new position. But at least he had that scholarship.

The Bearcats were moving from a pro-style offense to a shotgun formation that would require more athletic linemen. Kelly’s staff saw enough of Kelce to think he fit their mold.

Kelly instructed Kelce to follow the task list of the strength and conditioning coach and he would have a chance to play in the NFL. Kelly had done something similar a few years earlier at Central Michigan when he moved Joe Staley from tight end to left tackle. Staley played 13 years for the San Francisco 49ers and is headed for the Hall of Fame. Kelce was all in.

“It took a lot of work,” Kelly said of Kelce. “There were some frustrating days. It wasn’t perfect early on. He’s a guy who is very prideful. He takes a lot of pride in his work so you can imagine there’s some tough days there. We’re demanding and he had some tough days. But he stuck with it. That kind of mentality got him to where he could function at a high level. But I’d be lying to you if I told you it was all easy. There were some really tough days where it got heated, but he got through it.”

Kelce spent time the next season as a center and guard before spending two seasons as the starting left guard and finishing his senior year as the starting center. The former walk-on proved to have the versatility to play multiple positions on the offensive line, something he never did in high school.

He helped the Bearcats reach two BCS bowls, proving that he deserved that scholarship before he was drafted by the Eagles in 2011′s sixth round. He was named this season to his fifth All-Pro team, making his case as perhaps the best draft pick in Eagles history when factoring the success he has yielded from being the 191st overall pick.

“There were some times where the helmet came off and it might have been going in a different direction here or there,” said Kelly, who left for Notre Dame after Kelce’s junior season. “Primarily, it was that his passion was unmistakable. Just the way that he wanted to master his craft filtered into everyone around him. He wanted to do so well at a new position that it raised everyone else’s game. That’s what I remember the most about it. Here’s a guy who is so committed to being the best center and he just moved there that everyone else had to heighten their game.”

Kelce was joined on campus in 2008 by his brother, Travis, who would also change positions. Travis Kelce was a quarterback in high school, but Kelly noted early on that the younger Kelce had the makings of an NFL tight end. They used him briefly as a wildcat quarterback before moving him. Fifteen years later, he’s one of the best to ever play the position.

The Kelces will meet Sunday as the first brothers to ever oppose each other in the Super Bowl. They are among the best to ever play their positions and neither of them planned to play there in college.

“You have to have some grit and determination and some patience and you have to fight through things to get to where you want to go,” Kelly said. “It’s not immediate gratification. We live in this world now where if you don’t get your way, you transfer. That wasn’t the Kelce story. These guys hung in there and fought through for their opportunity. Both of them. Today, if a guy doesn’t get playing time, he jumps and wants to transfer. Today, the Kelce brothers don’t exist the way they did back then. Now these guys are destined for the Hall of Fame. Maybe there’s a little story there between the lines.”

Headed for Canton

Kelce’s development did not stop at Cincinnati, as the Eagles moved him to center after drafting him, starting him there all season as a rookie in 2011. He mastered the position under the guidance of Jeff Stoutland, who arrived in 2013 and is regarded as one of the greatest offensive line teachers.

Kelce is the third center since the NFL merger in 1970 to be named first-team All-Pro five times in their career, joining Hall of Famers Dermontti Dawson and Mike Webster. He is the fifth Eagles player to earn at least five first-team All-Pro selections, joining Hall of Famers Chuck Bednarik, Reggie White, Pete Pihos, and Steve Van Buren. His six Pro Bowl nods trail only Jason Peters, who is a safe bet for the Hall of Fame, among Eagles offensive lineman.

Kelce has started 139 straight games and has played the most games by an Eagles offensive lineman, proving to not only be a force but a workhorse. He was the leader this season for one of the NFL’s most dominant lines, paving a way to the Super Bowl. And it all started with him asking for his scholarship.

“He had an incredible mindset and that’s why he’s in the position that he’s in today,” Kelly said. “A lot of these guys are made because of who they are and their makeup. Out of Cleveland Heights, unheralded, earned the scholarship, all-conference, drafted, All-Pro, headed to the Hall of Fame. It’s his makeup. It’s how he thinks. It’s how he works.”