Kelce, aged 36, announced that he was retiring from football after playing all 13 of his seasons in the City of Brotherly Love.
According to directors Don Argott and Sheena Joyce, ‘Kelce’ was initially supposed to be a film about his retirement – which he planned on doing back in 2021.
Jason approached the two of them to create a farewell film. But after facing his brother Travis and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, he postponed his goodbye to the game.
That documentary covered that change in decision and the rising fame that his family was receiving at the time.
Both Argott and Joyce were invited to the Eagles’ practice facility just last week to watch him make the announcement official.
‘In a way, we’ve kind of been making the Jason Kelce retirement documentary all along. I don’t know where we’re all going to end up with this [footage] but we’re honored, and really feel privileged to be included in his life like this,’ Joyce told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
She continued: ‘When he called us…all I could do was congratulate him, because I know what a difficult decision it was to come to, and how heartbreaking it is to put a period at the end of that sentence.’
Argott said filming the announcement was the high point of a day full of emotion: ‘We were spoiled to have him for 13 seasons. Jason — more than, frankly, anybody — has embodied what this city is all about in terms of sports, your attitude about sports, and how you play the game.
‘He’s the type of player [with] heart and soul, that person that we’ve always been able to count on.’
The pair say that since they began following Kelce around, they noticed that he seemed more and more ready to take that step away.
‘Jason wants to make sure he can perform at peak level at all times, and he knows that if he cannot perform at that peak level, that it’s going to eat him up,’ said Joyce. ‘That’s a really painful realization.’
The Amazon documentary was released back in September. At that point, Jason and his family had more eyeballs on them than ever before as Travis began dating Taylor Swift.
Now, with the popularity of the brothers’ New Heights podcast, Jason has been more public-facing than ever.
It’s led many to wonder what he’ll be up to next. As rumors of coaching and commentary jobs continue to swirl, Argott and Joyce say they will still be following him to see what’s next.
‘We’re here for the ride, and we’ll be on it as long as they’ll have us,’ said Argott.
