“A Celebration of Transformation.” Eagles’ Fans Match the Streets of Philadelphia in Celebration with the New Eagles’ Manager Jason Kelce

The line around the block of Eagles fans waiting to enter The Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, started more than an hour before the doors opened on a gorgeous beach Wednesday afternoon, and all of them had the same thought in mind: Bust out the Eagles green, get ready to party with center Jason Kelce, and support the Eagles Autism Foundation.

It couldn’t have gone any better, with a total of $100K raised ahead of the August 21 Eagles Autism Challenge presented by Lincoln Financial Group, the team’s signature fundraising event. Eagles fans showed once again why they are the best, donating $50,000 to the cause. Kelce and his wife, Kylie, were so touched by the outpouring of support that they matched it to cap off a wonderful day.

For the fans who were so generous with their enthusiasm for the event and the overarching cause, it was a late afternoon and evening to get in some lusty “E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES” cheers and meet Kelce.

The Eagles’ center spent four hours working, and working hard, starting with a ceremonial carryout of a tray of shots to some heavy-duty action behind the bar pouring drinks, posing for selfies, slapping high-fives, and having a grand old time deepening a remarkable connection with the Eagles fan community.

“It’s great, man. I was wondering how it would turn out,” Kelce said. “It’s Wednesday, middle of the day, who’s going to show up? But there’s a lot of energy out there and we’re raising a lot of money, so it’s a lot of fun.”

Kelce is an all-time legend with the fans, of course, having won every one of them over with his toughness and his leadership and his All-Pro skills at the center position, and his, um, greatest-speech-in-the-world effort at the Eagles’ Parade of Champions in 2018 (February 8, but who can forget that date???) cemented his status. On Wednesday, fans swarmed the OD and threw a summer beach bash, Eagles style, complete with SWOOP and Eagles Cheerleaders.

Are ya ready for some Eagles football …?

“I don’t try to be anything that I’m not and I think fans, especially in Philadelphia, appreciate that,” said Kelce, who described his relationship with the fans as “real.”

“I just try to be as much of myself as I can be, not trying to get a big head or anything like that because I certainly don’t have one and really just engage with the fans in a real way as much as possible. I think they reciprocate that.”