Jason Kelce was the Eagles-Falcons star on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”

So That is And no one expected Jason Kelce’s return to the Linc to end.

But before the Eagles’ epic collapse against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night FootballESPN’s newest star got exactly what he wanted when he decided to work as an NFL analyst in addition to his busy life of post-retirement jobs.

“Being there on game day is one of the few ways a player can stay connected to the game,” Kelce said after leaving the locker room Monday night, wiping sweat from his brow. “You get to go to the construction site, you’re not just in a studio somewhere.”

” READ MORE: “Monday Night Football” had a very Philly atmosphere – thanks, Jason Kelce – and more Eagles-Falcons highlights

ESPN made Kelce the centerpiece of its Monday night broadcast. Kelce spent most of the evening bouncing around in a green velvet tracksuit he called a “South Philly tuxedo,” dancing and chanting with Birds fans, getting visits from everyone from Eagles owner Jeff Lurie to Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, and even participating in the Monday Night Football Booth to commentate part of the game along with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

With two minutes left, ESPN seemed to have made a smart decision by heavily emphasizing the Eagles on the broadcast. But after a Saquon Barkley drop, a Kirk Cousins ​​touchdown and a Jalen Hurts interception, it was suddenly the Falcons fans who felt vindicated, especially after Kelce predicted an Eagles win by 50 points. He even joked during the broadcast that fans were “tired of seeing my face.”

But Kelce’s transformation from locker room leader to high-energy pregame show frontman who isn’t afraid to have a little fun is exactly what ESPN wanted.

“He’s different. He’s big. He’s authentic,” Seth Markman, ESPN’s vice president of production, told the Inquirer outside Xfinity Live! on Monday, speaking over the crowd’s Eagles chants.

Different is one word for it.

“We want Jason Kelce to be Jason Kelce,” Markman said.

Kelce may be the only NFL sportscaster this side of Pat McAfee who can get away with using a slang word for women’s breasts during a live broadcast, a slip-up that longtime ESPN commentator Scott Van Pelt and his team mocked him for on Monday night (colleague Monday evening countdown Analyst Ryan Clark repeated it so quickly that ESPN didn’t have a chance to bleep it).

Markman said disrespect is part of the Kelce experience and ESPN was prepared for that when they landed the former Eagles star in a deal that came together at the last minute.

One reason Kelce chose ESPN was their offer to present him live in front of fans and players. Even before the Eagles took the field on Monday, the concept paid off, as screaming fans made Monday evening countdown feel more like an episode of Game day at college.

Markman said it’s nearly impossible to replicate the experience of being on a college campus during an NFL broadcast, but Kelce and South Philly come close.

Lurie stopped by to greet his former star. Donna Kelce, Jason’s mother, was cheered loudly by Eagles fans. So were former Eagles star Fletcher Cox and Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles, both of whom wore dog masks in a surprise appearance alongside Kelce. At one point, Kelce even challenged tattooed superfan Rob Dunphy to a chest bump that ended with Dunphy injuring his knee.

“Yes, I hurt myself doing the chest bump,” Dunphy wrote on social media late Monday night. “But I got higher than Kelce.”

While he certainly gave his fans the Kelce experience, he wasn’t on the show the entire time. Like any other television professional, Kelce scrolled through his phone during commercial breaks, getting feedback from producers and fellow analysts Clark and Marcus Spears. The show isn’t structured and much is left up to the hosts, so these quiet moments gave Kelce and his colleagues a chance to relax and unwind during their two-hour broadcast.

During an ESPN media event last month, Van Pelt told the Inquirer the plan was to highlight Kelce’s ties to the Eagles during Monday’s broadcast. “There’s no reason to pretend he doesn’t have passion for this team,” Van Pelt said. They definitely stuck to that plan, even if it meant upsetting Falcons fans in front of the home crowd.

“Nobody came here to see us,” Van Pelt joked with the Eagles fans.

In the locker room with Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

During the third quarter, Kelce swapped his tuxedo for a green Eagles blazer and jumped into the ESPN booth to commentate on the game alongside Buck and Aikman.

After a slow start, Kelce seemed to slowly get into his stride and provided live commentary on the game, offering insight on his former teammate and backup center Cam Jurgens (“That’s farm power. He grew up on a cattle ranch, beef jerky is his nickname.”) Kelce also had the opportunity to provide commentary on an Eagles touchdown after a “tush push,” a play he helped develop and perfect.

“I think I got better as time went on. There were a couple (moments) where I was trying to figure out where I fit in and what to say,” Kelce said after leaving the locker room. “I think everyone saw Tom Brady’s performance in Week 1 and had a lot of criticism of it … I learned firsthand why that’s so hard, for sure.”

Markman said Kelce has shown interest in commentating on games, which he did a few years ago during the NFL’s commentary boot camp for players in Los Angeles. He certainly seemed to enjoy his time with Buck and Aikman, staying in the booth for almost the entire third and fourth quarters.

“That’s the most challenging part of an NFL broadcast,” Kelce says, and that’s one of the reasons it’s so appealing. “In the heat of the moment, you have to give the viewer a perspective or something they can take away and enjoy. When you do that live and in real time, that’s difficult for me.”

Perhaps the best decision Kelce made all night was leaving the locker room with the Eagles still up by three points, other than opting not to crowd surf in front of Xfinity Live! While it would have been interesting to hear Kelce explain what went wrong in those final two minutes, Buck seemed to sum things up as succinctly as possible for Eagles fans.

“I’ve been covering NFL games for 31 years and I don’t think I’ve ever been as shocked as I was tonight by the outcome of this game,” Buck said.