Jason Kelce officially retired from the NFL in March, which means the longtime Philadelphia Eagles center won't be facing the 49ers in the NFC anymore.
Now, the All-Pro can look back fondly on his team's high-stake -- and high-intensity -- matchups with San Francisco, along with all the spirited trash talk.
"Certainly [there was bad blood] from the 49ers' perspective," Kelce told NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco on the latest "49ers Talk." "Listen, [49ers quarterback] Brock Purdy got hurt early in the [NFC Championship Game]. They felt like they didn't get a fair shake at it. They certainly handled us this past year. Both of us can share in the misery of losing a Super Bowl.
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"I think when you have teams that perennially play each other and are towards the top of their respective conferences, there's going to be more animosity."
After the 49ers lost the NFC Championship to the Eagles in January 2023 when Purdy went down with a torn UCL, there was no shortage of shade toward Philadelphia coming out of San Francisco. In the following weeks, wide receiver Deebo Samuel took direct shots at Eagles cornerback Daniel Bradberry while also publicly lamenting the fact that a fully healthy 49ers team didn't get a crack at Jalen Hurts and Co.
That only rose the stakes of San Francisco's Week 13 rematch with Philadelphia, where the 49ers routed the Eagles 42-19 at Lincoln Financial Field. After that, defensive end Nick Bosa told reporters that the 49ers had provided other teams with the "blueprint" to stop Hurts, and the Eagles' season went into a tailspin.
Despite all of the noise, Kelce told Maiocco that the Eagles simply tried to focus on their own game.
San Francisco 49ers
"I think from our perspective, you always try and focus on yourself," Kelce said. "When you're focused on yourself, I think you just perform better as a player. And I think a lot of that stuff was -- you understand the emotion behind it. They lost their quarterback, they're fired up, they wanted a fair shake in the game.
"So, I certainly don't take any of that stuff personal. Nick Bosa is a tremendous player. I thought we did a great job of protecting Jalen in that game. But I think that they did a good job in the back end and their defense obviously did some tremendous things against Jalen Hurts. But I don't really get caught up in that stuff at this stage of the game."
As Kelce enters the next step in his NFL journey as a commentator for ESPN, he'll watch future 49ers-Eagles games from afar. But he knows that this budding rivalry isn't going away any time soon.
"The 49ers have been, probably, the team over the last five to six years that has stayed atop the NFC, and it's really been that way since Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have taken over, and they have a tremendous team," Kelce said. "They have a tremendous defense, they have great players, they have a young quarterback who's showing a lot of promise and playing great football.
"So yeah, I'm sure if the Eagles and 49ers play each other again this year there will be some juice still left in that game."