Maxx Crosby Dubs Jason Kelce a Unicorn as Raiders’ Andre James Wants to Mimic the Retired Eagles Legend

Jason Kelce is the star of the Philadelphia Eagles. However, besides his own former team, Kelce has his fans from different teams as well. The newest additions in the fan list are of the Las Vegas Raiders’ popular players Maxx Crosby and Andre James.

While publicly announced months ago, Jason Kelce’s official retirement took place on March 4. And since then many came up to publicly show their love and respect for the seven-time Pro Bowler and six-time All-Pro center. Now, Crosby and James took some time out to applaud the retired Philly.

The latest episode of The Rush With Maxx Crosby, which aired some hours ago, joined Crosby and his co-hosts with fellow Raider Andre James. In the podcast, James admired Jason Kelce, calling him his inspiration. When asked about his thoughts on players switching from defense to offense, the 27-year-old said that it totally depends on the kind of defense. He mentioned Kelce’s name saying, “You look at dudes like Jason Kelce. Getting out there and bro he’s an animal.”

He continued, “That’s a dude I’ve loaded up for a long time and just like that’s a dude you want to model your game after as a center….He’s been doing it at a very high level for a long time…I mean he can move. Especially being an older dude, like I was looking at some of his stuff like a couple years ago, I’m like this dude’s in his 30s doing this like….it’s unreal ” He wished to follow Kelce’s path as well. Adding to his point, Crosby too added, “He’s a unicorn bro. Jason is a dog.”

To the people who are unaware, James took the example of Kelce because during his time at the University of Cincinnati as a walk-on, he switched from defense to offense, and started playing as a center. But what if he would have never changed his position?

The path was right!

Jason Kelce’s journey to becoming one of the best centers in football started unexpectedly. He initially joined the team as a walk-on linebacker in 2006 after excelling in high school as a defense MVP and running back. However, when Brian Kelly became his coach at Cincinnati, Kelce’s position shifted, and he evolved into a standout center. This change marked a pivotal moment in his career.

In his emotional retirement speech, Kelce talked about this switch saying, “This turned out to be the biggest turning point in my career.” Eventually, Kelce’s skills contributed significantly to the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory in 2018. He also helped the Eagles to another Super Bowl in 2023, however, fell short in front of his brother’s team.

Kelce, although call him ‘overrated,’ the fact is he is a legend that the NFL will surely remember in its history. After giving an emotional speech at the NovaCare Complex after 13 seasons with the Birds, Kelce now is set to join ESPN as an NFL analyst this fall.