Throughout his emotional retirement speech on Monday, March 4, Jason Kelce took the time to spotlight all of the important people in his life, including his brother Travis, wife Kylie, and parents, Ed and Donna.

While talking about his mother, Jason shared how she taught him a very important lesson about perseverance through her own experiences overcoming obstacles in life.

“My mother was part of a generation of females that was largely the first of their families to go to college,” he began, explaining that Donna’s father didn’t agree with her desire to go to university and told her to be a secretary or wife instead.

Kelce went on, explaining, “In fact, the only thing that convinced him into letting her go to college was my grandmother’s insistence that my mother would find an educated man to settle down with and that would mean more money for the family.”

But despite whatever Donna’s parents intended for her, Jason described how she graduated from college, went into banking, became a VP and “was largely the breadwinner” for the Kelces.

“I like to think I got my toughness, aggression, and lunch-pail mentality from my father, and from my mother, I learned the all-too-important lesson of never letting anyone tell you what you can’t do,” the 36-year-old declared.

Fans had plenty of praise for Jason in the comments of the press conference, writing things like, “Absolute legend of a man,” “Jason is a king among kings,” and “Jason is a great man, son, girl dad 💓💓💓wears his heart on his sleeve.”

Jason’s retirement has been rumored for a while now, with reports going around that he announced the news to his Philadelphia Eagles teammates after their last playoff game of the season in January. Fans were already emotional then, but now that it’s official, it will likely be a tough transition period for both the star football player and his fans as he figures out his next steps.