Jason Kelce’s transition from the NFL to ESPN is making waves as he is set to sign a hefty deal following his retirement. The former Philadelphia Eagles centre, after an illustrious 13-year career, is set to join “Monday Night Countdown” for the upcoming season.

Steve Brenner of the Sun reports that ESPN has snagged Kelce with a three-year contract worth $1.8 million per year for his appearances on their Monday night football coverage. Not to mention, there’s a sweet $1 million sign-on bonus included in the package.

Before ESPN won him over, Kelce was hot property, with media titans such as Amazon, CBS, and NBC all said to be vying for his signature. Fox Sports was also in the mix, ready to table a three-year, $6 million bid, according to the U.S. Sun. Kelce, however, decided ESPN was his best play, swayed by their offer to allow him “full freedom” to keep producing the “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Under the terms of the deal reported, ESPN secures the option to buy the popular Kelce brothers’ podcast if they opt to sell before the year 2025.

Since its launch in September 2022, the “New Heights” sports podcast has exploded in popularity, amassing a whopping 4.2 million TikTok followers and attracting eye-watering sponsorships reportedly worth $90 million.

In the most recent episode of his podcast, Kelce opened up about the swirling rumours linking him to ESPN. “Nothing has been officially inked yet or announced yet but, obviously, there’s been a lot of reports out there about me going to ESPN and I think time will kind of take care of that but it’s a tremendous honor to even be considered to potentially work there,” he shared.

Jason Kelce retired from the NFL after a 13-year career ( 
Image:
Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Kelce reminisced about his childhood in Cleveland Heights, revealing that for him and Travis, ESPN was their world. “We were glued to the TV each and every day, so the fact that I may potentially, probably will be working there is pretty darn cool,” he expressed.

Choosing ESPN over other networks wasn’t straightforward for Kelce. The allure of a schedule that would allow him to work only on Mondays, dedicating the rest of his week to family and his podcast, ultimately tipped the scales.

“I did my due diligence, you want to make sure you’re really looking at things, talking to people that are knowledgeable in the industry – neither one of us have ever done something like this,” he confided to Jason.

“Throughout the whole process, meeting and talking to everyone over at ESPN, it became apparent that it was really the right fit and at the end of the day, something that I’m really, really looking forward to [in] this next phase.”