PHILADELPHIA – Former University of Cincinnati football player Jason Kelce has been in Philadelphia long enough to know what it takes for an athlete to thrive among the fans as opposed to those who are booed and chased out of town.
To Kelce, who's in his 11th season as the Eagles center, that explains why recently-traded Zach Ertz was so beloved, and why the 76ers' Ben Simmons isn't, calling it "a travesty any way you look at it."
Simmons is trying to force a trade out of Philadelphia. He was banished from practice on Tuesday and suspended for the Sixers' opener on Wednesday for "conduct detrimental to the team."
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That conduct reportedly consisted of refusing to take part in a drill. Simmons was also spotted as being disinterested in practice the day before.
"I don't want to crush any other players, but what's going on with the 76ers and Ben Simmons and stuff like that, all that is because of a lack of accountability, a lack of owning up to mistakes, and a lack of correcting things," Kelce said. "If all that got corrected, if you're fixing free throws and getting better as a player, none of this is happening.
"Everybody can bitch and complain about how tough this city is to play in. Just play better, man. The city will love you."
Simmons, of course, became the focus of the fans' ire for his poor free-throw shooting (he made just 34% in the playoffs last season), for passing up a dunk in the final minutes of the Sixers' Game 7 loss to the Atlanta Hawks last spring, then for demanding a trade shortly after the season ended.
Simmons was also notoriously reluctant to take 3-point shots, to the point where opponents would sag off him and double-team Embiid.
Ertz, on the other hand, worked hard at his flaws and played hurt often. Even though Ertz, too, wanted to be traded during the offseason, he reported to training camp, practiced every day and worked hard through the first six games of the season.
It's easy for Kelce to see why the fans loved Ertz, who also penned a heart-felt letter to the fans upon getting traded.
"Obviously, being a good player helps out," Kelce said. "You win a Super Bowl and have the game-winning touchdown (like Ertz did), you’re going to be pretty loved. This city really appreciates accountability, appreciates people being honest, real, emotionally invested, caring.
"There are a lot of people who say it’s a hard place to play. I think it’s (expletive) easy, to be honest with you. You just go out there and play hard. You want to be loved in this city as a baseball player? Run to first base. They’re going to (expletive) love you.
"That’s what it comes down to. If you go up here and make a bunch of excuses, and if you come up here and try to lie to them and act like they don’t know what they’re talking about – which sometimes they don’t – (but) when you act that way, or when you aren’t accountable if you’re making mistakes, or not getting better or anything like that, they’re going to crush you."
Of course, that happens to good players, too. Kelce admitted that happened to him, as well.
But instead of pouting, Kelce approached it in a different way.
"Even if you are accountable, you have to understand that it's all correctable and it's fixable," he said. "You have to realize this is a blip in time and over the course of my career."
Then he said, with emphasis: "I write the narrative. I'm the one who decides what this is. ... I think that's how you control everything. You think about it, 'If i just do this better. If I go out and ball. If I go out there and play really good, nobody is gonna have any choice but to love me or appreciate me as a player.'
"So that's what I tell guys. You write your own narrative."
Kelce has certainly done that. He has been selected to four Pro Bowls. He currently has the longest active streak of consecutive starts among NFL centers at 111, even though he has played through a plethora of injuries.
Kelce knows that he hasn't always played up to Pro Bowl standards. But he always held himself accountable and always kept working to fix his flaws. The fans, meanwhile, appreciated that.
"Everybody’s going to get crushed at some point," he said. "Everybody’s going to go through a downturn or be struggling, right? At all times, this city is going to keep you accountable to do your job and performing. If you stick to it, if you fight through it and get better, they’ll respect the hell out of you.
"Especially if you fight, even if you’re struggling. If you’re fighting and really trying, they’re still going to respect you. That’s what I think most guys miss. I really don’t think this is a hard place to play at all, to be honest with you."
And then Kelce mentioned a place where it is hard to play in, a place where fans don't care, where the team appears disinterested and constantly in turmoil as a comparison to Philadelphia.
"I think it would be miserable to play in a place like Jacksonville where nobody cares," he said.
Contact Martin Frank at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
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