Eagles icon Jason Kelce jokes about getting overpaid to "talk" in $24,000,000 ESPN gig

Philadelphia Eagles' veteran Jason Kelce has made light of his move to media broadcasting. The football veteran equated his new broadcast job to "stealing money" after enduring years of gritty football games.

Kelce is on a three-year, $24 million deal with ESPN. His last year playing with the Eagles earned him $14.25 million, making him the highest-paid center in 2023, considerably above the 2024 position average of $2,394,058.

On "The Steam Room" on Friday, Kelce reflected on his career trajectory. The conversation arose after co-host Charles Barkley commented on lucrative media careers for former athletes:

"Stealing money is a great way to describe it. That's it, it's fun," Kelce said (Timestamp: 24:10). "I get paid to just talk about something I love and to do it with a lot of like-minded people. ... I spent 13 years doing plays like the tush push and beating the crap out of my body."

Jason Kelce co-hosts "New Heights" with brother Travis and recently signed a $100 million deal with Amazon's Wondery, a podcast studio and network. "New Heights" consistently ranks among the top five sports shows.

Jason Kelce gets candid about his media career

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ESPN launched "They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce" last month. The show's initial five-week run saw viewership swing from 290,000 to 881,000.

ESPN executive Burke Magnus defended the investment to the New York Times on Jan. 24:

"This is not something I think would work with just anyone, but he's one of those guys that I believe can pull it off," Magnus said.

Jason Kelce said he focused on his craft and constantly worked on improving:

"I just look forward to getting better at it," Kelce said. "That's one of the things I enjoy most. There's feedback and you want to improve and do as good of a job as possible for the people tuning in."

Jason's wife, Kylie, also hosts a podcast, which recently surpassed Joe Rogan in rankings.