Retired Eagles great Jason Kelce enjoys meat and greet at pregame party

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jason Kelce promised he would be an honest food critic before he chomped on a hog wing — essentially a pork shank coated in a dry rub, dipped in barbecue sauce — as Eagles fans swarmed the grill to catch a glimpse of the pied piper of pregame parties.

Kelce weaved through a throng of Eagles fans from one parking lot spot to the next, chugging beers, stopping for selfies, high-fiving squealing kids, before the retired Philadelphia Eagles center made a pit stop outside Danny McCormick’s RV.

Among a smorgasbord of delectable chow, Kelce went hard on the hog.

“What’s the best way to attack this,” Kelce asked, holding a shank slightly smaller than a Thanksgiving turkey leg.

One Eagles fan yelled, “you’ve got to tear that thing apart!”

Kelce — biding time in retirement as a podcaster and pitchman — bit the meat right off the bone.

“Wow! Did you invent this?” Kelce said. “I’ve never heard of it. But this is great.”

Kelce was tailed Sunday ahead of the Eagles’ game against Cleveland by a camera crew and a buddy handing out beers from the company he co-owns with his brother, Kansas Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Kelce led fans in singing the Eagles fight song, “Fly, Eagles, Fly” and chants of “No one likes us, we don’t care,” popularized by Kelce in Philadelphia’s 2017 Super Bowl championship season.

Kelce, who turns 37 next month, retired in March after a 13-year career spent entirely with Philadelphia. He was one of the great centers and personalities of his era, and played a key role in the franchise’s lone Super Bowl championship.

McCormick, of Washington Township, New Jersey, is part of a generation of Eagles’ season-ticket holders that goes back to 1940.

Kelce left McCormick with a collectible a bit more rare than an autograph or picture — how about a discarded pork shank bone?

“I’m going to save this and it’s going to be in my motorhome in a frame,” he said.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Dan Gelston, The Associated Press