PHILADELPHIA − We know the history because Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham have lived it for at least a decade as the four longest-tenured Eagles.
Kelce and Johnson are stalwarts on the offensive line, much like Graham and Cox are on the defensive line. The quartet, in so many ways, has represented the Eagles’ core values of building in the so-called trenches.
Graham, Kelce and Cox, from 2010-12, respectively, each came in the final years of Andy Reid’s tenure as Eagles coach. Johnson arrived the following season, when Reid moved on to Kansas City.
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They have come full circle now that they’ll face Reid, whom Graham called “the OG of all the coaches,” and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl on Feb. 12.
They are the remaining core players from the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory in the 2017 season, and they have all gone through their share of trials and tribulations over the years.
There was the torn ACL that cost Kelce most of the 2012 and a sports hernia in 2014 that cost him four more games. He has since started 139 straight games and is perhaps most known for his famous speech while dressed in a Mummers’ costume during the Eagles’ Super Bowl parade five years ago.
Graham, labeled a first-round bust for his first five seasons, was certain he was getting cut in 2015 if not for a torn ACL suffered by an undrafted free agent. He, of course, is most known for his strip-sack on Tom Brady in the final minutes to clinch the Eagles’ Super Bowl win.
Cox was among the NFL’s best tackles for several years, making six straight Pro Bowls. But he got cut last March before re-signing three days later for one year at a lower rate.
Johnson is widely considered the best right tackle in the NFL. But in the last few years, Johnson took a leave of absence to deal with a mental health illness, had two surgeries on his ankle, and still has another surgery to come on his torn adductor muscle that he is somehow playing through.
So yes, they all appreciate this return trip to the Super Bowl more than the first one.
“A little older, a little wiser, a little balder,” Johnson said when asked how he has changed since the 2017 season.
Added Cox: “This feeling never gets old, and I don’t think it’ll ever get old. You work so hard to get to this point, and in reality, it’s 32 teams, and only two teams get to go.”
But with that wisdom comes the knowledge that this really could be the last time the four are together.
Only Johnson is signed beyond this season. Graham will turn 35 in April, even though he had the best season of his career with 11 sacks. Cox had seven sacks, his most since 2018.
Kelce, a perennial All Pro, has contemplated retirement in each of the past four seasons. His wife, Kylie, is about to give birth to their third child, potentially next week. The Kelces are taking an OB/GYN with them to Arizona just in case.
So what better way for Kelce to go out than with a new child while playing in the Super Bowl against his brother, Travis?
Heck, there’s even a petition to get the Kelces’ mother, Donna, to conduct the coin toss. To which Kelce responded: “I don’t know if she can flip a coin … but we can give her some coaching, I’m sure. That would be pretty cool, but I imagine the NFL has got some awesome options for that as well.”
Then again, when asked if the outcome of the Super Bowl will affect his plans to either retire or keep playing, Kelce responded: “I don’t think so. … You know when you know, and it’s gonna be when you don’t want to play football anymore.
“I don’t think that winning this game is going to determine whether I want to play football or not.”
You can take that response any way you want. But the possibility of finality is on their minds.
“What an incredible ride it’s been with those guys,” Johnson said. “I was very fortunate to be in this position. Not a lot of players get to experience it with a core group of guys. … I know how much this means to them. They don’t have to say anything. I know they operate.
“It goes unsaid that I just want to give it everything I have for the next whatever days it is, till the game’s over. That’s really all you can do.”
For now, that means enjoying the experience. That was something Johnson said he didn’t do enough the first time. And that’s something they have told the younger players − once the practices and meetings are over.
“Just make sure you have fun when it’s time to have it,” Graham said. “But when we’re in between those lines, and we’re in those meetings, make it about what we do well and how we can carry out this game plan.
“We didn’t come all this way to get embarrassed.”
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.