It’s hard to miss Jason Kelce these days.

The former Eagles center turned media mogul is on his weekly New heights Podcast with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. He is also the endorser for a dizzying array of products and companies, from Wawa to Buffalo Wild Wings to Marriott to sweet cereal combos.

Tonight, Kelce begins another appearance as he makes his debut on ESPN’s Monday Night Footballas a studio analyst before kickoff between the New York Jets and the San Francisco 49ers. It’s arguably the most anticipated NFL media debut of the season, aside from Tom Brady’s move to Fox Sports, but Kelce said he’s still adjusting to life as a media and internet star.

In May, Kelce and his wife Kylie were booed by a fan in Margate because the duo declined a request for a photo. The incident was filmed by a bystander and quickly went viral, but it’s not the first time Kelce has dealt with aggressive fans, an unfortunate reality of his new life in the spotlight.

“Sometimes it’s a little too much,” Kelce said in an interview with The Inquirer. “It’s a little annoying when you want to go to the arcade with your daughters and everyone wants to take a picture. But you understand where they’re coming from.”

“If Jim Thome was walking down the street, I would do the same thing,” Kelce added.

Kelce’s new role will certainly increase this awareness. He will be seen at Monday evening countdown every week alongside host Scott Van Pelt and fellow analysts Marcus Spears and Ryan Clark, but don’t expect the gentle giant to swap his flip-flops for a suit and tie immediately. Everyone from the studio executives to his new co-hosts said the same thing when asked about ESPN’s newest star – they want Kelce to be Kelce.

“I think he’s showing genuineness and earnestness,” Van Pelt said. “He wasn’t a superstar when he came out of college, but he’s going to Canton. I think people are attracted to that kind of story. This guy is going to be great.”

How ESPN won the Kelce sweepstakes

Kelce’s media career actually began on February 8, 2018, when he stood on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art wearing the Mummers’ outfit after the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory and gave an impassioned, vulgar speech. At the time, he was appearing on 94.1 WIP and was well known to Eagles fans, but the speech helped make Kelce a national household name.

“On a national level, the speech was certainly a turning point for me,” Kelce said. “The whole world immediately saw that and wondered, ‘Who is this guy half drunk and dressed up like a genie?'”

The success of New heights – fueled by his brother’s relationship with Taylor Swift – attracted interest from Amazon and all the networks with NFL rights. One of the reasons he chose ESPN was because he and his brother watched the channel almost exclusively as children.

“Outside of Saved by the bell“When we woke up, ESPN was on TV,” Kelce said. “We were totally blown away.”

Burke Magnus, ESPN’s president of content, said another thing that appealed to Kelce was the network’s offer to have him on site and in front of the fans. Monday evening countdownMagnus said some of the network’s competitors had offered Kelce studio jobs in Manhattan, an easy drive from his home in Haverford via the New Jersey Turnpike.

“But he said, ‘I want to be in the stadium with the fans and players to get a feel for the game,'” Magnus said. “So, strangely enough, having him travel to the games turned out to be a real advantage for us.”

With this decision, Kelce will face Eagles fans in Week 2 on September 16, when he can be expected to drink a few beers and possibly take off some clothes at Xfinity Live!, where the Monday Night Football The crew will record the pre-game show before Birds-Falcons at the Linc.

“We want him to be himself. We don’t want him to try to be anyone else,” Magnus said. “And he even said, ‘Be careful what you wish for.'”

” READ MORE: ESPN and Jason Kelce take over Xfinity Live! ahead of “Monday Night Football”

No problem with Kelce’s relationship with the Eagles

In addition to spending his entire 13-year career with the Eagles, Kelce continues to have an undefined role with the team. He is not on the Eagles’ payroll, but has spent a lot of time at the team’s facilities since his emotional retirement announcement in March.

This is not an issue for ESPN, which has stated that it is not a problem if Kelce is unofficially with the Eagles. And the network will certainly play it out in Week 2 when Monday Night Football rolls into Philly.

“We all come from somewhere. Everyone knows who they played for,” Van Pelt said. “There’s no reason to pretend they don’t have passion for this team. That’s something to take to heart.”

Even if he were employed by the Eagles, the media world is not as strict about those relationships as it once was. Fox has no problem with Brady being its top analyst despite his buyout offer from the Las Vegas Raiders, although he will not be allowed to meet with teams or criticize officials in the locker room. Fox also allowed Greg Olsen to commentate on an NFL game when he was still a member of the Carolina Panthers, and Kelce moved to Amazon’s Football on Thursday evening Studio show as a guest analyst last season during the Eagles’ off week.

In a way, Kelce is lucky that ESPN is getting the Eagles out of the way early, so the topic won’t be a topic of conversation all season. They will also be in their Monday Night Football game, fresh off his win over the Green Bay Packers in Brazil, making it a little easier for Kelce to avoid the kind of honest criticism he may have to face later in the season.

“As long as I do it right and say it right, which I’m going to do, I don’t think there’s anything negative about being critical,” Kelce said.

Although Kelce enjoys his media fame, he has always dreamed of one day becoming a coach. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni told Hall of Fame coach and current NBC analyst Tony Dungy before the win over the Packers, praising Kelce’s contribution to a quarterback sneak play that helped the Birds score a touchdown during their Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs.

“After playing, there are only so many ways you can interact with the game of football. Either as a coach or in the media,” Kelce said. “I think where I am now, coaching is too much of a time and effort commitment for selfish reasons and it takes me away from my family. I can do a good job in the media and be a great husband and father, which is what I want to be.”

“Maybe one day that will happen,” Kelce said of coaching. “Hopefully in a while.”

Stephen A. Smith wants Kelce to be there First attempt

So far, there are no signs that Kelce will be forced through ESPN’s gauntlet of studio shows during the day, including Stand up!, First attemptAnd The Pat McAfee Show.

Before Monday Night Football Tonight, Kelce made exactly one appearance on the network, debuting as a studio analyst ahead of the annual Hall of Fame game in July. Kelce will also host the third season of New heights and appears every Thursday morning on WIP-FM to talk about the Eagles.

But that doesn’t mean ESPN anchors like Stephen A. Smith and Mike Greenberg won’t try their best to book him.

“I would like to have him there Stand up!, obviously,” Greenberg said. “He’s endlessly credible, a great player at a position that tends to end up as really, really good analysts … And he has this incredibly genuine monster personality.”

“All my teammates are welcome First attempteveryone. Because that’s what the show is about,” Smith said. “I’ve been lucky and fortunate to have a lot of people at ESPN who come when I call.”

“He’s got an incredible personality,” Smith added. “And his brother is dating one of the biggest superstars in the world, so the opportunity to latch onto that wouldn’t be a bad thing.”